Contemporary home in Los Angeles? Not a surprise at all. But this changes when you are talking about Joe Russo.
Just imagine if Joe Russo, the mastermind director and one half of the Russo Brothers duo, behind movies like Captain America and Avengers, was your client. What would you do? Deirdre Doherty, founder and interior designer of Deirdre Doherty Interiors helps you answer to that question.
According to Meghan Beierle-O’Brien of Ellen Decor, Russo, who lives with his wife, Ann, and four kids, enlisted Doherty to take his new Los Angeles house and make it a space for his family to grow, entertain, and most importantly, live.
Russo couldn’t be always present, so Doherty had a lot of creative freedom. For an interior designer that is perfect, but this doesn’t mean that Joe and Ann Russo were not active in the process. “There were times where I would show Joe and his wife three materials, they’d give me the OK, and we’d move forward,” Doherty says. “They really understood the importance of trust in the creative process.”
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For Russos’s family, the most important things were the usability and style. “They wanted to make sure every portion of the house was usable, but also very stylish,” Doherty says. They wanted their house entertaining to them and to their children.
Russo’s style leaned toward traditional but Ann preferred modern design, so it was up to Doherty to strike a balance of opposing aesthetics that, in the end, felt harmonious.
The first order of business was to warm things up. Wood-paneled ceilings, grey marble floors, new moldings, a glass-and-marble staircase, and an antique stacked-brick facade set the groundwork for additional layering. By weaving in traditional elements like warm wood, stone, and brick, but using them in a modern application, Doherty conjured a space that was contemporarily cozy, refined yet inviting.
This interior design project was really difficult. It took “eight years of starting and stopping,” but these loose deadlines allowed for a design evolution that a firm end date simply couldn’t support. All the materials were sourced by their ultra-custom details: oversized bronze mirrors, ink-dyed walls, double-lined sheer drapery, hypoallergenic silk rugs… and with them the interior designer made a space that quietly vacillates between sleek modernism and a cozy, family-friendly haven.
“We really wanted to make sure that the fabrics were comfortable and durable, but also pieces that would grow with the family and not go out of style,” Doherty says. “Despite how starkly modern the home is, it has a lot of heart.”
What do you think about this contemporary home?
Photos and descriptions by Elle Décor.
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