Kaleidoscope Eye

It comes as no surprise that Denise Domergue’s bohemian-style Venice loft is kaleidoscopic in color. After all, she restores 19th and 20th- century paintings. “Understanding color is my business,” says Domergue, who studied at Le Musee National d’Art Moderne in Paris. “The more colors and patterns, the better I like it.”

Take the master bedroom, where, in collaboration with interior designer Jackie Terrell, Domergue combines two walls striped in Wedgwood blue and mustard yellow with another awash in deep pumpkin. Furniture and accessories include a toile de Jouy daybed, an Indian sari throw, an embroidered Spanish shawl tablecloth and a floral needlepoint bergere. The crazy-quilt look extends to the adjacent bathroom, formerly a bland little kitchen but today no shrinking violet with its butter-colored walls, robin’s egg blue cabinets and floor of cobalt blue tile and green vinyl. “And,” Domergue adds, “I haven’t finished yet.”

She reconfigured the loft--set in a neighborhood of tony antique shops and graffitied alleyways--four years ago with the help of local designer Kate Meigneux of Meigneux + Kerr Studios. She kept the 1,800-square-foot upper level as living quarters for herself and her teenage son, Axel. A bedroom and bathroom anchor the 60-foot-long loft; with an open living room, kitchen, dining room, sitting area and library/office in between.

To make the most of the interiors, Domergue built a mezzanine under the 16-foot-tall ceiling. Located directly above her son’s bedroom and outfitted with a pair of twin mattresses and scads of pillows, the area functions as “Axel’s lounge,” and, occasionally, a guest bedroom. Inexpensive aluminum sliders at the entrance and master bedroom have been replaced with large French doors that open to a spacious deck. Six skylights bathe everything in natural light. “I love to stand in the kitchen,” she says, “and feel the ocean breezes and watch the big, wet cloud formations roll in.”

A Francophile who likes to cook and entertain, Domergue is also partial to the galley kitchen’s large central island. “People always end up in the kitchen,” she says. “I wanted one big living space where we could all be together.” For festive Sunday lunches, a pair of Indonesian tables are placed end to end to form one 15-foot-long table surrounded by a mix of Arne Jacobsen and slipcovered Art Deco cane chairs.

The potpourri of color, pattern and seating is in keeping with an aesthetic that Domergue calls “North African colonial-meets-Camargue gypsy.” Furnishings and art (often accepted in exchange for conservation services) are equally wide-ranging. In the sitting room, a Bob Wilhite paper-and-balsa sculpture hangs above a French willow chair and a Frank Gehry cardboard chair and ottoman. Nearby, a desk is topped with prehistoric hand axes, an American Indian pestle, a Balinese bone container and a pair of brass knuckles. Mounted on the dining room wall are a quartet of horns Domergue picked up at a local thrift shop. “I love the eclectic look of things collected over the years and simply assembled,” she says. “I must have been a gypsy in my last life.”

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Resource Guide

Denise Domergue, Conservation of Paintings Ltd., Santa Monica, (310) 453-7717; Jackie Terrell, Jackie Terrell Design, Los Angeles, (323) 571-1622; Kate Meigneux and Susan Addison, Meigneux+Kerr Studios, Venice, (310) 821-8915.