The Chandler House Hancock Park, Los Angeles
A 1960 Wallace Neff mansion in Hancock Park — French neoclassical, designed for a nephew of the Los Angeles Times publisher and modeled on the Pavillon de Musique at Château de Louveciennes. By the time it sold in 2016, the grand interiors had become weighed down by decades of ornament.
The work was mostly subtraction. Gilding and faux antiquing were erased, ceilings and moldings painted to match the walls, heavy chandeliers replaced with spare contemporary lighting. An eclectic mix of vintage and modern furniture replaced anything that read as "fancy French." The rotunda entry floor was changed from white marble to classic black-and-white checkerboard.
Featured in Architectural Digest, February 2020. Photography: Sam Frost.
