Based in Los Angeles, Eric Hughes and Nathan Turner embody the California dream. Turner was on Million Dollar Decorators and is a lifestyle expert, home cook, author, and decorator with clients from Singapore to Sydney. Hughes has designed homes for Hollywood celebrities including Sarah Jessica Parker, his lifelong friend. But having B both grown up in the Golden State, the couple, who are both ELLE DECOR A-List designers, fondly recall a very different California, a place of stark beauty, simplicity, and self-sufficiency. This was the world of their grandparents and great-grandparentsand one they have now reclaimed for themselves in Ojai.
It wasn't the plan. The couple used to decamp on weekends to Malibu, but when that area became über popular, they decided to look for a sleepier spot. In Ojai, just 80 miles north of L.A., they found an old 1950s rambler-a Western ranch house that once served as the centerpiece of a working cattle ranch. It reminded them of the homes of their childhood. Turner grew up in the Bay Area, spending weekends, holidays, and summers on his grandparents' ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. In junior high, he would ride his horse Cochise on the fire roads into town, ordering a Coke and fries at the Burger King drive-through on horseback. Hughes's grandmother Milly lived in a ranch house in Rancho Santa Fe, in San Diego County.
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MORE, PLEASE
Eric Hughes joins forces with Standard Architecture to transform two neighboring homes into a sprawling family compound.
SIZED TO FIT
Designer Nannette Brown reimagines a new-build apartment with unexpected depth, character, and texture.
Play It Cool
In balmy Texas, Ashe Leandro brings urbane style and a chill vibe to a home in a historic district.
Mic Drop
For former talk radio star Tom Joyner, Studio Roda creates an oceanfront pleasure pad with out-of-sight views and disco-era glamour.
EYE IN THE SKY
How do you cozy up a Manhattan high-rise? Call designers Hendricks Churchill.
THE JOY OF KØKKEN
In Brooklyn, a writer transforms her kitchen into a space of warmth and connection, blending personal memories with Scandinavian design.
CURTAIN RAISER
ELLE DECOR partners with designers Christine and John Gachot to refresh an iconic lounge at a New York institution, the Metropolitan Opera House.
The Empire Strikes Back - A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Is it possible to simultaneously go back in time and leap forward? This was the challenge a couple set for themselves upon purchasing a salmon-pink 1869 house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from Longfellow House, the National Historic Site that served as George Washington's headquarters during the revolution. We loved all the beautiful old details of this house, the homeowner says.
Just Like That, But Cheaper. -One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
It was all about the green curtains. In 2008, to my great surprise, I was offered a ninemonth fellowship based in New York City. I had lived there twice before, both times unsuccessfully, meaning I had failed to create any kind of significant social life, and so this was a chance not only to do research for my new novel, but also an opportunity to get things right. I swore I wouldn't let the city break me a third time.
And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
