Home's where the heart is

RESIDENTS:
Actor Joel McHale with his wife, Sarah, and two sons, Eddie and Isaac

LOCATION:
Hollywood Hills, California

SIZE:
3,900 sq ft (interior)
1,100 sq ft (exterior)

SHOPPING LIST:
Family room sofa: Mitchell and Bob
Living room sconces: Vaughan Lighting
Wallpapers: Osborne & Little, Kneedler Fauchere, Robert Crowder
Fabrics: Cowtan & Tout, Kravet, Lee Jofa, Donghia, Brunschwig & Fils, Old World Weavers, Randolph and Hein, Hinson
Sinks: Duravit, Kohler
Taps: Kohler, Hansgrohe, Axor, LeFroy Brooks, Franke

Joel McHale knows that his home would likely suffer in no small way at the hands of his two young sons, Eddie and Isaac, but he shrugs: "Everything's going to get beat up, but what can you do?" Not quite the kind of attitude you'd expect a major TV star to have towards his 5,000 sq ft home in Hollywood Hills, but the lead actor from the comedy series Community proves to be more family man than snooty celeb.

"While Joel has refined and sophisticated tastes, he has a very laid-back personality," says Elizabeth Gordon, longtime friend to McHale and his wife Sarah, and the one who designed their Hollywood Hills home. "Having known Joel before he became well known, I had a pretty good idea of what it would be like to work with him. He's always open to new ideas, and that made it fun to come up with interesting spaces for him and his family."

The eponymous owner and principal of Elizabeth Gordon Studio says that when she designed the three-level, neo-colonial-styled home, it was clear that McHale was looking for a space that would be as family-oriented as it was beautiful. "He wanted the spaces to embrace the idiosyncrasies of his family life and reflect his own unique tastes," Gordon remembers. She adds that even though the home was a colonial brick and stucco building, McHale didn't want the interiors to be limited to traditionally styled furnishings. "In an effort to make the spaces feel more modern, I worked to pair together a mix of furnishings and architectural details that played on colour and materials, balancing glamour and formality with warmth and eclecticism."

Sarah McHale contributed significantly to the interior design as well. "Sarah is an artist and very creative in her own right," Gordon says. In certain spaces of the home, for example, Sarah would want to work within a certain colour palette, and Gordon in turn would come up with design concepts within the specified colourway. In other areas, however, the designer would source looks and pieces that aesthetically fed off a particular light fixture or wallpaper that she'd found. Gordon wanted the home to reflect the couple's lifestyle, and she sourced furniture pieces from a wide array of shops, ranging from upper-crust stores and showrooms in Los Angeles, Palm Springs and New York to small antique shops and even flea markets. "The mix of the quirky and the sophisticated defines the interior aesthetic," she explains.

The office, for example, features 1970s vintage Russian posters that McHale's father bought during his Eastern European travels during that time, and they offer the perfect laid-back contrast to the classic Saarinen-inspired tables in the room. In fact, the office is one of McHale's favourite areas in the home. "Joel says that the office and the media room are his favourite spaces," the designer says. "The office is where he can write and be most creative, while the media room is where he spends the most time with his sons when he is home."