Happy trails

Film after film, Kirsten Dunst has assembled a collection of objects that tell her life story

Among the many stories behind Kirsten Dunst’s unique house in Los Angeles, there is the tale of the relationship between the actress and the interior designer Jane Hallworth. They met 20 years ago, when Dunst was just 18 and Hallworth had just arrived in California. A few years later Hallworth was gaining acclaim in the world of interiors, and Dunst asked her to design her first real house in LA, a lakeside dwelling in Scandinavian style in the Hollywood hills.

«I wasn’t interested in clothes or cars, but I was enthusiastic about my home», Dunst recalls. «Jane has been my mentor in this sense». Many of the objects from that initial collaboration, like the steel chairs by Gio Ponti covered in aqua green leather, and the crystal chandelier in the form of a ship by Maison Baguès, have found a place – nearly two decades later – in Dunst’s current abode, a ranch house from the 1930s in San Fernando Valley, where the actress lives with her partner Jesse Plemons and their two children. After tackling the technical aspects of the renovation, Dunst and Hallworth chose furnishings connected with fundamental life phases of the actress. The Wingback chair by Frits Henningsen was purchased during the shooting of Spider-Man, while the portrait by Elizabeth Peyton is a memory of the set of Marie Antoinette.

«There is a bit of Jesse’s cowboy taste, mixed with the glamorous aesthetic of Kirsten. We had to work on that balance to achieve the desired effect», Hallworth points out. This miscellany comes to life in the living area, where a large copper chandelier like a spur on a boot looms over a variety of refined furnishings by great artistic talents like Philip Arctander and Jacques Adnet.