Real-Life Renovation: The Novogratz Rules — A Dream Home For Seven Kids
Fresh from New York, the interior design world’s most photogenic family landed in LA and found themselves a castle to renovate. Now Robert and Cortney Novogratz have an epic home for their brood and a showpiece of reinterpreted film-star glamour
(from opposite) The open lounge and dining area balances high and low design, from the Tom Dixon prototype orange chair to the twin blue chairs, which were flea-market finds. The whole family with their vintage truck. Robert and Cortney managed to save the staircase railing and details from the vaulted ceiling, then added their own Hollywood sign. Their unified shingle roof and covered fence. The grand new entrance has a lot more pizzazz.
After 20 years of living in Manhattan, and one too many brutal winters, we packed up our seven kids and headed across the country. We moved our brood from the West Village in New York City to the Hollywood Hills, arriving in August, a week before the school year began. We moved into a rental home and immediately began to scour the city in search of the perfect fixer-upper.
As we started the search, we had some important criteria; for us New Yorkers, a home within walking distance of restaurants and city life was non-negotiable. But we also wanted to take advantage of the incredible California weather, which meant having an outdoor space with a big patio and a swimming pool.
It didn’t take long. After searching for a few weeks, we found the house of our dreams. It was also centrally located to the four different schools we’d enrolled the kids in – because it would have been too easy to put them in the same school (why make things easy for ourselves? Not our style!)
More importantly, it was right up the hill from the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel.