Brentwood Moderne

Citizen Artist was commissioned by first-time clients—serious art collectors—to design a new construction forever home in a quiet pocket of Brentwood, one of Los Angeles's most coveted neighborhoods. Entrusted with every aspect of the design from the outset, the studio left its full imprint on the interior architecture, lighting, millwork, furnishings, material selection, and the pool, cabana, and exterior landscape and hardscape. The central challenge was equally curatorial and spatial: to create a home that could support and showcase a significant art collection, accommodate large-scale entertaining, and still feel warm, human-scale, and deeply livable. The exterior sets the conceptual tone. A four-sided, infinity-edged pool gently rises from the earth adjacent a low-slung open-air cabana, entering into dialogue with a sixty-foot-long, fourteen-foot-tall wall that bifurcates the property. This primary gesture—drawing on precedents such as the Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich Barcelona Pavilion and Barragán's Las Arboledas—led Citizen Artist to travertine slab as the defining cladding material, establishing crisp, organic warmth as a guiding tenet. Inside, light functions as the design's protagonist: strategically placed piercings allow it to cascade at an angle through each level, while the deliberate absence of decoration creates focused moments of contrast. Only two areas feature decorative lighting—the entry and dining room—where bespoke blown-glass pieces by frequent collaborator Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert introduce undulating form against the surrounding architectural sobriety. Citizen-Artist-designed bespoke pieces, including rugs, a dining table, and coffee tables, are interwoven with carefully selected works by Overgaard & Dyrman, Paola Lenti, and Egg Collective, together providing a balanced backdrop for a remarkable collection that includes original works by Picasso, Calder, Mapplethorpe, Sterling Ruby, Jonas Wood, Noah Davis, and many others. Italian wide-plank white oak floors flow through rooms finished in hand-brushed lime paint from Château Domingue, while subtly detailed reveals trace quiet paths for the eye across the interior. The result is a home that holds its art, its owners, and its guests with equal attentiveness—harmonious and tranquil within an otherwise vibrant and richly layered space.