Jennifer Meyer's Home Is Oh So California Cool
For a year and a half, jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer spied on this home going up in her Santa Monica neighborhood. “I kept passing it and looking at it and looking at it and thinking, I don’t know… There’s just something about that house. It kept pulling me in,” she says. “When it was finished I was in love and knew it had to be mine.” The rambling two-story beauty was new but soulful, filled with enough natural light to make sunglasses inside seem reasonable.
It needed to be a functional family home for Jennifer and her two kids, Ruby, 10, and Otis, 8, but she still wanted it “decorated in a way where everything felt clean, not fussy, but rich in texture and color.” So for the first time in her life, this designer enlisted the help of a designer. Two, actually: her friends Louisa Pierce and Emily Ward. The pair make up on-the-rise design duo Pierce & Ward and have developed a rock-and-roll following for their rich, layered style that flirts with Southern sass and effortless Cali sex appeal, a testament to their splitting time between Nashville and the West Coast. “I was nervous to work with friends, but I was really nervous to work with a designer because my tastes are so specific,” Jennifer says. “But Em and Louisa just got me. They were on point with everything.”
“When designing this house,” Jennifer says, “it was most important to me that it felt like a home—that it didn’t feel too precious, that it felt cozy, and that each room was a place my kids could play.” This desire perfectly gelled with the designers’ ethos: “We try to create spaces that look like the person has lived there forever,” says Emily. “We want them to feel really comfortable but so fresh.”
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To lend a hand with the sourcing of some special pieces, Emily and Louisa tapped The Studio at One Kings Lane. Together the trio, with a little help from their friends at OKL, pulled off that most elusive of design goals: the sleek, chic family home.
Scroll down to walk through her West coast abode and start your shopping spree on One Kings Lane to mimic her look here. We apologize for your credit card bill in advance.
“Our favorite pieces in this house are the credenzas in the entryway and dining room,” says Louisa. “Those spaces were so specific; it was a little scary picking out vintage online. But they came in great condition and fit perfectly.” Jennifer wholeheartedly agrees: “The best part of the entryway is that vintage credenza,” she says. “I’m so in love with it.”
In the den-slash-office, the designers’ “chic with an edge” mantra is cranked up to an 11, from the glam velvet-and-chrome Milo Baughman chair (on which Louisa is perched) to the sexy black shades.“I wanted an oasis,” Jennifer explains. “A little home away from home within your own home. A place where you could cozy up and have some privacy with your girlfriend but also do work and get on the phone and get stuff done. It’s not my man cave; it’s my female cave.” She and pals—male and female alike (“It’s a testament to the design when the women are in love and the men are in love,” she says)—kick back on the couch, and “nobody wants to leave.”
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Ask Jennifer when she knew that Emily and Louisa got her style, and she’ll point to the pink linen sofa. “One of the first pieces they picked out was that couch,” she says. “And right then I was like, This is going to be good.” While a pink statement piece might be an all-wrong choice in less-experienced hands, it’s one that plays perfectly against neutral sidekicks such as a gray velvet love seat and a vintage burl coffee table (burl tables being a Pierce & Ward go-to).
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“I grew up in Malibu, so I’m a beach girl at heart and like things to feel laid-back with comfort and style,” says Jennifer, whose dining room (also painted Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee) embodies her chilled-out design sense and comes across feeling as breezy and cool as a summer evening.
The top of Jennifer’s buffet doubles as a makeshift bar for easy access to the good stuff when friends are over.
For more details on the jewelry designers home makeover, head over to onekingslane.com.
