Getting caught in a turf war between design professionals is a situation clients dread. But the entertainment industry power couple who handpicked architect Richard Landry, interior designer Susan Cohen, and custom installer Murray Kunis—all professionals in the Los Angeles area—weren’t worried about clashing egos. The trio had collaborated on the couple’s primary residence, and they couldn’t wait to brainstorm the details of the 12,000-square-foot contemporary Tuscan-style villa planned for a prime stretch of beachfront that boasts grand views of golden sand and rolling waves.
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The great room in this beach villa transforms into a cozy theater where guests can lounge and watch 35mm movies, oblivious to the crash of the surf and the blinding beach light. When the blackout curtain vanishes into the kitchen wall, the room is flooded with light. Family and guests can put their feet on the coffee table and perch snacks on the elegant side tables by Rose Tarlow-Melrose House. (Click image to enlarge)
“Instead of butting heads, we worked together toward a common goal,” says Kunis, owner of Future Home Media in Beverly Hills. “When you have a good team, that makes it easier. We ended up with a project greater than the sum of the parts: a world-class house that raises the bar on the beach.”
Interior designer Cohen describes the two-story villa as a place for “multitasking,” where the family, which includes two teenagers, can gather and be comfortable. But it’s also a grand site for weekend entertaining, where guests can mill about the great room, which is divided into dining and socializing areas —all of which have a view of the eye-catching mosaic-inlaid fireplace in the round. Here, they can enjoy the sound coming from a concealed audiovisual system, which is controlled by the Crestron touchscreen that also manages the lighting system, and is contained in floor-to-ceiling custom cabinetry. Or they can watch movies on a 61-inch Marantz PD6120 wall-mounted plasma television—one of the first 61-inch plasma TVs in the United States—that is positioned above three THX Sonance Cinema 2 in-wall speakers.
“It’s a house of experiencing wonderful visuals—from the art to the ocean to the people,” Cohen says. Works by Marc Chagall and Andy Warhol highlight the great room, whose warm colors mirror the dramatic sunsets that blaze over the Pacific. Floors, indoors and out, are a vast sweep of antique French terra-cotta. Walls glow, their painted Venetian plaster hand-waxed by a master of the art, Peter Bolton. And wood-framed glass doors glide open and disappear into pockets, allowing the ocean to be omnipresent. “You don’t feel like you’ve got to be on the beach. You can be indoors and still experience it,” Cohen says.Yet behind its timeless facade, the house cleverly masks its technical savvy. Landry’s award-winning Landry Design Group has created homes for Rod Stewart, Eddie Murphy, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Bolton, Sugar Ray Leonard, and other celebrities. To prevent this beach home from being washed away in the occasional but brutal winter storms that batter the coast, he reviewed engineering water uprush reports that predicted waves during every season. “The entire site had to be built on caissons, which was complicated,” Landry says. “They make it very difficult when you want to have palm trees and a pool.” He elevated the pool above the decking and surrounded it with a ledge that doubles as seating. The palms on the lawn reside in below-ground concrete basins, each tree spaced precisely for hammock enjoyment.
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The master suite’s bed is upholstered in the same subtle toile as the draperies, by Old World Weavers, whose pillows and throws also adorn the chaise. If the homeowners tire of their water views, they can pop up their plasma screen from its silver-leafed cabinet, another Van Court creation. Cohen says being on the bedroom terrace is like standing on the deck of an elegant cruise ship.
High-tech wizardry awaits inside. The family wanted the floor plan to consist of open communal spaces, with cozy retreats carved out here and there. So instead of a dedicated home theater, Landry, Cohen, and Kunis transformed an area of the great room into a screening room.
Behind one wall, its portholes barely noticeable, is a 9-by-18-foot professional-caliber booth housing dual Simplex projectors for beaming first-run 35mm movies accompanied by Dolby Digital sound. But perhaps the most dramatic idea to emerge from the trio’s planning sessions is the blackout curtain that hides within a 6-inch pocket in the wall. With a press of a button on the Crestron touchscreen, the curtain whooshes into view and snakes 90 degrees on its track as shades blanket the French doors, while a Stewart ElectriScreen and three JBL professional cinema speakers drop from on high. Six hundred square feet of living area behind the curtain remains bathed in brilliant light for those who would rather read.
The interior designer used leather and wood ottomans for extra seating in the theater area which seats 12. A Warhol provides a colorful distraction from projection room portholes. The family can also watch the 61-inch Marantz plasma TV on the wall where the blackout curtain hides. Architect Richard Landry added deep overhangs as protection from the sun but sun seekers can still bask oceanside and poolside on Mosaix outdoor furniture, upholstered in a Sunbrella fabric that was custom printed in a Fortuny design. (Click image to enlarge)
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As Kunis points out, having a drop-down screen is not unusual, but the ceiling opening for this one is concealed behind a rustic beam. And with only 1 foot of space between the ceiling and the second story’s flooring, the collaborators devised a way for the 13-by-5.5-foot screen and speakers––housed in a 12-foot-tall cabinet––to retract into the office one floor above. “You can’t just put in left, right, and center flush-in-the-wall ceiling speakers,” Kunis says. “And you can’t have a bunch of speakers on stands in the front of the room.”
To conceal the equipment, John Van Court built and designed hand-hewn, antique-look cabinets to run the length of the upstairs office, creating the impression of a wall of elegant built-in storage. Cabinet fronts pop off for easy access.
Downstairs, Sonance speakers are tucked into two walnut-finish alderwood cabinets, which match Van Court’s custom cabinet that houses a nearby equipment rack. Interior designer Cohen added custom upholstered sofas and swivel chairs, and a soft woven chenille area rug to help absorb the sound.In the master bedroom, framed with wraparound ocean views, the designer limited colors to neutral taupes and charcoal to echo the ocean’s serenity. “When you open the draperies, you feel like you’re on a luxurious ship,” Cohen says. “When the drapes are closed, you’re insulated. I did a sheer underneath, so that when the windows are open the fabric flows, Great Gatsbyish. I always try to create that romance.”
Televisions are positioned throughout the house, including dual 20-inch Panasonics in the ocean-view gym, allowing exercisers to enjoy the news or the seagulls and whitecaps. But the most elaborate setup is in the master suite, equipped with a 42-inch Marantz high-definition plasma television and Sonance Symphony 624 speakers, concealed in a custom cabinet. “It’s a pop-up, but plasma allows the cabinet to be half the size it used to be for a traditional TV,” Kunis says. And, with their Crestron TPS-4500 system, the homeowners can control everything in the house—from outdoor lighting to the spa—via the touchscreen panel on their bedside table.
“You don’t have to go out of the country to have an amazing home with all the amenities you’d have when you’re on vacation,” Cohen says. “If you can dream it up, you can figure it out. When you’re in this house, it’s so dreamy, you don’t want to leave.”
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