In a lofty and legendary Los Angeles district favored by such residents as Dean Martin and Ringo Starr, Redd Kaihoi orchestrated a fairy-tale ending for a client who was on the brink of his next chapter.
Redd Kaihoi called in one of their favorite painters, Augustin Hurtado, to lavishly lacquer many of the home’s surfaces. “It makes the house feel nacreous,” says Redd, “like you’re on the inside of a shell.” The front doors are wide enough to drive a vehicle through—which the client, an avid collector of vintage sports cars, has been known to do. For the upholstered screen, get the look with Cubist by Miles Redd for Schumacher.Max Kim-Bee
Once upon a time there was a Houston-based client who had his heart set on moving into—in the words of his interior designers—”a magnificent Beaux Arts pile.” He liked beautiful things, classic things, and his designers scoured the land for the finest they could find, assembling furniture and fixtures, plotting sumptuous color stores, dreaming up schemes.
But we all know what happens to best-laid plans, and how life has a way of leading you through the woods down unanticipated paths…
Luckily for the client, Phillip Sarofim, his designers were none other than Miles Redd and David Kaihoi, who last year formalized their partnership under the firm name Redd Kaihoi. Blend Kaihoi’s hepcat, downtown-artist energy with Redd’s supreme sophistication and killer taste, add in liberal lashings of warmth and wit from them both, and the results are the decorating dynamic-duo of your dreams.
In the living room, an electric yet disciplined palette of black, white and aqua creates an edgy-luxe setting for some of the client’s serious pieces, including a Damien Hirst painting and a Marc Newson chair. Slipper chairs and throw pillows in Cubist by Miles Redd, for Schumacher.Max Kim-Bee
So when Sarofim suddenly pivoted and turned his sights to the sunny climes of Los Angeles, Redd Kaihoi were, as ever, up for whatever fantastical adventure came their way.
Together the three of them considered dozens and dozens of houses, many of them lovely, but most of them in the traditional mode, and none of them quite the right fit. “He was a single guy,” says Miles Redd, “and the traditional houses felt so big and lonely.”
Redd Kaihoi reverse painted the glass of a lantern originally earmarked for the Houston house and hung it in the dining room. “That dab of color is unexpected,” says Redd, and it relates the otherwise monochromatic room to the adjoining spaces. The steel-base table has an eglomise top and was sourced from Gerald Bland. OPPOSITE: In the living room, an electric yet disciplined palette of black, white and aqua creates an edgy-luxe setting for some of the client’s serious pieces, including a Damien Hirst painting and a Marc Newson chair. Slipper chairs and throw pillows in Cubist 69450 by Miles Redd, Schumacher, fschumacher.com.Max Kim-Bee
One day they stumbled upon an abode in Trousdale Estates, the fabled midcentury enclave carved out of the old Doheny Estate in Beverly Hills, and a neighborhood that had sheltered design-obsessed celebrities since it was developed in the 1950s. Circular, striking and mod, with original terrazzo floors and walls of retractable glass, the house had a nucleus of living spaces with two wings radiating out from it “like a two-armed octopus, or a hug,” says David Kaihoi. Sarofim was smitten. The structure was a dynamic departure from the types of places he’d been considering, and purchasing it was a major statement that he was ready to slip out of one way of life and embrace a new one. “This house was a grand gesture,” Kaihoi says. “It was the perspective he’d been looking for.”
Properly upholstered walls and an enveloping velvet-covered sectional create just the right cozy mood for the screening room.Max Kim-Bee
An ornate gilded mirror purchased for the entryway of the owner’s original Dallas house got installed in the L.A. sunroom because it was the only place it would fit. “It just works,” says Redd. Max Kim-Bee
The mirror’s twin anchors the sunroom’s opposite wall, and tops a table that Redd Kaihoi refinished to give the space a dose of Jean-Michel Frank glam. Max Kim-Bee
Redd Kaihoi already had their visual vocabulary in place. The setting may have radically changed, but the main character remained the same. Their new challenge was to express the story in a different voice.
“A headboard can feel one note,” says Redd, “but a canopy bed is like a little car or ship, you feel more contained in it, and it gives a bedroom drama, which I think is always important.” The bed and walls of the master bedroom are both upholstered in the same grey velvet. Get the look with Schumacher’s Venetian Silk Velvet.Max Kim-Bee
The two of them dove in, drafting floorplans and revisiting the fabulous stuff they’d accrued to reimagine their previous ideas. A grey living room at first destined for Houston became the luxe, sexy master in L.A. Giant matching antique mirrors intended for a Texas-size entrance hall were instead surprisingly perfect in the airy midcentury sunroom. The whole endeavor was a big lesson in adaptability. As Kaihoi says, “Buy what you love. No matter what happens, it will all work together.”
The client requested that one guest room evoke a leafy green garden. Upholstered walls in Dogwood Leaf by Miles Redd for Schumacher.Max Kim-Bee
In another guest room, rattan furniture and soothing neutrals evoke effortless California cool. Walls in Weeping Pine by David Kaihoi for Schumacher.Max Kim-Bee
At their best, decorators are wizards, and Redd Kaihoi perform their magic at the highest level. They are devoted to beauty and craftsmanship, and to keeping it alive, and have a roster of virtuosic workrooms and artisans on speed dial. The painter with whom they regularly collaborate vanquished the home’s tricky dull-veneer walls by coating them in luminous lacquer. “Previously, it sort of felt like a cement garden,” says Redd, “and we turned it into this Austin Powers-meets-Charles de Beistegui lair.” A master metalsmith helped them execute an extraordinary custom bed inspired by the one John Fowler made for Pauline de Rothschild’s Albany set, complete with Giacometti-esque hammered-brass posts.
Redd Kaihoi installed wall-to-wall carpeting in all the bedrooms to make them extra plush. The blue Chinese rug here was a last-minute auction find layered on for a finishing touch. The guest rooms each have different moods so guests can choose the one that feels just right. Walls upholstered in Tutsi by David Kaihoi for Schumacher.Max Kim-Bee
