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54 luxury home quarterly may/june 2010 www.luxuryhomequarterly.com

Kari Whitman Interiors LLC

By glancing at her star-studded portfolio,

you wouldn’t guess that Los Angeles-based

interior designer kari Whitman was raised

a treehugger in Boulder,

Colorado. “They have

these T-shirts in Boul-

der that say ‘We were

green before green was

cool,’ and it’s so true,”

she says. “It’s some-

thing that’s innate; it’s

just how I was raised.”

STORy By KariNa timmel PHOTOS By charles Bush, heNry caBala, aNd NadiNe froger

Mediterranean RefugeThis Moroccan-style bedroom in a Hol-lywood Hills bungalow features hand-painted faux-finish walls. Whitman chose the design based on inspiration she received from an antique piece of fabric from Portugal. Both the turn-of-the-century Moroccan nightstands and the lamps are antique, as is the vintage Italian mirror. An eco-friendly jute rug covers the floors, and linens by Peacock Alley (www.peacockalley.com) cover the bed. And the best accessory of all is Lucy, a rescue dog courtesy of Ace of Hearts Dog Rescue (www.acesangels.org). Photo: Henry Cabala.

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55may/june 2010 luxury home quarterly


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Some might also expect that the designer to the stars attended a prestigious design school—instead, Whitman is completely

self-taught and got her foot in the design door by a twist of fate while pursuing a burgeoning acting career.

“I used to be an actress and I just hated it; I kept pursuing it, but I was never very happy,” Whitman says. It wasn’t until her famous friend, actor Emilio Estevez, allowed her to make over one of the rooms in his home for fun that she realized how much she enjoyed interior design—and that she had a knack for it. “Emilio liked what I had done in my own house and kind of gingerly allowed me to do a room, and I ended up helping him with the rest of his home,” Whitman says. “I just love him as a person, and he has such impeccable, elegant taste that he was almost teaching me sometimes—I have no ego with that.”

Once several of Estevez’s actor and high-profile-producer friends saw his home, Whitman’s phone began to ring off the hook. “I didn’t plan on celebrities; it was nepotism—that’s Hollywood for you!” she jokes. Since founding Kari Whitman Interiors LLC, a full-service interior-design firm, in 1994, her celebrity clientele has included the likes of Jessica Alba, Virginia Madsen, Don Johnson, Don Henley, Mario Lopez, and Kristen Bell.

One of Whitman’s signature moves is creating a room with a “pop” value, which is why she’s known for her powder rooms. “I want people to come over for dinner parties and then walk out of the bath-room talking about it,” she says. Whitman offers Jessica Alba’s powder room as an example: “In Jessica’s, we used crazy Flavor Paper, a line of funky, crazy wallpaper developed by Lenny Kravitz, which suited her funky-California-bungalow-modern style.”

Book on the HorizonSlated for its publish-ing debut this summer is kari Whitman’s first book, Elegant Design with Paws in Mind.

Vintage ChicFortune 500 mogul Ethan Penner’s Tuscan-style home overlooks a golf course. The living room of this Del Mar stunner, designed by kari Whitman, has faux finished walls hand painted to look like stone. The aged-applewood floors complement the turn-of-the-century furniture, and the vintage chandelier—which was imported from London, where it originally hung in a hotel—completes the look. Photo: Nadine Froger.

MOROCCAN FLAIRThis vintage pocket watch was fitted to hang on a charming antique “fishtail” hold-er in actor kurtwood Smith’s bedroom. The side table is 1900s Moroccan. Photo: Charles Bush.


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OLD HOLLyWOODActress Virginia Madsen’s glamorous Hollywood-style bedroom, designed by Whitman, incorporates whimsical touches like the vintage, black-and-white movie still from Bonnie and Clyde. The hanging light fixtures are 1920s art deco, and the nightstands, purchased at a Sotheby’s auc-tion (www.sothebys.com), originally belonged to Marilyn Monroe. The elegant and lush mood is enhanced by the silver-leafed walls and ceiling, and the linens by Frette (www.frette.com). Photo: Henry Cabala.

“I create a style for each of my clients—I really like to help the individual person to bring out their own personality, to bring out something they probably wouldn’t have done themselves.” kari whitman, owner

Whitman believes that the best thing a designer can do is not “have ego” with someone else’s taste and to give a client the permission to take a risk. “I create a style for each of my clients—I really like to help the individual person to bring out their own personality, to bring out something they probably wouldn’t have done themselves,” she says. “My signature style is very eclectic, funky, and green, of course.”

Two of Kari Whitman Interiors’ recent business ventures that are particularly close to Whitman’s heart are Wall Makeup and Greener Pup. The former is an eco-friendly paint line in the form of a do-it-yourself kit that lets clients create their own paint colors to match their homes, style, or moods. Merging another passion of hers—dogs—with design and the environment, Greener Pup is Whitman’s original line of eco- and pet-friendly custom dog beds.

In addition, 10 years ago, her passion for dogs led her to found the Ace of Hearts Dog Rescue, which is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to rescuing dogs from various Los Angeles County shelters on the day that they are to be euthanized. Whitman has rescued more than 1,800 dogs to date through Ace of Hearts, placing them all in loving homes, some of them with famous owners like Penelope Cruz and Harvey Levin. “Los Angeles has the highest kill rate out of any ur-ban place, and I just wanted to give back,” Whitman says. “I started my own line of dog beds because so many of my clients wanted custom dog beds—100 percent of those profits go to Ace of Hearts.”

