Designer Chloe Heath Suggested Muted Green for This Santa Monica Forever Home, But Her Client Wanted More – Here’s How She Made Bold Color Work

Bold color and timeless design don't always sound like natural bedfellows. So bringing the two together was the challenge for designer Chloe Heath in this Spanish-style home in Santa Monica, created for a young couple and their two small children. Fortunately, there was no need to start from scratch: the house had what Chloe calls 'great bones', with beautiful floors, windows and doors and a layout that already worked for the family. Rather than gutting it, Heath Interiors instead used custom cabinetry, decorative details and a considered mix of finishes and furnishings to give it a much more joyful personality. 'It’s their forever home,' says Heath. 'They wanted a house full of color and pattern that would still feel timeless as the family grows.'

That meant embracing character without letting the house become a hostage to interior design trends, while making sure all that pattern could survive the realities of family life, too. There was plenty of room for bold decisions along the way – and not all of them came from the design team. That confidence runs throughout the house, from the bold color to playful wallpapers, textiles and unexpected vintage pieces. The overall effect is 'playful, eclectic, warm, and happy' – and proof that timeless doesn't have to mean toned down.

Practicality was woven into the design from the beginning, Chloe explains. 'Every choice had to hold up to the reality of life with two young kids. We also needed function – like the entry cabinet that we added for more storage to house backpacks, coats, etc,' she explains of the much-needed butter yellow drop zone. Chloe also took cues from the British interiors she and her clients admired, where color and pattern tend to be layered with much more confidence, adding in details like floral cabinet curtains and a graphic Sophie Cooney stair runner. 'The overall aesthetic is playful, eclectic, warm, and happy!' she notes.

Keeping that much personality from becoming chaotic came down to creating moments of 'overlap'. Chloe gave each space its own color scheme, but allowed certain colors to travel through the house, creating connections that you might not notice immediately. 'The color palettes really changed in each space, but we had overlapping colors to create continuity – except for the kids' rooms, which were more specific to their personalities,' she explains. In the kitchen, the greens and orange tones spill into the adjoining family room while the butler's pantry picks up the same green marble, and the powder room echoes those colors yet again. 'There's always some overlap, though each palette is distinct,' she adds. It's a subtle trick, but an effective one: every room gets its own moment, while the house still feels like one very happy, very considered whole.

Built in 2005, the house may not have the character you might expect from its Spanish-style architecture, but it had something Chloe was keen to preserve: unusually good bones. 'Many Spanish-style homes built in this era tend to have cheaper architectural elements, but that was not the case here,' she explains. Instead, the house came with beautiful floors, windows and doors, along with a layout that already made sense. There was little reason, then, to redraw the blueprint. 'The layout was great,' Chloe continues. 'We worked within the existing footprint and did not move any walls.'

That meant the transformation happened in the smaller details. Custom millwork became one of the project's biggest interventions, adding storage and purpose without disturbing the architecture, while new finishes, lighting and furnishings could bring the color and charm the clients were after. Even the smallest decisions had a big impact. 'I love the hardware we selected in the house. The entry cabinet knobs were a little rope detail from Beata Heuman, and the kitchen hardware was a gorgeous unlacquered brass from Classic Brass,' she says. 'Hardware feels like the jewelry of a house to me, but adds so much!' It may feel like a relatively restrained approach to a home renovation, but one that feels less about starting over, and more about making a good house better.

The existing kitchen didn’t need to be ripped out and started again; so instead, Chloe updated the cabinet fronts, finishes, and countertops, giving the room a much more considered direction. The cabinetry was then painted in Farrow & Ball’s Vert de Terre, a soft sage that might sound minimal on paper, but paired with the dramatic green marble countertops, it takes on a much bolder presence. 'The green marble was really the showstopper,' says Chloe.

Getting to that point, however, involved a little persuasion. Chloe initially presented a more muted green for the cabinetry, but her client wanted to push it further. 'I’m so glad she pushed for that because it turned out so well!' she says. 'It really paid off.' While the green may have been the bold choice, the rest of the palette is deliberately grounded, allowing the marble to take center stage without competing with it. The veining runs continuously across the countertops and backsplash, giving the room a sense of movement, while the pendant lights and warm wood furnishings give the space a slightly collected quality, helping the kitchen feel comfortable rather than like a purely functional space.

Tucked alongside the kitchen, the breakfast nook was created by removing a section of existing cabinetry and installing a custom banquette seat in its place. Wrapped in a floral and striped Jasper fabric, the orange tones bring a welcome hit of warmth to the otherwise verdant kitchen scheme, paired with a generous round wooden table and chairs. Designed for family-friendly feasts, this relaxed dining spot has been styled with splattered ceramic, woven blinds and a scalloped pendant to elevate the ultimate breakfast-meets-homework corner.

At the other end of the kitchen, the butler’s pantry carries the same green marble in a moodier direction. Here, Chloe paired the dramatic stone with deep, inky cabinetry and a berry-hued wallpaper, creating an enveloping space that feels worlds away from the pale sage kitchen – while still belonging to the same story. The continuation of the marble links the two spaces together, creating that 'overlap' Chloe was so keen to achieve throughout each room. With its brass open shelving, dark wooden door, and ditsy wallpaper, the pantry feels almost jewel-box-like, proving that even the more functional corners of the house were given plenty of attention.

The adjoining family room takes the green and earthy tones from the kitchen and translates them into something softer and far more relaxed. A deep green sectional anchors the space, layered with floral and striped cushions, while the yellow patterned Sinclair Till rug brings in another hit of color and pattern underfoot. 'We redesigned the family room with a new custom mantle and all-new furnishings, anchored by a yellow patterned rug, a custom sectional, and textiles layered in from Penny Morrison and Jasper Fabrics,' says Chloe. 'We really just had fun selecting textiles that had that happy and fun feeling that our clients were after.'

Upstairs, the children’s bedrooms were given a little more freedom to be playful. The updates were relatively light – new built-ins, carpeting, lighting and furnishings – so Chloe let pattern and textiles do much of the visual work. One room pairs a soft blue-and-white striped wallcovering with a denim-blue upholstered bed and playful artwork, while the other goes all in on a charming floral wallpaper, framing a built-in window nook that makes the most of the architecture. Window treatments were an important part of the schemes, too, with Chloe noting that the clients were particularly excited about the wall patterns and window treatments. 'It was a good jumping-off point,' she says.

The two bathrooms take very different approaches. In the powder room, Clarence House’s orange-and-green wallpaper wraps the walls in an exuberant botanical pattern, paired with a vintage marble sink, Italian bamboo mirror, and brass fixtures that give the room a wonderfully collected feel. 'We went through dozens of wallpaper options,' says Chloe, before the clients settled on the joyful orange-and-green design. The guest bathroom is quieter by comparison, with handmade zellige tiles, warm wood cabinetry and a dramatic arched bath nook. They kept the existing layout in both spaces but completely reinvented their personalities and, as with the rest of the house, allowed each space to have its own distinct character.

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What makes this Santa Monica home so successful is that its color and pattern never feel like decoration for decoration’s sake. Every decision has a sense of purpose behind it, from the brighter-than-planned green kitchen cabinetry to the hardworking built-ins and family-friendly upholstery, while the repeated colors and mix of natural materials give the whole house a sense of cohesion. Most importantly, Chloe created a warm, playful foundation that can evolve with the family in this forever home.

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