Tour a Goop Executive’s Dreamy Pacific Palisades Abode With a Touch of “Paris Grandma”

When Noora Raj Brown moved—“kicking and screaming a little bit”—from New York to Los Angeles with her husband, entrepreneur Ryan Brown, she packed a mental picture of what their new home should look like. As one of Gwyneth Paltrow’s right hands at Goop, where she is EVP of brand, Raj Brown has a knack for dreaming up mood-board-worthy scenes with defined sensibilities. At the time, she says her personal reverie centered on a midcentury-modern glass box, preferably perched in a wooded canyon, recalling a favorite Craig Ellwood house in Brentwood. “It’s funny, I had this vision in my head of what life in LA would be like,” Raj Brown confides. “And we kind of ended up in the exact opposite.”

Following a stint in a Spanish-style bungalow in West Hollywood—“a very cliché New Yorker move,” she laughs—the couple, now with an infant daughter to consider, let practicality enter the picture: somewhere walkable, close to the beach (Ryan is a surfer), and with enough space for their growing family and overnight guests. When they were shown a roomy Pacific Palisades pile, with a short stroll to the village, ocean, and architectural features that reminded Raj Brown of townhouses in Manhattan’s West Village—including rare woodburning fireplaces—she “instantly knew [it] was something special.” To help realize her dream, she turned to LA-based interior designer Adam Hunter, known for refined, bespoke interiors that embrace California’s ample sunshine and sense of high drama. (Hunter, whose roster of Hollywood clients includes Neil Patrick Harris and Christina Hendricks, spent a decade performing on Broadway.)

“They were so warm and happy and young and cool,” the designer says from his first meeting with the homeowners. “And we identify as New Yorkers, even though we live in LA now—there was that instant connection.” Their bond was further cemented by Hunter’s comfort with a bold palette. “He has such a command [of] color, and I’m very much in the ‘death to beige’ category,” Raj Brown says.

Before appointing the interiors, the team initiated a critical two-and-a-half-year structural overhaul, led by AD100 architecture and design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero. The Palisades property, constructed in the 1980s, was suffering from what Raj Brown calls “a true identity crisis—sort of French on the outside, tragic Americana in the backyard, Spanish at times.” Initially comprising seven small bedrooms, the overarching objective was to combine a number of the cramped spaces, creating the expansive and serene kitchen, for example, and adding curving edges to the otherwise boxy floor plan. “I wanted the house to feel really soft and have a warmth to it,” she adds of the architectural brief, which included the addition of circular tray ceilings, arched doorways, and curved millwork and marble.

With that primed canvas in place, Hunter and Raj Brown introduced a transportive aesthetic that the designer endearingly calls “Paris grandma.” In the abode, that translates into a parade of plush, nobby textiles from the likes of Pierre Frey and Nobilis, moody wall colors and custom murals, and bold stone and graphic-tile surfaces. Alongside custom pieces designed by Hunter, various items Raj Brown handpicked at the Paris Flea were expertly laced into the plan: a Carlo Scarpa chandelier for the dining room, a pair of 1950s Stilnovo sconces in the entry, an L-shaped club room sofa. Add to that a mix of design cues that she curated from a recent stay at the Saint James Paris, the enchanting hôtel particulier in the 16th arrondissement known for its eclectic, eye-catching interiors designed by Laura Gonzalez.

Ultimately, everyone agrees that Hunter successfully distilled Raj Brown’s voluminous inspiration, including a 12-page mood board, by tapping into the spirit of what she had in mind, amplifying certain elements while quieting others. “It’s a blend of all the things we cherish—old-world accents, unexpected tableau, references stolen from West Village town houses and Haussmann Paris,” Raj Brown observes of the collaboration. “He was able to take the references and direction, make it so much better, and tie it together in a beautiful way.”

