Discover A Polished + Poised Transitional Abode In Brentwood

Designing a custom home parallels the world of haute couture. Consider the made-to-measure pieces and high-quality materials; the creativity and artisanship; the thousands of hours involved. But a runway-worthy result only happens when the rooms don’t read like overly elaborate ensembles. “From the finishes to the proportions, we try to make a house feel like your favorite outfit,” says architect William Hefner. “In it, you carry yourself differently, you feel differently, everything is resonating.” This idea is exquisitely executed in the Brentwood Park family home he designed in tandem with architect and firm partner Nathalie Aragno, which was meticulously built under the watch of general contractor Donald L. Hanover. And it’s a concept embraced at an even deeper level by interior designer Jenn Feldman. “I always joke that there’s a point during this process when, like in the movie Avatar, it feels like I’m able to wear my clients’ skin and become an extension of them and everything they’d decide,” she says. “I just make certain my work reflects the absolute best of what they should be deciding.”

Achieving the best for these homeowners, who have two teenage boys and three dogs, became both a theme and a goal. The newly constructed residence—which took five years to fully realize—represents a culmination of the couple’s long-held dream to build a house that would authentically represent them, notes Feldman. Aesthetically, they came to the table with different ideas: One favored a more traditional aesthetic, the other pushed for more contemporary lines, recalls Aragno. As an equitable solution, both the architecture and the furnishings lean transitional. “The home became a marriage of those two things, which I think makes it feel fresh,” explains Hefner. “On the outside, we stayed pretty classical, while the interiors are tailored in a modern approach.”

Editing and fine-tuning every room became Feldman’s labor of love. “It’s a 14,000-foot home and we touched every last doorknob,” she notes. While elegance, refinement and a dash of glam are through lines of the interiors, one of the more arresting elements is the designer’s use of verdant hues. “The color green became a shared passion for the wife and I,” shares Feldman. “We always connected about it.” The shade is peppered throughout the house—variants pop up on key furnishings, and the hue even appears in the veining of the kitchen’s statement stonework—but it is on particularly vivid display in the living room. There, the walls and trim wear a custom lacquer-finish paint in a hue the designer calls “opulent moss” that matches a bespoke rug with striking brass inlays. The rug, sparked by a malachite-green yarn swatch, inspired the room. “It’s a work of art in a space we wanted to feel extraordinary,” emphasizes Feldman. “We went as far as designing it around the furniture plan so that the brass inlays peekaboo around the silhouettes. The room exudes a kind of old-world Hollywood salon vibe, with an ‘oomph’ the wife really loves—but it’s still so tailored and clean.”

“Bold but controlled” then became a catchphrase for how the designer shaped each space. See the green-veined stone that stars in the kitchen, turning the room’s island and hood into sculptural statements within an otherwise white, bright space. Or notice the formal dining room, where seafoam-blue chairs and a huge gold-and-glass chandelier with a regal air command attention. And then there’s the main powder room, immersed in eye-catching gold and brass accents.

The private spaces grow quieter in palette but are still distinctive, particularly the wife’s bath and dressing room, a chic sanctuary that gleams with a hint of pink and surfaces that shimmer, all capped by striking vintage Sputnik-style chandeliers. “For every choice we made, the question was, ‘How can we allow this space to have its own impact, yet control and tailor it?’ ” says Feldman. It’s as if she performed a fit check, room by room—and now this home is catwalk-ready.