Tour Design Icon Kelly Wearstler’s Airy, Amazing Georgian Mansion
Photography by Nick Hudson
West Coast interior design icon Kelly Wearstler didn’t have to go far to find her dream home. It was only 10 doors away from the 1950s midcentury modern house in Beverly Hills she and her husband, hotelier Brad Korzen, were living in. “It was just down the street,” she says. But, architecturally and stylistically it was light years away.
The home is a 1926 Georgian-style mansion that was left relatively unchanged for the past 55 years — its then owners created the James Bond franchise — until Wearstler bought it. “They really honored the architecture,” Wearstler says. “But it needed a new kind of modern, young spirit. That was my goal for the renovation.”
Wearstler, who’s from Myrtle Beach, S.C., has infused coolness into many a space before — she’s known for her sophisticated, substantial decorating style that’s still feels playful and approachable. She began her career revamping boutique hotels, such as the Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills and the Viceroy hotel chain. Then she dabbled in celebrity, by both designing homes for Gwen Stefani and Cameron Diaz and appearing on TV herself as a judge on Bravo’s Top Design. Today she sells her aesthetic to a bigger audience via her coffee table books — recently with Rhapsody, photographs of the most glamorous interiors she’s done — and the namesake furniture, lighting, bedding, home accessories, jewelry, and objets d'art she sells online and at the Kelly Wearstler flagship store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
Even with how big her business has become, though, Wearstler is still as exacting and detail-oriented with her interior visions as she was when she was starting out. “I think every room should be considered and amazing,” she says. “Even if it’s your laundry room. Every room should be as pretty as it can be.” Here, she takes Yahoo Style on a tour of her newly refreshed Georgian home.
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