Breaking the Modern Mold

While modern interiors can be cold and hard-edged, the best new designs take the opposite tack. In this hilltop home by Santa Monica architect Steven Ehrlich, designer Luis Ortega has enhanced the minimalist environment through a nuanced blending of color, fabric and wood. “I wanted to complement the clean architecture yet warm it up,’ he explains.

First, Ortega assembled reproductions of classic 20th century furnishings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Harry Bertoia and Charles Eames, as well as contemporary pieces by Angelo Donghia and Dakota Jackson. Next, he chose a range of sensuous fabrics--mohairs and suedes, silks and chenilles--plus rugs of hand-tufted, custom-dyed wool. “Everything is very tactile,’ the designer says. “The house is all about subtlety of textures.’

Then, instead of stone and steel, Ortega picked more than 10 beautifully grained woods for walls, floors and other furnishings--from blonder sycamore, anigre, maple and oak to darker mahogany, ebony and wenge, plus the more unusual zebra, pau ferro and Australian walnut. “These finishes add instant warmth,’ says Ortega, who mixed them freely. In the living room, for example, the floor is maple, the shelf behind the sofa is oak, the coffee table is ebony and the TV cabinet is zebra.

Ortega’s use of unexpected materials also softens the look. A Mies van der Rohe ottoman that would typically be upholstered in slick black leather is covered in a sage green suede. A Carlo Scarpa dining table designed with a glass top now sports a sycamore one by Ortega. “We sacrificed seeing the detail of the base,’ he says, “because we didn’t want the coldness of the glass.’

Throughout the house, he stayed with a palette of subdued camel and olive. “You feel color around, but it’s not screaming at you,’ says Ortega, who once painted a room blue and magenta. “I wanted a neutral background color, but not an antiseptic hospital white.’ He selected Dunn-Edwards’ “Swiss Coffee.’ “After the ‘80s, when everything was overdone, people are coming back to reality,’ he says. “I think peace of mind has finally returned to interiors.’