UNTIL THREE YEARS ago, Loree Rodkin surrounded herself with dramatic, gothic-inspired furniture. After a trip to Bali, the Los Angeles-based jewellery designer had an epiphany: her home was going to be a Balinese sanctuary.
'I came back to a house where there was stuff everywhere,' says Rodkin. 'It had cathedral ceilings, which weren't going to work for what I wanted to do. So I sold it, bought a new house and completely redid it in three months. I designed everything myself - all the rugs, the fabrics, the whole look and feel of the place.'
The result is a 3,500-square-foot ode to minimalist calm in a one-storey home tucked in the hills above the prestigious Sunset Plaza area of Los Angeles.
When Rodkin first bought the place a few years ago, it was a standard 1960s-style tract house that was, in her opinion, not even remotely usable. 'It had little windows, sliding doors and a backyard filled with dirt,' she says. All that remained after she gutted it were four walls.
Rodkin converted two of the original four bedrooms - one into an office, and the other into what she calls her winter closet. The guest room is in a muted shade of pale green, with the walls covered in seagrass - which appears in many rooms in the house - and features soft lighting provided by rustic-inspired hanging lamps. Indian elephants and a Victorian painting bought at a local antique store give the space a multicultural flavour that permeates the rest of the house, which otherwise is Balinese in influence. Many of the floors are limestone, imparting a clean, cool sensibility. Other details include a hammered nickel sink.
'I shipped a lot of things back from Bali, and almost designed the house around them,' says Rodkin.
Despite the simplicity of the decor, she says she is all about luxury: the walls of her bedroom have pleated-silk surfaces, and her bed is covered in quilted silk. 'I like really luxurious fabrics,' she says, referring to the padded leather and shagreen (derived from stingray) that appear throughout the room.