California dreamin’

Inside a designer’s laid-back LA home

KELLY FURANO KNOWS a thing or two about laid-back luxury. A business development executive with over 15 years’ experience in the fashion industry, she started out with the denim brand True Religion, which she joined as its fourth employee straight out of college, going on to launch it into the global marketplace as VP of global sales. ‘It was an amazing ride,’ she says of her time with the brand, ‘but I used to travel 250 days a year and I wanted to start a family.’ Today, she works closer to home, consulting for fashion brands including The Row, Bottega Veneta and Topshop.

Home is Venice Beach, Los Angeles, where Furano, a California native, and her husband, Keith Eshelman, have lived for the past 10 years. ‘It’s remarkable, because it’s right by the ocean but also only 15 minutes to the mountains,’ says Furano. ‘There’s so much culture and diversity, and there’s a real sense of community.’ But for Furano, the real draw has been their current house, which she describes as ‘everything I ever wanted.’

The house was created and built by local designer Kim Gordon, who specialises in developing properties in the area, and from the outset Furano was determined that it would be hers. ‘It became my mission; I sort of stalked [Gordon],’ she says. ‘Kim is a visionary. She does something that was not happening in Venice, where homes were either traditional Craftsman [Arts and Crafts] bungalows or modernist boxes. Her properties honour the area’s history, but also have a soul.’

As well as the architectural style, Furano was immediately drawn to the

house’s 12ft-high ceilings and huge steel-framed windows – a signature of Gordon’s. The designer says of her style: ‘This is California, and we want to bring nature inside.’

As Furano approached Gordon about buying it early on in the construction process, she was able to tweak a number of elements to her specifications, such as tile and worktop choices. Gordon also left large empty spaces at the top and bottom of the staircase to act as play areas for the couple’s children – daughter Everly, five, and son Leo, two. ‘To others, they could seem like dead spaces,’ says Furano, ‘but to us, they are a place to put a tepee or train set.’ She and Eshelman also love cooking and entertaining, so the kitchen was raised in order to make it the focal point of the living area. ‘When I’m in there, I feel like I’m driving a ship,’ laughs Furano.

Another of their additions is a separate garden building at the rear of the property, which Furano describes as ‘a kind of tree house’. The ground level is

Furano describes the couple’s taste as ‘a soulful minimalism… We don’t like lots of stuff’

completely open and serves as an outdoor sitting room, with a sofa and two hanging chairs, plus a barbecue and a large hot tub. The upper floor houses the offices for Eshelman’s company, Parks Project, a clothing and accessories brand that supports conservation programmes in US national parks.

The couple are great fans of the outdoors, and are keen surfers: both grew up in Marin County, north of San Francisco, where they met when Furano was 13. Their collection of boards makes a colourful design feature in the backgarden, stacked against the fence and propped up between the trees.

When it comes to the interior, Furano describes her and Eshelman’s taste as ‘a soulful, comfortable minimalism’. ‘I love open shelving, but clutter stresses us both out,’ she says. ‘We don’t like a lot of stuff.’

Much as she loves the high ceilings, they did present certain issues: ‘Filling those walls was really hard,’ she says. The solution was beige-toned Venetian plaster, which provides both a soothing neutral backdrop and a textural quality,

which ‘makes it feel like there’s less blank space’. Large house plants add a decorative touch, as does the couple’s collection of artworks, most of which have personal meaning: many of the paintings are by their friends, while an embroidered skull was brought back from a surfing trip to Sayulita in Mexico.

Other items come from far and wide: Furano loves Moroccan rugs and has also brought back textiles from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. One of the couple’s favourite possessions, however, dates from soon after their first meeting — a photo of them at the high-school prom when she was 14.

Their next project is in the Santa Monica mountains, where they recently purchased 455 acres of land on which they intend to build a members-only resort based around a farm – ‘a commune, if you will’, says Furano. Judging from her previous endeavours, it will be one to which many people will want to belong.

The kitchen was raised to make it the focal point. ‘When I’m in there, I feel like I’m driving a ship’

Right In the sitting area off the kitchen, the Timothy Oulton sofa has been upholstered in raw leather, and teamed with a vintage leather pouffe from a flea market and a custom-made marble coffee table. Below right In the main sitting room, a velvet...

Clockwise from above Furano and Leo on the stairs; the bed in the main bedroom is from RH, and the rug is from Anthropologie; the kitchen, with French-oak units and a granite worktop, incorporates a custom-made redwood table surrounded by West Elm bar...