For his part, Hunter—ever conscious of the clients’ young daughter, consuming professional lives, and love of entertaining—kept reminding himself of a simple, solitary notion. “We wanted it to have a certain storybook feel,” he recalls. “There was a magic to the house that we captured—and the word storybook is important there.”

The dining room of Noora Raj Brown’s Pacific Palisades home, which she shares with her entrepreneur husband, Ryan Brown, and their two-year-old daughter, Lily, was designed with LA-based decorator Adam Hunter to transport guests. “The best dinner parties that I’ve been to are those when you forget that you have obligations the next day and you forget that you’re not on vacation,” says Raj Brown, Goop’s EVP of brand. “So I wanted a room that would give people that kind of escapism.” The custom mural, by decorative artist Caroline Lizarraga, one of Hunter’s friends, was inspired by Raj Brown’s recent visit to the “Monet – Mitchell” exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, where she was struck by a heady mix of blues and purples. Abacus chairs by Scott Robert Design, another friend of the designer, surround a Collection Particulière dining table below a Carlo Scarpa chandelier. The window drapes wear an ombré alpaca linen from Rosemary Hallgarten. “The room sort of envelopes you when you’re in it,” Hunter notes.

“The kitchen was just to be a very lovely, open, transitional [space],” Hunter says. “Sometimes I’ll have a little more drama, but this was more about being elegant, simple, and spacious.” As a result, the family spends much of their day in the expansive room, which was reconfigured by architecture and design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero and features one of the home’s two woodburning fireplaces. The arches in the Allied Maker pendant over the curved island echo lines carried through the Monologue London counter stools. “I love the idea of having the fire roaring and everyone sitting around the kitchen and making it feel very casual,” Raj Brown adds.

The kitchen’s corner breakfast nook can comfortably seat 12 people, and it often does, Raj Brown says of the popular space, which, with its Coraggio café curtains, was meant to evoke a bistro vibe. The handmade French ceramic ceiling light from 1stDibs illuminates a custom banquette, covered in Optima Leathers, and table, both from WH Upholstery.

Having a monochromatic lacquered room was part of the initial brief, and the family room, where the couple likes to entertain guests or watch movies with their daughter, provided a prime vessel. “We wanted to do something that was a little unexpected,” notes Hunter, who designed the rug for The Rug Company. A B&B Italia sectional wraps around a coffee table from The Invisible Collection. The vintage bar cart, a Paris find, and side tables from Monologue London round out the space, while Coraggio drapes add a light accent against the Phillip Jeffries–lacquered walls. “I wanted the coziness that I think you lose sometimes when you have those big, open, airy spaces,” Raj Brown says of the room, where one of her favorite artworks, John Baldessari’s Big Catch, hangs opposite the mantel.

Goop executive Noora Raj Brown and Ryan Brown, cofounder of Up & Up, with their two-year-old daughter, Lily, in the club room of their Pacific Palisades home, which was designed alongside LA-based decorator Adam Hunter. The couple selected the home in part for its proximity to nearby shopping and beaches, says Raj Brown, who also writes the “Objects of Desire” Substack.

“I think [formal] living rooms are going away, so I’ve always called this the club room, which has a different feel, a different energy to it,” observes Hunter of the space, which abuts the kitchen and playroom and was intended to have a collected feel. The sectional, a find from the Paris Flea, wears a Nobilis tweed that he says was inspired by a Chanel suit. Overhead, a modernist Murano chandelier from 1stDibs illuminates a side chair from Chairish wearing a House of Hackney cut velvet, a coffee table from The Future Perfect, and a rug from Marc Phillips.

“I wanted it to feel like a little malachite jewel box, as if you were just stepping into a piece of jewelry,” Raj Brown says of the formal powder room, which makes quite a dramatic statement, especially after dark. Hunter realized the space with a Thomas Lavin sconce from John Pomp beside a Ethnik Living mirror on a wall covering from Holly Hunt.

