While many celebrity homes look uninhabitable, ranging from immaculate minimalism to ostentatious palatial homes, actor Emma Roberts’ Hollywood Hills home is warm and inviting. With its neutral tones, comfy sofas and antique curiosities, it’s designed for curling up with a good book or books. Each room (also has a lagoon style pool in the backyard for summer reading).
Actor Roberts, who has become a mainstay in romantic comedies and macabre horror (most recently with a recurring role on the anthology series American Horror Story), bought the house and shares it with his 3-year-old son. ing. Rhodes commissioned design firm Pierce & Ward to completely renovate the interior in 2022.inside Architectural Digest May issueshe reveals the results of that transformation.
Having a space that felt like home was a particular priority for Roberts, as she moved around a lot as a child, she explained. There she saw the property listed as a rental on Instagram. report (as Minnie Driver’s former home), she asked if she could buy it instead.
“I think we had lived in 10 houses by the time we were 15, so now that we had our son, we wanted a place that we could truly call our own,” she told AD. “I have a photo from the day we moved in…I just remember feeling like we were exactly where we were supposed to be.”
The designers Roberts previously worked with, Louisa Pearce and Emily Ward, are known for their no-nonsense spaces that combine bohemian, midcentury modern, and rustic styles. Their clients include Roberts’ Madame Web co-star Dakota Johnson, as well as Kate Hudson and Leonardo DiCaprio.
“We want the house to look like it’s been there for 50 years,” Pearce told AD in a cover story. “We don’t want the house to look new.”
In that spirit, much of Roberts’ furniture, art, and decor has been repurposed or reupholstered. In the living room, paperback books are housed in living room cabinets and rare books are proudly displayed under the lights of a globe shaped like a disco ball. A framed photo of Debbie Harry and Joni Mitchell sits atop a wooden cabinet. Elsewhere, Roberts’ portrait of Didion and Julian his Wasser standing in front of a Corvette, one of his most prized works of art, hangs on the wall.
Designers told AD that they wanted the homes they designed to look as if they had been lived in for decades. (Michael PH Clifford/AD via CNN News Source)
Although many of the pieces come from design studios and antique finds, Pearce and Ward don’t skimp on more accessible commercial brands. Roberts recalled that when she asked if the new kitchen island was custom made, they laughed and said it was made by Urban Outfitters.
For Rose’s room, where she’s starting her own book collection, Roberts chose a cozy wallpaper scene with ducks flying on the ceiling, above an upholstered bed with a lush forest theme.
“When you’re a kid, you remember that everything you see on the walls and ceilings gets burned into your brain for the rest of your life,” Roberts explained. “So we wanted it to be very cozy and fun, but not too overwhelming.”