Houzz Tour: Rainbow of Colors Reigns Supreme in Century City
Bold wallpaper, fabrics and accessories add life to a new L.A. spec house for a family of 4
The dining room is one of Tanimoto’s favorite rooms in the house, and its design began with the wallpaper. She likes the way it balances a fun pattern with a place for the eye to rest in the negative space of the white paneling below. She had the ceiling painted in Benjamin Moore’s Blue Hydrangea to pick up the color in the wallpaper.
Two consoles offer ample storage, and one of them pulls the room together with color in an unexpected place: Just barely visible in the left of the photo are the hot pink fabric-paneled doors of the buffet table. The piece came from the clients’ former home, where the panels had been upholstered in yellow. Tanimoto gave it a makeover with the same fabric as the pink trim on the custom-upholstered chairs. The draperies match one of the fabrics on the chairs.
Two consoles offer ample storage, and one of them pulls the room together with color in an unexpected place: Just barely visible in the left of the photo are the hot pink fabric-paneled doors of the buffet table. The piece came from the clients’ former home, where the panels had been upholstered in yellow. Tanimoto gave it a makeover with the same fabric as the pink trim on the custom-upholstered chairs. The draperies match one of the fabrics on the chairs.
The client saw the powder room’s pink and green ikat wallpaper in a magazine and immediately fell in love with it. Tanimoto was able to obtain it through her trade resources, and it works well here because the space is small. Tanimoto painted the ceiling a soft yellow and replaced the old mirror and light fixtures with a capiz shell mirror and sconces with white linen shades. “There are so many cool options for mirrors and lighting. These are easy swaps for people to make,” she says.
Elephant stool: Serena & Lily
Elephant stool: Serena & Lily
Tanimoto envisioned a funky twist on the white kitchen that came with the house. One of the clients’ favorite colors is orange, which the designer finds can be either too bright in its pure form or too dull when it’s toned down. She found a window treatment fabric that hit just the right note, with enough orange to make a statement but balanced by bright blues and greens.
The cabinet backs behind the glass doors were ripe for some color, so Tanimoto covered them in a key lime fabric and painted the down-rods on the pendant lights the same color to spice them up.
The cabinet backs behind the glass doors were ripe for some color, so Tanimoto covered them in a key lime fabric and painted the down-rods on the pendant lights the same color to spice them up.
The breakfast room was one of the first rooms Tanimoto decorated because the family uses it every day. The wife had placed an orange table here at first, but when it proved a bit too bright even for her, Tanimoto moved it to the kids’ playroom. Now the family’s color fix comes from a lime green fabric shade that coordinates with the kitchen accents and a light fixture from Stray Dog Designs.
The wicker chairs are more subdued but add an element of warmth and a handmade quality.
The wicker chairs are more subdued but add an element of warmth and a handmade quality.
The family room is where the couple and their children spend most of their time, so Tanimoto knew it had to be cozy, comfortable and kid-friendly. “It’s kind of an awkward space because the only way to the backyard is through the door behind one of the sofas,” Tanimoto says, so she chose small (60-inch) love seats that aren’t very deep to ensure enough circulation room. The blue-and-white lounge chairs add seating and play off the pattern of the area rug and the bookshelf wallpaper.
Rug: Global Views
Rug: Global Views
Mom, daughter and designer really had a blast with this bedroom. “The color is pretty intense,” Tanimoto says. “There’s a lot of pink happening,” but the clients love its vibrancy. Most cherished is the sofa upholstered in a Lilly Pulitzer fabric.
The client had a hard time zeroing in on a single fabric for the sofa. She and Tanimoto considered one pattern in three colors, and since they couldn’t use them all, Tanimoto had the scraps framed and hung over the desk.
Chair fabric: Pindler & Pindler
Chair fabric: Pindler & Pindler
This little girl’s bathroom, like much of the house, was spec-home beige when the family moved in. The vanity and light fixture worked just fine, so Tanimoto focused on bringing in color wherever she could. Since the painted trim was so successful in the living room, she decided to trim the room in a powder pink. A blue micro-gingham wallpaper makes the small space feel special, and the Roman shade fabric unifies the pink-and-blue color scheme.
Tanimoto infused the master bedroom with as much color as the rest of the home, but balanced out the tones in the shared space. She had the walls painted blue and used a 50 percent formula of the same color for the ceiling. Tanimoto likes giving her clients this continuation of color. “It’s an easy transition for the eyes. It’s something people may not notice, but they will feel.”
One of her favorite features of the room is the throw blanket at the foot of the bed. The wife learned to sew while the home was being decorated and made the blanket when she couldn’t find exactly what she was looking for in a coverlet.
One of her favorite features of the room is the throw blanket at the foot of the bed. The wife learned to sew while the home was being decorated and made the blanket when she couldn’t find exactly what she was looking for in a coverlet.
The master bathroom was perfectly serviceable but, like the girl’s room, needed some color to liven it up. With the freestanding tub right next to a window, Tanimoto wanted to dress the window for privacy without blocking too much light, so she fitted a flat fabric panel onto a cafe rod. “It was really inexpensive and easy to do,” she says. The clients love blue, so she matched the blue in the fabric to Benjamin Moore’s Covington Blue.
Find freestanding tubs
Find freestanding tubs
With two young children, the parents do a lot of laundry and wanted to create a more cheery backdrop for this daily chore. While hunting for wallpaper for another room, the wife fell in love with this one from Osborne & Little. Though it didn’t make the cut in the other room, she kept it in the back of her mind for use in here.
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House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with young twins
Location: Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles
Size: About 3,400 square feet (about 316 square meters)
Designer: Taylor Tanimoto of Coddington Design
The homeowners were reluctant to do any heavy construction on their newly purchased spec house, since the finishes were new and the layout worked fine. But one of them, who loves the bright, playful aesthetic of lifestyle brand Lilly Pulitzer, knew she wouldn’t feel at home until color was injected into all the bland, beige rooms.
Designer Taylor Tanimoto says a hot pink sofa previously bought by the homeowners kicked off the design for the living room. The green contrast welt on the sofa inspired the purchase of the kelly green lacquered coffee table, the mirror above the fireplace and the green stripe on the window shade.
Tanimoto worked in another bold fabric for the armchair upholstery and then let the family live with its newly furnished space for a few months before finalizing the decor. When the couple decided it wasn’t quite bright enough yet, Tanimoto had the trim painted green. “It made all the difference,” she says.