Like many young couples, the inhabitants of this Brentwood home moved in and didn’t do much at first, except to buy a bunch of decent-quality furniture from big box stores. However, they remained largely unhappy with the results. They reached out to designer Peter Dunham, a friend of the family who had a connection to the husband’s parents through LA designer Suzanne Rheinstein, who had designed the family’s houses. So they had grown up in well-thought-out homes with plenty of style.
Interior Designer Peter Dunham Takes on a Brentwood Home
The new structure itself is basically a spec house, with an odd layout that created what Dunham calls “flyover” rooms, spaces you basically ignored to get to areas like the kitchen and the family room. It was a shame because the owners love to entertain and want their home to be a place where people congregate, but the flow wasn’t serving that. (The flyovers were the living and dining rooms!) Dunham made the side entrance the main entry point, creating an entirely new way of approaching the home.
“I’m always thinking about how I can manipulate the experience in a better way that’s maybe not the standard way.” He recalls having seen, early on, items such as a billiards table and a guitar setup (the husband gets guitar lessons) in the living room, as well as high ceilings and nice proportions. “It was a shame the rooms didn’t get more use,” Dunham comments.
Now, after coming into the house and making a left turn, you are able to experience the garden, and you almost forget that it is a front garden of a standard suburban house. It’s now become something else: a private outdoor space.
Embracing What’s Already There
Part of the reason some of the rooms were ignored was that they didn’t receive much light. Rather than fight it, Dunham enveloped the spaces in pattern to make them exciting, as a way to visually warm them up. Now they’re adult entertaining spaces where everyone wants to congregate. Even the guitar gets put into service, with the husband and sometimes friends playing songs for the group. “We turned it into a space that really felt like a party area,” says Dunham. The home in general is now a place where the whole family—including siblings and parents—comes for holidays, birthday parties, and many other occasions.
Furnishings have a strong presence but are never overly fussy or screaming for attention. Patterns play an important role but never overwhelm. The look is tailored but still very relaxed, with a mix of styles and pieces that feels like it was assembled over a long time. Details such as a black and white marble top on the dining room sideboard bring unexpected visual texture.
Integrating Dunham’s Textiles
A thread of blue in myriad shades unites the various rooms. The living and dining rooms share one of Dunham’s wallpaper designs, Cosima, in blue and pink, a pattern that also shows up as draperies in the dining area. A sofa in the primary bedroom is another Dunham offering, Oona, again in blue and pink, but in higher contrast.
In a cozy fireplace area, a small blue chair provides a moment of fun contrast. A blue and white Chinese vase accents a mangle, and a barium blue pendant, a collaboration between ceramicist Natan Moss and Dunham’s line for Hollywood at Home, hangs in the kitchen (see one of Dunham’s expert table settings). And there are, of course, many exciting moments in other hues, including a custom floral print hanging behind the bed.
In a corner of the primary bedroom is a tranquil place to read or relax, with a T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings high-back lounge chair by Widdicomb, antique Moorish inlaid side table, and vintage lamp. Works of two local artists bring color and narrative to the space. On the left is A Murder in Larchmont by Nils Benson, and on the right Walk With Steve in Silver Lake (2022).
As Peter Dunham begins to prepare for his trip to Pittsburgh for the Women’s Committee’s ON DEC fundraiser, we got an exclusive Q&A to see what exactly he’s looking forward too.
Story by Stephen Treffinger
Interior Design by Peter Dunham
Photography by Victoria Pearson
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