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Hudson Valley’s Belmont pendants and Troy’s Uni sconces illuminate the hallway in this palatial home by Elaine Culotti
Pacific Paradise
A grand tour inside a Mediterranean inspired dream home Photography by Adrian Anz 19
Nestled in California’s Pacific Palisades, an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood known for its beachy shoreline and multi-million dollar mansions, is a Mediterranean oasis mere steps from the hiking trails of Will Rogers State Historic Park. Situated on nearly 3.5 acres of land, the palatial 14,392-square-foot home is truly a dream come true with eight bedrooms, 14 baths, a two-story foyer, terraces, patio and swimming pool, as well as a guest house and pool house. The home’s construction was overseen and its interiors were designed by Elaine Culotti, interior designer and owner of Porta Bella Design in Brentwood, California. “I was inspired early on by building a house that looked like a contemporary barn but in a Mediterranean flavor,” said Culotti. “Not so much in the East Coast traditional flavor with a metal roof and barn wood rather, it’s stuccoed and has a flat terracotta tile.” Corbett Lighting’s Rockstar pendant illuminates the staircase
Culotti utilized Littman Brands lighting fixtures to give the home its distinct Mediterranean feel. “I was looking for fixtures inside that had a traditional sense about them in terms of something you might find in a communal kitchen or in a really big old barn. But again, with a little bit of a Mediterranean flair.” The two-story hallway is illuminated by Troy’s sculptural Uni sconces and Hudson Valley Lighting®’s Belmont pendants, sturdy metal fixtures complemented by polished prismatic glass. “It’s something you would find a hundred percent in some sort of mill or a dairy or something like that. It’s got an industrial look but it’s in brass.” Across from Belmont at the top of the staircase is Corbett Lighting’s Rockstar, a dazzling creation made of natural Brazilian agate slices in sunset hues surrounded by gold leaf circles. “It literally has these rock agate flat translucent pieces that hang off of it, and light shines through them. It’s organic and absolutely amazing.” To keep the romance in the upstairs bedroom, Culotti chose Troy Lighting’s Delacroix chandelier. “The Delacroix was completely and totally off the charts different to everything in the house,” said Culotti. “I wanted something delicate and feminine and very romantic.” Delacroix is a rustic yet refined design with wood beads flowing from top to bottom, accented by a leaf-shaped crown, curvy iron arms and wooden accents. Its open design complements the spacious room, while its aged wood tones enhance the rich wooden framing around the windows and doors. The men’s bathroom is a standout space with Troy’s Nuage as its centerpiece. With a dreamy appearance perfectly suited to its “head in the clouds” translation, Nuage features clusters of blown glass globes suspended by delicate micro beaded jewelry chain. “I put Nuage in there because it actually offers quite a bit of light, which is nice in the bathroom,” said Culotti. The fixture also pairs well with the heavy, dark walnut cabinetry which defines the space, blending the bath and closet into a dressing room. “That particular fixture was sort of fun and bright and light, and it needed that contrast.”
Troy’s rustic yet refined Delacroix chandelier adds romantic ambiance to the upstairs bedroom
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Another whimsical Troy design is on display downstairs in the kitchen. At the center of the white and bright gourmet kitchen is Barista, an energizing departure from the traditional chandelier, blending luminous crystal drops with porcelain coffee cups on a tiered iron frame. The chandelier stands out beautifully against the kitchen’s white cabinetry, gleaming surfaces and moulded ceiling. Right off the kitchen is the “morning bar,” a unique, all-purpose hang out space which evokes a comfortable pub feel. Troy’s Dine ‘N’ Dash pendants are suspended above the bar, creative designs with embossed and plasma cut words tied to comfort foods and drinks. They blend in beautifully with the room’s richly ornamented wood. “I just wanted it to have a pubby feeling, and whether you were having eggs and a cappuccino at the counter in the morning, or whether you were sitting there at night watching a basketball game, smoking a cigar, I wanted it to feel pubby,” said Culotti. “And so [Dine ‘N’ Dash] was the perfect fixture choice for there.” Troy’s Dine ‘N’ Dash pendants in the “morning bar”
Troy’s whimsical Barista, an energizing departure from the traditional chandelier, beautifully stands out in the white kitchen L AR GER T H AN LIGHT | SUMME R
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The dining room is illuminated by Corbett’s Parc Royale chandelier and wall sconces, a luxurious collection inspired by nature
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The elegant Bari chandelier and Westport sconces by Hudson Valley add warm illumination to the great room
