Room Recipe: A Laurel-Canyon-in-the-’60s-Inspired Bedroom in the Hollywood Hills
A step-by-step guide to translating inspiration into real life
Welcome back to Room Recipe, a column on À La Carte where we stare at an image of a room we love for a very long time, then break down its “ingredients” into specific items and themes. The goal is never to copy, but instead to get to the bottom of why certain rooms just *work* and to understand how we can translate that inspiration into real life. Past recipes have included Lucy Williams’ Scandinavian-inspired dining room in London and Pia Baroncini’s kids’ bathroom in Pasadena (both are free to read!), but this month, we’re recipe testing a room I know you know: Dakota Johnson’s bedroom in the Hollywood Hills.
We’ve likely all seen this house by now, which was heavily dissected when it was featured in Architectural Digest in early 2020. I’m willing to bet that Dakota’s iconic green kitchen and its bowl of limes are in the AD hall of fame for “most discussed moment in an Open Door video.” The house was designed in collaboration with Pierce and Ward, a studio known for their keen ability to reflect the most playful parts of their clients’ personalities (further evidenced by two more highly publicized projects of theirs: Emma Roberts’ real-life dollhouse and Johnny Galecki’s red lacquered library.)
This house is just Dakota’s—according to a 5-second Google search, she now mostly lives with Chris Martin in Malibu, but she still owns the house and stays there when she needs her own space. I think a lot about how living alone all these years has benefitted me and how important it’s been for my creativity, security, and understanding of myself. I know that it’s not appealing or possible for everyone—especially long term, and especially in LA—but I genuinely really appreciate the freedom I have to make a home for myself that doesn’t require me to consider any other person’s wants or needs, a place where I can hang whatever I want on the walls and display a handbag I got in Mexico on a shelf without thinking twice. I think what we all love about Dakota’s house is that it really feels like a house-shaped version of her; there’s clear consistency between who she is, what she loves, and what she’s put in her home. I hope she keeps it forever.
I’ve decided to focus this recipe on Dakota’s bedroom and closet, which may not technically be within the same four walls but are clearly designed to work in harmony with one another, so for the purpose of this newsletter we’re considering them one space. Neither were even featured in the AD video tour so this is the only peek we’ve got, but if it were me, I wouldn’t want the whole world walking through my bedroom either.
Read on for a step-by-step, 3-part recipe that breaks down how to capture the essence of this room for yourself. Plus, I’ll share the one thing about it that I really, really can’t stand.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to À La Carte to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.