Room of the Day: Rescuing a Beverly Hills Living Room

Some homes are blessed with good looks, and some have to try harder. This Beverly Hills, California, rancher fell into the latter category, but luckily the man who owned it had met interior designer Betsy Burnham years before. “He is a modernist, and I consider myself more of a classicist,” says Burnham. “But it often comes down to relationships and trust, and I think I was one of two designers he had met in his entire life.”

Along with the architects at Abraham Tieger, Burnham set out make the house, which she describes as “entirely underwhelming,” an amazing home. Here’s a look at the living room, before and after.

Burnham classifies the house as a ranch house with regency influences. The living room was unexciting.


AFTER: While shopping with the client, Burnham spotted a lovely fretwork-adorned armoire, but it was too tall for the living room. “I thought, ‘Why don’t we just put a pattern directly on the wall?’” says Burnham. She worked with modeling software to come up with the perfect design. Then she had a slim, simple molding applied to panels of MDF that were mounted to the wall. “The house was old, and the walls were uneven. If we had put the molding directly on the wall, it wouldn’t have worked out,” she says. “We loved the shadow lines between the panels, so we left them.”


The depth and texture of the pattern can be appreciated in this profile shot.


The regency touches were clearly visible in the windows and the molding around the fireplace.


AFTER: Steel French windows add a modern touch, while a new stone mantel offers sophisticated elegance. “You need a few elements like this to warm a space up,” says Burnham. The traditional lines of the fireplace are balanced with the strongly geometric fire screen and thick-framed mirror. “He wanted a contemporary look, but he didn’t want it to feel cold,” Burnham says, noting that the neutral color palette also brings up the visual temperature. “We called the style restrained luxe.”

When asked if it was tough for a classicist to produce a modern interior, Burnham said no. “He didn’t really want to hire a traditional or a modern designer,” she says. “He wanted to hire someone who would listen, and I was willing.”

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