When talking "home" with writer and director Mara Brock Akil, you're not necessarily going to discuss paint swatches, sconces, and square footage. I mean, you should. Besides being the creative powerhouse behind such TV shows as Girlfriends and Being Mary Jane, the screenwriter and producer turns out to also be a design maven who has masterfully renovated the Los Angeles home she shares with her husband, Black Lightning director Salim Akil, and their sons, Yasin and Nasir. It's awash in exquisite original detailing, vintage Murano chandeliers, and a robust collection of work by Black artists, including Lorna Simpson and Noah Davis.
But for Brock Akil, design is about more than just the details: It's about the kind of lifelong longings that pull at your heartstrings and prompt you to mood-board since you were a teenager. "We really are our heart's desires," she says. "And I want my home to reflect that."
Brock Akil's career-she helms her own busy L.A. production studio and has a Netflix development deal-is in overdrive. But in recent years, she realized she craved a sanctuary as a source of inspiration and restoration. That need became even more immediate in the aftermath of the 2016 killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, two unarmed Black men gunned down by police that summer within weeks of each other. A generally optimistic person, Brock Akil found herself paralyzed with fear in a country that was constantly undermining and devaluing Black life. "Joy is deserved," she says. "We don't have to keep waiting for it. And that's what this house is."
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Denne historien er fra September 2022-utgaven av Elle Decor US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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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.
You Stay Here
At a Martha's Vineyard compound, Steven Gambrel and Tom Kligerman have made a guest retreat so good, visitors may never want to leave.
WHAT'S IN THE MIX?
Rayman Boozer brings his mastery of color and pattern to the renovation of a Harlem duplex for a young family.
THE EMPIRE
A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Now You See It
A modernist beach house's discreet profile hides killer views and knockout interiors by Rafael de Cárdenas.
CIRCLE D'AMOUR
For an object lesson on how to design a Paris love nest, look to Pierre Yovanovitch.
PARK AND RECREATIONS
With the rise of electric vehicles and a fresh focus on design, the once overlooked garage is becoming a future-forward source of joy and energy at home.
Just Like That, But Cheaper
One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
But This is My Home - One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse.
One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse. My husband and I moved into the Kallis House in Los Angeles six years ago. It was designed in 1946 by the modernist architect Rudolph Schindler, and it's believed by many, including Frank Gehry, to be among Schindler's best. The house is eccentric, perched on the lip of a hill, with a butterfly roof and a shaggy exterior made of grape stakes. The interior is an unfolding series of surprising angles, with a wonderful wide view of the San Fernando Valley.
A SISTER STORY
Jewelry designer Brent Neale Winston and her decorator sibling, Ramsey Lyons, recast a historic Long Island home.