Raj Brown, who figures a friend or family member has been staying in her guest suite about 90% of the time since they moved into the house, wanted it to feel “a little funky, [but] also a little meditative.” To achieve that balance, she and Hunter covered the walls in a moody Holland & Sherry Theodora paper, selected a dramatic arched canopy bed from Crate & Barrel, and flanked it with nightstands from Made Goods topped by Rejuvenation table lamps. Additional lighting is provided by a whimsical Ladies & Gentleman Studio ceiling fixture. “I wanted someone to feel like they could hole up in here and write or create or just watch television,” she says. “This was our answer to a little mini bed-and-breakfast hotel room.”

In addition to adding curving lines in the newly expanded space, the club room’s bar conceals a trove of glassware within. The 19th-century plaster lamp on the counter was purchased at the Paris Flea.

The primary bedroom’s pair of Vladimir Kagan Nautilus swivel chairs, found on 1stDibs and covered in a Kneedler Fauchère velvet, were among the first items selected for the space, so they helped set the overall tone. “Everything else we kept sort of simple,” insists Hunter, who designed the custom bed, which wears an Osborne & Little bouclé and is flanked by Foundry sconces. The coffee table, meanwhile, is from Galerie Glustin, while drapes made from Coraggio frame a peek of the nearby ocean.

In a corner of the primary bedroom, a Pierre Cardin sideboard from 1stDibs stands below a painting by an Lisa Dengler between Array sconces from Allied Maker. Raj Brown says this visual moment is emblematic of the emotion she was hoping to achieve throughout the rest of the home. “I’m instantly excited if I see a gorgeous wallpaper or a beautiful chandelier,” she says, “and I wanted to evoke that feeling of excitement when you walk into a space.”

“I think Adam did such an incredible job with pairing these colors, and I think this bathroom is so fun,” says Raj Brown of the space, which is illuminated by capsule sconces from Apparatus. The framed composition-notebook print by Roy Lichtenstein was a gift to Ryan from Raj Brown, who found it at the International Antiquarian Book Fair in New York City.

The chinoiserie wallpaper in the daughter’s nursery is from a Goop x Fromental collaboration. “At Goop, there is a femininity to everything we do, and that sensibility has weaved its way into my design aesthetic,” shares Raj Brown, pointing to the wall covering as an example. “I wanted it to feel incredibly whimsical when she goes to bed—she’ll count the butterflies, which is so sweet.” An Italian chandelier from 1stDibs illuminates the tall space that also features the clients’ existing rocking chair, covered by WH Upholstery, and a CB2 rug. “It doesn’t feel too stereotypical for a little girl,” adds Hunter of the space.

“Honestly, this is probably the room where we spend most of our time,” Raj Brown shares of her daughter’s playroom, which was designed to “bring her joy and enhance her creativity.” Alongside a Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams sofa, which the couple brought from their former West Village apartment, the room, whose walls are covered in a blush Phillip Jeffries jute, features a playful cloud light from Nemo Lighting and a side table from Milia Shop. The embroidered Schumacher drapes add to the storybook quality.

In the poolhouse, a Mah Jong sofa designed by Hans Hopfer from Roche Bobois is covered in a mix of Pierre Frey and Mokum textiles. The look was inspired by Raj Brown’s recent visit to the Saint James Paris hotel designed by Laura Gonzalez and featuring an eclectic mix of patterns. The marble coffee table, also from Roche Bobois, is by Thomas Bonzom. “It’s so playful and kind of dramatic, but still very inviting,” notes the homeowner.

Hunter and Raj Brown started with the marble for the poolhouse bathroom, whose scheme was inspired by “our version of Palm Springs—desert, clean, open,” says the designer, who selected a deep terra-cotta color for the walls. The Ladies & Gentleman Studio sconces are from the couple’s former West Hollywood home. “I know someday I’m going to use these and they’ll be perfect,” the Goop executive remembers thinking when they moved.

Via Architectural Digest