canyon residence

architect: noel williams

photography: matthew millman

canyon residence is the los angeles home of thomas lavin, one of southern california’s leading design impresarios. lavin is famous for his glittering dinner parties (and fearless entertaining in general) that mix international design luminaries with a roster of close friends and exotically spiced menus.

the design brief was to peel away accumulated layers that fogged the home’s essential elements. the goal was to clarify a formal graduation of spaces, which relax toward the garden and bedrooms. design needed to be crisp in the daytime to match lavin’s informal personality and daily life. the design takes on a duskier, seductive mood at nighttime, that is as natural to los angeles as the refreshment of an open door.

easy-care floors are topped with textural area rugs. furnishings are custom, vintage or from lavin’s own, eponymous design showroom. the house features custom banquettes, unusually figured materials and a luxe bronze fireplace. you’ll notice several examples of deco-inspired custom club chairs hutton designed for lavin that are now in hutton’s furniture collection. polish comes from family heirlooms and knowing cues from la’s hollywood regency design history. the scheme is freshened and modernized with classics like hutton’s facet tables.