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features 92 home made Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen breathe new life into their traditional Tudor (and others) with beautifully repurposed finds.
Set against the architectural gem that is John Lautner’s Garcia House, actress Jaime King gleams in modish updates on 1960s beading, sequins and sumptuous embroidery
114 lightness of being Design team Fisher Weisman transforms a Pacific Heights penthouse into an atmospheric retreat.
120 blithe spirit
Isla Fisher in a Burberry Prorsum bustier and skirt, Christian Louboutin pumps, Pomellato earrings, and Liv Haley ring, Page 120.
After marrying a dictator and having two kids, the wickedly funny and talented Isla Fisher is back in action.
124 in the details For San Francisco interior designer Jay Jeffers, stylish living is completely subjective.
David Cameron. see shopping guide for more details, page 129
102 original beauty
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jaime king in a Miu Miu sweater, Prada shorts, Marc Jacobs flats, and David Webb necklace and ring, Page 102.
april 2013
departments 24 Founder’s Letter
with artist Natasha Law. Designer
87 C culture
The real meaning of curation.
Daphne Javitch is a Ten.
A giant MOCA retrospective
26 C people
61 C beauty
The Lines Ballet leaps into the
Who’s who behind the scenes of C.
Sip and sweat with wine-country
future. Pacific Standard Time
adventures. The latest natural skin-
sweeps the SoCal art scene.
31 C what’s hot
care line is good enough to eat.
A look at new and exciting people,
Plus, Jessica Alba’s “honest” regimen.
129 shopping guide
the state: The launch of Domaine
65 C home
130 C California
Home. Goop tours Los Angeles.
Designer Hillary Thomas and One
Model Carmen Dell’Orefice
A vineyard abode off the Silverado
Kings Lane’s Alison Pincus pair up.
at Hearst Castle.
Trail. And, designer Sami Hayek
The dinnerware revolution. Catherine
pulls inspiration from the south.
Kwong dishes top S.F. shops.
42 Reports from the Social Front
75 C THE MENU
C’s social scribe hits every
her home and garden. From ramen
earrings, and J Hadley ring. See Shopping Guide
red carpet.
to rooibos, where to dine next.
for more details, page 129. Styled by Jordan
47 C fashion
81 C travel
Enter the bronze age. At home with
A design-forward, fresh lodging in
Bottega Veneta. Max Mara teams up
Santa Cruz. April in Paris? Mais oui.
places and products around
A leading food stylist shares
On Our Cover Isla Fisher photographed by David Cameron in Monique Lhuillier dress, Jennifer Fisher
Johnson for Rachel Zoe Studio at The Wall Group. Hair Adir Abergel for Frederic Fekkai at starworksartists.com. Makeup Mai Quynh for Lancôme at StarworksArtists.com. Manicure Ashlie Johnson for Chanel at The Wall Group.
coliena rentmeester. see shopping guide for more details, page 129
for the oft-subversive Urs Fischer.
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Home Made Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen breathe new life into their traditional Tudor (and others) with beautifully repurposed finds By Heather John Fogarty Photographed by Amy Neunsinger
Pays revived a flea market sofa with Ikea linen upholstery and painted the Badia loveseat with gray primer; cocktail table, H.D. Buttercup; oil painting, Peter White; sconce, Restoration Hardware. OPPOSITE Oliver, Henry, Finley, Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen.
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ight mist lingers outside the Tudor-style cottage that actor/director Corbin Bernsen shares with his wife, English actress/interior designer Amanda Pays, and their four sons (Oliver, 23, twins Henry and Angus, 21, and Finley, 14). On a chilly spring morning Bernsen stokes the fire in the library while the family Whippet, Digby, warms himself at his owner’s feet. It feels like a typical scene from an estate in Bedfordshire or some other distinct British locale, except the setting is Los Angeles—a mere half-mile from where the former “L.A. Law” star was born and raised. The couple acquired the Valley Village property in 2011 and spent the following year in renovations. Before Bernsen began acting, he worked as a carpenter—a skill he has put to use, from conceptualizing architectural details in the main house to building bookcases and a ladder in the barn’s loft. Pays and Bernsen also added beams of reclaimed Brazilian wood to doorways and used old scaffold planks as treads on the staircase. “I used to frame houses, so I know what can and can’t be done,” says Bernsen, who currently stars on the USA Network television series “Psych.” “What Corbin and I love to do is find old homes with great bones that we can repurpose, and we rethink the original features,” says Pays, who founded Amanda Pays Design in 2009. Actor Steve Martin purchased the couple’s first renovation project. He is just one of Pays’ word-ofmouth celebrity clients who appreciates what she calls her “version of green living.” Pays’ motto: Recycle and restore as much as possible. “We are always looking for pieces like the factory doors and windows we found at an architectural salvage,” she says. “We built the kitchen around those doors.”
