Inside the Vibrant, Whimsical LA Home of Justin Timberlake's Stylist-Turned-Designer Pal, Estee Stanley

Photography by Jessica Sample

“I am not an abstract modern art girl,” Los Angeles interior designer Estee Stanley declares. “I like people and animals on the wall, it makes a house feel more cozy.” In her comfortable yet elegant home — a 1920s Spanish two-story duplex she reconfigured as a family residence for her husband, film and TV producer Bryan Furst, kids Teddy, 7, and Flora, 4, and English sheepdog Scout — the art is both whimsical and edgy. There are photographs of Andy Warhol  in a Marilyn Monroe wig and makeup, drawings of little girls by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, clusters of birdhouses, faux taxidermy and real trophy heads — Pete, the elk, who overlooks the staircase and Joe, the stag, who greets visitors in the living room. The walls of the family room are a gallery of glamorous candid shots from her marriage ceremony, including a photo of Stanley and Furst in which she is holding a firearm.

“This,” she says, laughing boisterously, “is our shotgun wedding portrait.”

Stanley’s approach to interior design is every bit as unconventional and witty. Upstairs, in her master bedroom, Stanley hung an old-school Italian portrait of a woman that once belonged to her grandmother. The lady in the painting gazes to her right, her eyes fixed on an equally aged oil painting of a man. “That’s her husband. Now look over there,” Stanley says, pointing to a third painting of a man hanging over her bathtub, “That’s her lover. He’s her piece on the side. Can you believe the shit I make up?”

It’s just as baffling to consider hanging an unprotected work of art over a tub, but Stanley, who started her career as a wardrobe stylist for music videos in the 1990s (Justin Timberlake remains a friend and client ) doesn’t stand on ceremony. “I have an antique chair from the Paris flea market covered in red silk next to the tub,” she adds. “Now that really shouldn’t be in a bathroom.”

Born in Villa Park, a suburb of Newport Beach, Calif., Stanley grew up in “a Cape Cod-style house with black marble floors, gorgeous antiques and — because it was the 1980s — neon sticks everywhere. My mom had wild design style.” She was also inspired by the “fancy 1960s” style of her grandmother, who bequeathed to her a table clad in jade, which now sits in the designer’s boudoir (“I like every room to have one ‘Wow, I never would have thought about that moment,’ “ Stanley says) and the white baby grand piano and enormous curved sofa in her living room. That room also features a large coffee table carved from marble, English armchairs and a rope stool by French designer Christian Astuguevieille. “This mix is really me,” Stanley says. “Sometimes I feel superyoung, like the girls in the weird Nara drawings by the fireplace, and sometimes I feel 200 years old, like the Oushak rug.”

Having once lived in the upstairs apartment when the building was a duplex, Stanley has turned the downstairs into a salon for entertaining. “Once I got married and had children and really started to have a lot of people over, I fell in love with this house,” Stanley enthuses.

Along with the living room, a small art- and book-filled study with French doors that she calls “the smoking room” is a favorite perch for guests. “I make sure that every room is not so precious that people won’t want to hang out there,” she adds, running her finger across a small wooden table that’s seen its fair share of party-related dings.

“Look how thrashed it is,” she says proudly.

As a modern parent, the 45-year-old mom has created adorable rooms for her kids, designing a treehouse bed for her son and a vast playroom off her daughter’s exuberantly decorated bedroom. “It’s important for them to have a space where they can go crazy with crayons, but they’re not allowed to color in the living room. Parents should teach kids to be proud of their home.”

In her work, Estee Stanley is just as passionate about creating public spaces where families can happily hang out. After crafting the interior for chef Ludovic Lefebvre’s four-star bistro Petit Trois in Hollywood, the designer will partner with Jessica Biel in a restaurant called Au Fudge. “I don’t know why restaurants think kids only want to eat chicken tenders and mac and cheese,” she says. “Adults cannot be happy in these places, so I want to design a magical place for the kids in all of us.”

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.