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At the center of the modern dining room is a large glass table surrounded by eclectic yet coordinating chairs in contrasting fabrics: ruby red and a neutral zig zag pattern. The dining room is illuminated by Corbett’s traditional Parc Royale chandelier and matching wall sconces – a collection that combines the best of nature with luxury living. “The diffused glass shades on it put just the right amount of lighting into a dining room.” In addition, the fixtures beautifully complement the golden tones in the rest of the space. Inside the office, Troy’s Whitman brightens up the dark space with its creamy linen shade and sculptural, bronze-hued branches. “That particular fixture does two things that are greatly accomplished,” said Culotti. “Number one, it’s quite a dark room, and you can get a lot of light out of that fixture. And because it’s open on the top and bottom, you can have downlight and uplight.” The uplights illuminate the coppered ceiling which has a batted, Chenille leather. “And I needed white, so that fixture had a pretty bright shade even though you could dim the light and make it very romantic like a library.” The great room puts the post-modern Bari chandelier and wall sconces by Hudson Valley on display. “In this particular house, there were a couple of really important post-modern furniture pieces, and I just wanted something attached to the wall here and there that had a post-modern feeling so that the furniture could blend into the eclectic look of the house.” Bari pays homage to Italy’s mid-century design icons with its multi-tiered composition of polished glass rods, perpendicular brass arms and lamp holders. The cozy neutral room can be opened up to the outside, allowing even more light and energy in – not to mention, a gorgeous poolside view. Outside, Troy’s Byron illuminates the cabana, adding a sparkling elegance you rarely see outdoors. “I wanted something warm and a little decadent,” said Culotti. Because wind had to be taken into consideration, she opted for Byron with its heavier cage. “It worked great outside.” Culotti’s outstanding design vision and attention to detail, combined with her use of Littman Brands lighting fixtures, have resulted in a Mediterranean dream home as beautiful as its luxurious surroundings in the Pacific Palisades.
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DESIGNER Q+A Elaine took a break in her busy schedule to chat with us about her design for the Pacific Palisades home. www.elaineculotti.com What was your overall inspiration for this project? I was inspired early on by building a house that looked like a contemporary barn but in a Mediterranean flavor – not so much in the East Coast traditional flavor where you’d expect to see a metal roof and rustic wood. Rather, with this concept, it’s stuccoed exterior and has a flat terracotta tile roof. What did you look for in the lighting fixtures you chose? I was looking for fixtures inside the residence that had a traditional sense about them in terms of Interior designer and owner of something you might find in a Porta Bella Design communal kitchen or in a really big old barn. But again, with a little bit of a Mediterranean flair. There were also hints of “industrial” needed in order for the barn to feel livable on the inside, and Hudson Valley offered this great proportioned lamp that has a big glass bottom on it [Belmont]. It’s the largest I’ve seen of this style. It’s something you would find a hundred percent in some sort of mill or a dairy. So it’s got an industrial look but it’s in brass. And to tie in that color tone, which is so rich and warm – that was something I was looking to do. I mean, we’ve been decorating and designing and manufacturing in oil rubbed bronze finishes and nickel and stainless steel for probably the last ten years, pretty regularly. And the brass fixtures have become less and less popular, but now all of a sudden there’s this resurgence of it… and gold and brass mixed with a vintage look, sort of that yin yang. That’s what was inspiring me. So I have a lot of those style fixtures in the house. How would you describe the home’s overall style? Both the interiors of the house and the lighting are transitional. There are extremely contemporary elements to the house, but as an overall look, it’s transitional. Even Troy Lighting makes these sort of sea urchin slash wheat-looking fixtures [Uni]. If they did it in any type of finish that was really contemporary, say, like stainless steel or even maybe chrome, it would be outrageously contemporary. But the way that they did it in this rustic look finish, you’ve got a very contemporary design that’s toned down enough to fit into a transitional space. It really adds a nice juxtaposition to it, and forget about the fact that they look like bales of wheat that are stuck on the wall! It’s the coolest thing. How did you approach this design style? Typically on these types of projects, my job isn’t to redesign or design something for it. My job is to take my client’s idea and make it really great – and make sure it has balance and symmetry. I just really 26
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research what the client wants and try to turn it into something that’s amazing. On this particular house, I had complete free rein, but I had a lot of requirements in terms of the amount of power (for energy consumption requirements) that we could use and the LEDs versus the hard-wired electrical. And the thing about being able to choose from all three of my lighting sources that I typically use – which are Corbett, Hudson Valley and Troy – I have such a cross-section of innovative and younger material. Much more creative material. Much more economical material in terms of its usage. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s inexpensive, because that type of material can be more expensive, but in the long run you have a better product. Tell us about your choice of Corbett’s Rockstar in the foyer. I really enjoyed when the Rockstar showed up on the jobsite. We ordered the Rockstar when it was just first coming out. It literally has these rock agate flat translucent pieces that hang off of it, and light shines through them. It’s organic and absolutely amazing. And what I was impressed with was the fact that Corbett absolutely refused to release the product until it was perfect. And it arrived and it’s amazing. It’s not good, it’s fantastic. People come up and go, “Wow. Who thought about this? Who made this up?” It’s so perfect for the space too. Why did you choose Corbett’s Parc Royale chandelier for the dining room? There’s a very, very modern wine rack in that room that’s made out of polished steel, so I didn’t want to have a polished steel fixture. I was troubled trying to find something to introduce the transition of that gold or brass feeling, and so looking through finishes, I came across that sort of traditional fixture. There’s posts in [the room] that needed sconces, and I just needed something that would go with the yellow walls and wine rack. The diffused glass shades on it put just the right amount of lighting into the dining room. All of those things combined made it the perfect fixture. Why did you select Hudson Valley’s Bari for the great room? It’s a very post-modern fixture. In this particular house, there were a couple of really important post-modern furniture pieces, and I just wanted something attached to the wall here and there that had a postmodern feeling so that the furniture could blend into the eclectic look of the house. It would be random to just stick it in there, but when you have a post-modern light and desk chair next to it, it just fits better. Troy’s Nuage was a beautiful yet unusual choice for the men’s bath. Can you tell us why you chose it? I put Nuage in there because it actually offers quite a bit of light, which is nice in the bathroom. There’s a lot going on in that bathroom in terms of cabinetry because I believe in a dressing room as part of the space. So, you’ve got the bathroom and closet sort of together. And because it’s walnut, it’s heavy, it’s dark, big and extremely masculine. That particular fixture was sort of fun and bright and light, and it needed that contrast. 2 016 | LIT TMANB RANDS .CO M
Troy’s Byron adds sparkling elegance to the outdoor cabana along with Troy Lighting’s exterior Newton collection.
Why made you choose Troy’s Whitman for the office? That particular fixture does two things that are greatly accomplished. Number one, it’s quite a dark room, and you can get a lot of light out of that fixture. Because it’s open on the top and bottom, you can have downlight and uplight. It needed uplight because there’s a coppered ceiling in that room and it’s got a batted, Chenille leather on the ceiling, and I wanted to display it. And I needed white, so that fixture had a pretty bright shade even though you could dim the light and make it very romantic like a library – like a dark workspace. And as you know, we all use backlit computers now these days, so you don’t need as much light now in the office as you used to need. So I feel like that was a very good fixture choice for that room. Why did you choose Troy’s Dine ‘N’ Dash pendants for the bar? The reason we chose them is because it’s an unusual space. It’s called the morning bar. It’s sort of an all-purpose hang out area because when you entertain, people tend to want to congregate in the kitchen. The L AR GER T H AN LIGHT | SUMME R
reason we had those fixtures, something so playful, is because that actually is ventilation for cigar smoking, and it has a big television in it, and it’s right off of the kitchen. I just wanted it to have a pubby feeling, and whether you were having eggs at the counter in the morning and a cappuccino, or whether you were sitting there at night watching a basketball game, smoking a cigar, I wanted it to feel pubby. And so that was the perfect fixture choice for there. Tell us about your choice of Troy’s Byron for the outdoor cabana. The cabana was a really important place to keep air circulating. We had three fixtures in there and ultimately chose to have the fans on the left and right, but three fans was so cold, and I wanted something warm and a little decadent. Mind you, we get some wind in there, and having a chandelier outside could be tricky, so [Byron] comes in a cage, which makes it a lot heavier, and it tends to blow a lot less even though you have a crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of it. It works great outside.
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DESIGNER Q+A Do you have any upcoming projects incorporating Littman Brands that you’re currently working on? I’m working on a really unusual project in Dana Point [California] – a new development called the Strand. It’s sort of the Riviera of Dana Point and also a very undeveloped area that has been sitting for over 20 years. Finally the developer was able to obtain entitlements to build in this particular area and houses are popping up there, and we’ve contracted five of them. It’s going to be really special, something quite nice.
What was the client’s reaction overall? I think overall it’s kind of like Christmas or some great holiday where you’re getting lots of gifts. You open up everything, and you’re so excited that it takes you a while to get your head around what you’ve just received and you have to really spend some time absorbing all of it – while maintaining a big smile. With a home and new environment, after you settle in and process what you now have – you start to build a character for the house by realizing that everything has a purpose – why it’s there, and how it goes. Even if your first reaction is, “Oh that’s really unexpected,” you might later realize that it goes with so many different things… and it would have been your first choice too had you understood the whole methodology behind the build.
A nighttime poolside view of the luxurious Mediterranean inspired dream home at night
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