—Amanda Pays
Much of the abode is furnished with treasures the couple picked up at swap meets, estate sales and antique shops over decades of travel together. Pays found a tufted sofa at a local flea market and had it recovered, to beautiful effect, with $5/yard linen from Ikea. Near the family’s second residence in the South of France, they found their favorite set of ceramic mugs at an outdoor market. Antique Moroccan carpets came from a souk in Marrakech, while vintage bread loaf pans and chicken feeders have been retooled into kitchen light fixtures. She has an eye for mixing in the unexpected to create an aesthetic she describes as “very unlabored, uncomplicated.” Traditional upholstered furniture pays homage to Pays’ U.K. heritage, but when set against a neutral backdrop of grays, creams and pale greens, the combination has Scandinavian-loft-meetsshabby-chic appeal. Spare pops of color, like bold orange, add an exotic twist and inviting warmth to the washed wood and plaster finishes. Pays’ resourcefulness extends to her habit of recruiting family members to pitch in. Bernsen’s brother, Collin, constructed a table for the garden, and Bernsen crafted the chairs himself. Oliver, the couple’s eldest son, is an artist and filmmaker who made the wallpaper in the screening room out of a hand-painted collage incorporating his photographs from family trips to Europe, North Africa and across the United States. Pays and Bernsen enjoy living in their home as much as they did creating it. Most evenings, you’ll find them with family and friends, gathered around their spacious farmhouse table for big pots of soup, coq au vin and warm fruit crumbles. “Amanda is good at a lot of things,” Bernsen says with more than a hint of admiration. “She is an extraordinary cook. Her food is as good and simple and complete as this house.” •
Prop Stylist: Kate Martindale
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We are always looking for pieces like the factory doors we found at an architectural salvage. We built the kitchen around those doors.
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Prop Stylist: Kate Martindale
Mid-century school chairs surround an English farm table, which Pays stripped to a natural finish; loaf pan sconces, Big Daddy’s Antiques; pendant light, Cisco Home.
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Steel appliances and recycled wood cabinets give the kitchen an industrial yet inviting look; vintage Tolix stools; Shaws farmhouse sink; seamed cement flooring; Plaster of Paris by Sydney Harbour Paint.
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Henry and Oliver share the backyard barn; Bernsen built the bookcase and the ladder to the loft, where Henry works on his laptop; beds are Room & Board; walls are covered in repurposed wood planks. In the garden, Pays plays with Digby. Homegrown oranges sit on a Moroccan tray from ABC Carpet & Home. 1960s insects rest on a metal starburst. Bernsen in profile. Eldest son Oliver in the screening room, which features wallpaper he made.
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this page, clockwise FROM TOP Olive trees, lavender and thyme line the pool; Pays favors droughttolerant, low-maintenance landscaping. Pays and Bernsen fell in love with Port and Single Malt while living in England, and Pastis thanks to summers in the South of France. In the hall, an antique Turkish rug sits beneath a painting by Oliver; the rocking chair was a swap meet find. Henry hard at work. Pays filled the celadon estate sale bowl with marble balls. Salvaged doors lead to the library, where Digby rests on his bed.
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Two shades of paint create a wainscoting effect on the walls; the vintage tub got a coat of Benjamin Moore Horizon Gray. OPPOSITE Desert plants, like this variegated Agave Americana, rank among Pays’ favorite greenery.
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