RICHLY LAYERED
Designer Stefani Stein creates an earthy, laid-back home with nods to tradition and the East Coast for clients Lauren Morelli and Samira Wiley.
By Laura Eckstein Jones
Photography by Sam Frost
Styling by Lisa Rowe
For their second project together, interior designer Stefani Stein brought a bit of the English countryside to her clients’ Los Angeles home. “We began to joke that we were creating a California in the Cotswolds, which ended up sticking with us,” says Stein. “I love for a home to be a retreat, to invoke that feeling of being on holiday but at home.” Her clients, actress Samira Wiley and producer-director Lauren Morelli, craved a cozy and comfortable—yet elevated and artful—space for themselves and their daughter, George.
“Both of their East Coast roots factored into their preferences and our aesthetic dialogue,” says Stein, who touched every surface of the 3,700-square foot, two-story house, including the pool and patio areas. “Because the home had been recently renovated in a more pared-down interpretation of the architecture, we all felt strongly that we needed to reintroduce details and character. In a way, that provided a blank slate to layer upon, very minimally—white walls, limited millwork—we had a bit of a blank slate as a foundation.
Modern Luxury Interiors
May/June 2022
Written by: Laura Eckstein Jones
The addition of color, cabinetry and millwork, along with updating the lighting throughout, provided a rich foundation for furnishings.” Since Wiley’s taste veered classic and Morelli’s skewed more contemporary, Stein had to find a common ground to work with stylewise. Luckily, both clients favored the color green, a shade Stein herself loves. “I wanted to bring the familiarity and comfort of their East Coast roots to the home by infusing woody and floral compositions, however doing so in finishes and materials inspired instead by the everyday beauty of the California landscape,” she says. “For me, the process begins with discovery and gaining insight not only into clients’ aesthetic preferences, which tend to shift and evolve a bit from one home to the next, but also an understanding of their household, how they want to feel in their home, how they prefer to live from day to day,” Stein explains. “What we unearthed was a strong preference for color and comfort, a dichotomy of both classic and contemporary mingling together, and a desire to add depth and detail to the existing architecture.”
Beyond green, Stein selected an earthier, dustier color palette than she used in the couple’s prior home. “Samira was into this idea, but I did have to convince Lauren that it wouldn’t feel drab,” she says.“These foundational colors selected lend the home a comfortable quality reminiscent of an older, lived-in space. Pairing this with furnishings that meander from modernist to antique, with a sprinkling of both vintage and statement items, kept things fresh and unexpected. For me, the composition is about that balance between studied and whimsy, edited and layered.”