Whitman believes that you can have a beautiful, elegant home and still have a dog, and, thus, is known for her pet-friendly designs.


“Dogs are pack animals and should be able to share a space with you, just like a kid,” she says. “There are ways to design a home using the right fabrics and materials.” Jessica Alba’s home was a great project to work on for Whitman because the star maintains the same belief in eco- and pet-friendly home environments. “Jessica adopted a dog from Ace of Hearts, had another dog, and was having a baby, and we made a very pet- and baby-friendly outdoor area around her pool,” Whitman explains. Whitman used ForeverLawn, a recycled plastic that looks and acts like grass. Pets can do their business on it and it soaks through, and kids can play on the grass, but there is no dirt to drag into the home, which keeps a home very clean. “Then, we cre-ated a doggie room and I made a huge custom dog bed low to the ground out of crypton, a very dog-friendly fabric that doesn’t stain or hold bacteria,” Whitman says. She also installed all-natural and organic carpets, among other furniture and household items.

Another celeb home that Whitman made dog friendly was for actress Virginia Madsen. “Virginia had an older dog, and the dog’s back legs were slipping when it ran down the wood-floor hallway,” Whitman explains. Whitman had runners made out of carpet scraps (so they didn’t end up in landfills) that were cut and bound to cover the slip-pery wood floors—the dog’s back legs and hips no longer gave out.

“If you have an older dog, there are always ways to fix your home to keep them healthy and comfortable,” she says.

Whether it’s because she wants to take her time with an intricate project or she simply doesn’t want to do another Spanish-Mediterra-nean-style home (very popular in L.A.), the very hands-on designer turns down 95 percent of projects that come to her. “This, in itself, is a great achievement, a great award,” Whitman says. “I like to chal-lenge myself and do different creative things.” She says that she finds most inspiration in nature and color, as well as artists and craftsmen.

“I am constantly going to San Francisco art-school showings to get ideas, and have a whole warehouse full of art that I don’t know what to do with,” she says. “Also, traveling and artistic treatments in hotels inspire me.”

INTERNATIONAL APPEALEmilio Estevez’s classic wine cellar is actually a marvel in eco-friendly design. It’s constructed from 100-percent reclaimed wood, including the wine cabinet, which was built out of wood from Stanford University’s old basketball court. The turn-of-the-century Spanish chandelier was imported from Barce-lona, and the French wine-tasting table is circa 1910. The electric door, hand-painted walls, and wine cartouche were designed by Whitman. The ceiling was hand painted to look like leather. Photo: Henry Cabala.

Clavin Design & CraftDaniel N. Clavin, Owner

custom residential design & constructionwww.danielclavin.com

Rosenblatt Residence

Himmelfarb Estate Stained Glass

Hand-built recycled Redwood woodwork

Interior, Kirsten Lea, Actress/Producer Residence

A MESSAGE FROM CLAVIN CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION/CLAVIN DESIGN & CRAFT

Daniel Clavin has been for-tunate to have collaborated on several projects with kari Whitman Interiors, designing and building finish carpentry within her projects. In addition, Clavin has his own design and construction companies for which he designs, produces construction documents, and builds out full custom addi-tions and remodeling projects.


Welcoming a challenge, Whitman is currently completely renovat-ing and redecorating the home that was used for the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency reality show into something suitable for the new client, a very elegant, classy young prince. “When I walked into this home, one of the rooms was a 20-person hot tub covered in fake fur,” she says. “The new homeowner is a very elegant young man. This has been absolutely, hands-down the most challenging project to date.” One of her favorite creations in the home is a wood-screen enclosure that she installed in the dining room in order to provide the inner room with a view of the outside (one of the home’s great-est attributes). “We took all the walls out and put up see-through wood walls so that people could look out and enjoy the amazing view,” she says. Another ode to Whitman’s intense creativity is a glass- and resin-paneled wall that she is looking at lighting from the back. “It’s really beautiful resin and the more green way to go than using rock,” Whitman says. “I’m getting this house LEED certified—my client is not really green at all, but I’m working on him. He is going to have a green home and not even know it.”

In addition to Whitman’s myriad accomplishments, she has also held various on-screen gigs. She hosted her own TV show Designer to the Stars on the WE Network, was a featured designer on The Dude Room on The Discovery Channel, and has been a special correspondent for Extra, among various other television appearances. “You know, basi-cally, I was an actress before I was a designer; I wasn’t a great actress,” she says. “When I got offered to do a design show, I realized that I totally found my niche. It wasn’t hard or intimidating at all.”

And even in her free time, Whitman keeps busy. “I usually take a month off in between projects to shoot my show, travel, do some press, save some dogs.”

EUROPEAN INFLUENCEEthan Penner’s elegant dining room is illuminated by turn-of-the-century Italian light fixtures. The ornate Spanish mirror is from the 1930s. The custom dining table and chairs were designed by Whitman and constructed out of recycled walnut. The walls are Venetian plaster mixed with 25-percent marble dust, cre-ating a beautiful sheen. Photo: Nadine Froger.

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818-764-8453

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