Character, personality, soul—all the aspects that create those delightfully warm and fuzzy feelings of “home” are difficult to infuse into a developer-built house, no matter how tastefully constructed. That pivotal layer of depth and warmth is what Sierra Fox’s clients realized, over dinner with friends, that they desired for their own newly built residence, purchased partially furnished. The home they were dining in that night had been designed by Fox, so the couple soon reached out to her themselves.
Their Brentwood home felt primed for a more personal stamp, recalls the designer. She discovered an approachable, airy, modern farmhouse awash with natural light and mostly white interiors. It proved to be the ideal baseline to support the addition of the rich, earthy palette her clients were drawn to, as well as the midcentury shapes and heirloom-quality pieces they loved. As the couple was transitioning from a smaller and more traditionally attired home, plus navigating a new chapter as empty nesters, Fox acted as both a designer and discerning curator. She repurposed beloved pieces, brought in a mix of new and antique finds, and exercised balance and restraint. “Our task was to craft cohesive interiors with a comfortable and collected feel by working through and uniting what felt true to the homeowners and to this house,” she explains.
A vintage Pierre Jeanneret chair completes the living area seating, along with a console sourced from Nickey Kehoe and a Blackman Cruz table lamp. A ficus tree in a 1920s Nagaland planter, sourced through Inner Gardens, enlivens the space.
Portola Paints’ Roman Clay adds depth to the dining room’s walls, where Galerie Provenance chairs line a custom table below an Ochre chandelier. An ornamental ficus in a Willy Guhl planter from Inner Gardens rests on a Galerie Half pedestal in the corner.
In the great room, custom sofas wearing Design of the Times slipcovers face a Lawton Mull coffee table. A bespoke brass surround brings patina to the fireplace, which is topped by Ira Monte artwork from Galerie Half. The rug is from Lawrence of La Brea.
Designer Sierra Fox enhanced the entry stair with a Matthew Cox console and a Galerie Half stool. The rug is Elizabeth Eakins. A sculptural Australian bottle tree from Inner Gardens completes the peaceful vignette.
In a sitting room off the owners’ bedroom, a Gregorius Pineo sofa and chair—both wrapped in an ALT for Living alpaca wool—gather with a vintage Scandinavian coffee table atop a Warp & Weft rug. The lamps are from Panoplie.
Fox custom-designed the primary bedroom’s chaise, upholstering it with a curly shearling. The side table is from Panoplie; the rug is from Lawrence of La Brea. Linen draperies filter the room’s light.
In the same space, both the bed, topped with a Pat McGann coverlet, and burlwood nightstands are bespoke. The vintage Arnold Madsen-designed chair is from Galerie Provenance. A reading light by Apparatus and a photograph by Sarah Bahbah finish the serene sanctuary.
What the couple decided felt true, ultimately, were warm, charismatic spaces that are refined yet relaxed enough to welcome their college-age children (and the family dogs). Fox responded with pieces that thoughtfully walk this line. The living room’s coffee table, for instance, features a timeworn slab of walnut that displays its dings, dents and knots with dignity, inviting the family to kick back worry-free. “What our clients really love are things with patina and a sense of life,” the designer affirms. An antique rug imbues the living room with a laid-back elegance, and slipcovered sofas in an unexpected mustard hue are visually impactful yet practical. Overall, the homeowners weren’t afraid to lean into warmer colors, Fox notes—even pushing her beyond the neutrals she typically favors. “The palette is muted, but there’s a lot of color here: turmeric, caramel, sea blue, plus all the soft, worn shades of the antique rugs,” she points out. And certain spaces carry even richer hues, like the husband’s navy-walled office and an atmospheric downstairs lounge area in a moody oxblood red—immersive departures that nevertheless work within the home’s earth-toned color scheme.
Fox’s creation of spaces rife with character, as per the owners’ initial wish, didn’t stop at furnishings and color. A connoisseur of beautifully patinated surfaces, the designer added a brass surround to the living room fireplace—it will gracefully age along with the house—repeating the metal elsewhere in lighting and accessories for continuity. Plaster walls replaced wallpaper in the adjoining dining room, adding texture and dimension. The homeowners also felt strongly about bringing greenery inside, so Fox worked with garden designer Lindsey Graves of Inner Gardens to place plants in each area—see the leafy ficus anchoring a sunny corner of the living room and the baby Australian bottle tree on the entryway console, thriving under a skylight. Verdure tapestry pillows in the living room (a fabric echoed in a wall tapestry hung in the family room) visually link to the home’s verdant surroundings. “It’s important for me to create spaces that capture an earthy, grounded feel through colors, textures, woods and plants that connect back to nature, especially in a large city like Los Angeles,” says Fox.
“Not every room has to be the same, either,” the designer continues, gesturing to the couple’s expansive upstairs bedroom suite. There, she created a quiet, sanctuary-like retreat that is deliberately spare. A study in restful tones of oatmeal and ivory, the suite includes a connected sitting room, where the wife often reads, that’s bedecked with a plush shearling rug and furnishings wearing nubby bouclé. The serene space completes a house that, now, boasts bespoke details galore, has a sense of history and fosters a deeper connection to its surroundings. In other words, it finally feels like a home.
In the same space, both the bed, topped with a Pat McGann coverlet, and burlwood nightstands are bespoke. The vintage Arnold Madsen-designed chair is from Galerie Provenance. A reading light by Apparatus and a photograph by Sarah Bahbah finish the serene sanctuary.