Patterns and prints are tough ones. We all have those styles that we gravitate towards but getting them to blend seamlessly in your home is a whole different ballgame. Well Rebecca Yale’s Los Angeles home is a study in how to do it right. As an amazingly talented photographer and creative, she understands the art of balance and proportion and finding that perfect pop of color. Tour her entire home here.
After 10 years of living in New York City I knew I wanted a tranquil space out in Los Angeles with lots of natural light and a peaceful vibe with fun pops of color and patterns.
I commissioned my very talented friend Karla, from Written Word Calligraphy, to turn some of my favorite photographic quotes into works of art, which I hung on a gallery wall above my chair and framed a few more on top of my bookshelf intermingled with some more photos, including my parents and grandparents wedding photos, which we used on a memory table at my sister’s wedding. I love having those photos in my office because they remind me of the true heart and soul of weddings and the gravity of what I’m lucky enough to get to do!
The kitchen has a lovely breakfast nook and picking out the pillows for it was one of my favorite design tasks, because as you’ll quickly see I am obsessed with patterns!
Most of the vases and jars on the shelves are from design stores, but the middle shelf are glass hurricanes that were used as a centerpiece at one of the UNICEF snowflake balls I attended a few years ago. On the other side of the breakfast nook I hung some art prints from Inslee from her Calendar Girls series, which feel so fresh and happy and make me smile whenever I look at them.
The living space of the house is all very open plan, the dining room, living room, kitchen and even my office all flow together, which I love. The house has these gorgeous reclaimed wood beams and they’re such a beautiful and distinctive statement I didn’t want to go too crazy with anything else, but I do love patterns and bright colors so I used them as accents throughout the house.
One of the biggest decorating challenges was balancing meaningful pieces from my travels and from my family with aesthetically pleasing decor items. My favorite items in my house are definitely the ones that mean the most to me, like my grandmother’s map of Paris from the 1950’s or her matchbook collection in an oversized brandy snifter, which I keep next to my matchbook collection in an oversized martini glass. The wood ladder shelves in my living room are a perfect mix of the two, with some fun decorative items I just fell in love with, travel finds, and pictures of my family, mixed with my grandfather’s vintage camera collection and some gifted artwork from friends.
The dining room came with a very distinctive chandelier and I knew I was doing the black and gold Rifle city wall paper in there so I kept the walls simple with a vintage map of Paris and a photograph of my childhood dog I took in high school when I was learning to use medium format cameras. I put a wine fridge in the corner and put the overflow into a large buffet piece, which was another great black friday deal from Arhaus!
The bar cart from Society Social I actually had in my apartment in NY and I just love how versatile it is and what a statement it makes! My favorite pieces on my barcart are my penguin wine opener that I got on my way down to Antarctica and an empty bottle of Veuve Cliquot that I keep on the bottom shelf, which my sister bought for my going away party from NYC and everyone at the party signed the bottle, same goes for the Perrier Jouet bottle, which my friends and I drank my last night in NYC and it’s such a beautiful bottle I had to keep it!
I’ve been collecting art books since high school and have a rather large collection of them so I knew I wanted them to be prominent in my office both as a design feature, and easily accessible, because I’ll often pull some to look through for inspiration. My favorites that I look through most often are in the living room so guests can flip through them too.
Before I even found my house I knew I wanted to do accent walls of funky wall paper. I had seen them in a client’s apartment in the East Village years ago and had been dreaming of doing them myself ever since. As a lover of all things Rifle Paper and Co it was a natural fit to do a wall in my living room and a wall in my guest bedroom with her paper.
Los Angeles is earthquake country so I didn’t want to hang any artwork above a bed, so wall paper was the perfect fit to give both bedrooms visual interest. For the guest room I used a robin’s egg blue and gold paper in the guest bedroom and a gold and white hand-painted paper in the master bedroom, that I felt looked like a giant slab of marble.
For the master bedroom I found this beautiful peacock colored bed and planned everything around that. I knew I couldn’t hang anything on the back wall and wanted it to make a statement and was so excited when I found this hand painted wallpaper at Walnut, an amazing wallpaper store in the design district in LA.
The ensuite bathroom has a large window that looks into the backyard and I love how jungle-y it feels when its open and I wanted the same vibe when I had it closed so I bought the Tommy Bahama Palm Print fabric he designed for the Beverly Hills Hotel and had a seamstress on etsy make it into curtains for me.
After I put those up I decided to keep going with the rain forest aesthetic with a bamboo tray and terrarium around the bathtub. I hung a photograph I took of my sister swimming in the ocean in Costa Rica and a beautiful print of Cockatoo’s by the very talented artists, Inslee on either side of the window above the tub. The bathroom has these great nook shelves in it, which I filled with delicious candles, which are scattered all over my house. I absolutely love a good candle and almost always have one burning when I’m home.
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The day after I moved in El Nino hit LA and it poured non-stop, which reminded me of Costa Rica and I decided my backyard looked like Costa Rica. The house came with the beautiful couch and umbrella and I wanted to make it a fun place to sit so I added the coffee table and the poufs, made out of the same Tommy Bahama fabric as my bathroom curtains.
I realized the best view was looking at the backyard though and when you sit on the couch you’re looking at the house so I found a great egg shaped chair, perfect for small spaces, that fit against the wall between the master bedroom and the living room, which is the perfect place to sit and watch the backyard, which being in the canyons, gets lots of interesting bird visitors. I love succulents and have them all over my house, but the two blue planters on either side of the fountain and the hanging ones above them in my backyard are my favorites. California is in a severe drought, so the fountain is drained, but these planters are a very low-water big-impact alternative.
Photography: Rebecca Yale Photography | Agate Coasters: Jonathan Adler | Bar Cart : Society Social | Bed Frame (Master Bedroom): One Kings Lane | Blue X Benches: Jonathan Adler | Calligraphy (Office): Written Word Calligraphy | Candles (Guest Bedroom): Starling Project | Chair (Office): Society Social | Champagne And Coffee Table Tray: Society Social | Couch (Office): Joss & Main | Custom Made Curtains (Master Bath): Etsy Shop: IDecorate With Pillows | Desk (Office) : West Elm | Dining Room And Guest Bedroom Wall Paper: Rifle Paper Co. | Duvet (Master Bedroom): Donna Karan Home | Faux Fur Throws: Restoration Hardware | Geode Bud Vases (Dining Room): ABC Carpet & Home | Glasses (Bar Cart): Baccarat | Gold Mirror (Dining Room): One Kings Lane | Gold Prism Picture Frames: West Elm | Hand Painted Gold Vase (Living Room): Sugar Paper Los Angeles | Inspirational Quotes (Office): Fox And Fallow | Ladder Bookshelves: Restoration Hardware | Lamps (Guest Bedroom): West Elm | Master Bedroom Wallpaper: Walnut Wallpaper | Nightstands (Master Bedroom): West Elm | Note Pads (Office): Rifle Paper Co. | Organization Boxes (Office): Kate Spade | Paris And New York Prints: Rifle Paper Co. | Pillows (throughout House): Society Social | Prints (Kitchen And Bathroom): Inslee | Succulent Arrangements (Throughout House): Rolling Greens Nursery | Zebra Key Dish: Jonathan Adler
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