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De Ravenel began the design process of her apartment with two of her favorite prints, Lisa Fine’s Mughal Flower and Raoul Textiles’ Eve—both a mix of light green and, of course, her favorite trusty blue.
WALL COLOR Come Sail Away (846) $6.99/pint sample, store.benjaminmoore.com COFFEE TABLE octagonal in vintage white, palmbeachregency.com CHANDELIER vintage, palmbeachregency.com FABRIC(chairs) Mughal Flower in monsoon, lisafinetextiles.com SCREEN three-panel medallion in rattan$295 palmbeachregency.com MAT Montauk Rio indoor/outdoor in blue and gray $9.98 worldmarket.com SOFA Miramar in robin’s egg basketweave by Serena & Lily TABLE pedestal in blue,palmbeachregency.com
photography by AMY NEUNSINGER text by BRITTANY CHEVALIER interior design by REBECCA DE RAVENEL
Designer and stylist
fills her Los Angeles home with photo keepsakes, family heirlooms, and a soothing palette of soft blue and white.
“What I love is that people walk in and immediately say, ‘I feel like I am on holiday here,’” says de Ravenel.
LANTERN antique, maison-midi.com GLASSWARE by
in blue $15–$20 marchsf.com EVIL EYES glass, de Ravenel’s personal collection
De Ravenel fell in love with the apartment’s large living room with the French doors. “The luxury about California is that your windows can stay open throughout the year—it’s incredible!”
ART “Clouds” by Paule Marrot $2,985 naturalcuriosities.com
tranquil vision
Walking into Rebecca de Ravenel’s Los Angeles apartment, one thing is immediately apparent: her unyielding passion for the color blue—the result of a childhood growing up on a Caribbean island and in Paris. For as long as de Ravenel can remember, she has always gravitated toward the color in her home and in nature. “My parents’ home in the Bahamas is entirely blue and white and I never seem to tire of that combination,” she says. De Ravenel uses it in all avenues of her life—in her personal style as well as in her work as a jewelry, fashion, and interior designer. Her love of the hue has traversed the country with her from her former apartment in New York City, which was enveloped in a Delft blue with heavier patterns, to her new Los Angeles home infused with airy azure and cloudy white. “To be honest,” says de Ravenel, “I simply just love blue!”
The giraffe head and huge canvas palm trees in de Ravenel’s living room are her favorite pieces in the apartment. “They make me smile every time I walk in the door!”
GIRAFFE HEAD papier-mâché (available in store), johnderian.com SHELL WALL DECORATIONSvintage, hollywoodathome.com TREE red palm in natural $438 thecanvasnursery.com FABRIC (antique chair from de Ravenel’s grandmother) Kashmir Paisley in white/pink, peterdunhamtextiles.com
“DON’T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT—NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO MATCH. A HOUSE THAT IS TOO PERFECT IS RARELY FULL OF CHARM.”
To distract from the windows’ tortoiseshell blinds, de Ravenel cleverly suspended a painting from the ceiling using fishing wire.
FABRIC (couch against window) Eve in robin’s egg, raoultextiles.com RUGPetit Diamond indoor/outdoor in dusty pink/ivory $47–$602 dashandalbert.annieselke.com ART“Boom 2” framed print $198–$419 luludk.com
DE RAVENEL’S STYLING SECRETS
FLOWERS, FLOWERS, FLOWERS— you can never have enough!
DON’T TRY TO LIVE IN A SHOW HOUSE it’s exhausting! A home should be alive with friends, dogs, and music.
LOW LIGHTING THAT IS FLATTERING IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST! All lamps, especially chandeliers, should be on a dimmer.
STACK BOOKS AND MAGAZINES ON SIDE TABLES OR CREDENZAS, and always keep a full bar with heaps of multicolored glasses.
LAYER PAINTINGS ON BOOKSHELVES OR TABLES. Try resting large paintings on the floor to hide unsightly plugs or wires. An exposed wire is a huge pet peeve!
Used as a bedroom side table, this wicker elephant was sent by de Ravenel’s mother as a birthday gift last year.
ELEPHANT wicker, antique, amandalindroth.com ART (geometric)painting by Ilia Tchachnik, gifted by de Ravenel’s father WALL COLOR Borrowed Light (No. 235) $8/sample pot, us.farrow-ball.com
De Ravenel landed the large Gio Ponti needlepoint ottoman at
one of her favorite Los Angeles shops.
OTTOMAN COVER rug by Gio Ponti, vintage,hollywoodathome.com ASHTRAY stingray and bone, seamemorysbh.com
laid-back luxury
Appropriately tweaking her home for the warmer West Coast climate, de Ravenel used lightweight fabrics spanning the blue spectrum, from cerulean to indigo. With a penchant for insanely chic objects and furnishings, she included her favorite wicker furniture and antiques, some collected and some found upon her arrival to Los Angeles in 2014. Attending school in Paris, the city of her father’s origin and where he works in the antique trade, was a tremendous influence on her style. “I was lucky enough to study in the most beautiful city and grow up surrounded by incredible homes, architecture, and glamorous people,” de Ravenel explains. A majority of her pieces are collectibles—either via scouring flea markets or gifts from her parents—and her love of storied objects goes beyond an aesthetic appreciation. “Objects have to have a history,” says de Ravenel. “Every painting, book, and object in my apartment has meaning.” And while she enjoys collecting, she avoids filling her space with items that are too precious and keeps a balance that is glamorous and laid-back. “It is so lovely to have a pretty home, but what is much more important is for friends to feel welcome and be able to kick off their shoes, sit on the floor, or even have a dance party without worrying too much about ruining the carpet or knocking something over!”