IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR

Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent bring an eclectic point of view to a power couple's new home.

-  Lauren Mechling

A few short years ago, a household-based anywhere outside Hollywood's epicenter would have been inconceivable for Tracy James Robbins and Brian Robbins. But in 2021, the power couple (she oversees her fashion line, Tracy James Collection; he is the president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon) found themselves whiling away their strange, Zoom-filled days at a rented farmhouse in Montecito, California, their nine-year-old daughter, Stella, and Brian's sons from his previous marriage, Miles and Justin, in tow.

An idyllic corner of Santa Barbara County wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains and known as the American Riviera, Montecito claims Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Harry and Meghan among its residents. It also proved to be an ideal vantage point for Brian, prone to poring over real estate listings, to spot the 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival by renowned architect George Washington Smith that he and his family now call home.

Relocating meant the couple would be building a social life from scratch, and Brian would have an hour-plus morning commute to his Hollywood office. But the move also represented a newfound freedom, reflected in their design choices and made under the guidance of another dream team on speed-dial: Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent, the married celebrity designers who helm their own ELLE DECOR A-List firms.