At Home With Jonathan and Zooey

If you’ve been following along, you know that our own Jonathan and his girlfriend, Zooey, have been renovating their forever home in Los Angeles…forever! Nearly two years in, the Park House is getting close enough to share the full ‘reveal’ in our next issue. To tide us over, here’s a sneak peek into one of their favorite rooms-in-progress.

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The biggest thing we’ve missed is having friends over. We want to entertain!” says Jonathan of himself and his partner, Zooey Deschanel, with whom he bought a 1938 Georgian revival that they dubbed the Park House in a lush corner of Los Angeles.

And the entryway was key to that, Zooey says: “We overhauled it because we want guests to come into a space that’s beautiful, warm, and welcoming. We want them to feel happy!” They fixed some quirks, realigning the recessed front door with the outside wall for more square footage, upsizing windows, and replacing the tight, spiral stairs and single-story ceiling with this wider, two-story staircase—“The perfect backdrop for cheesy tiered family holiday photos,” says Jonathan.

An oversize antique-style iron chandelier will hang from intricate custom-designed millwork. “We spent a long time figuring out the best details to make each room special,” Zooey says. “At first glance, you’d think this could all be original. That’s what we’re going for.” The house will pair energy-efficient utilities with traditional design and decor: Gothic, ornate woodwork, handmade brass switch plates, and reclaimed wood beams. “I grew up in a 1920s Spanish-style house, and I’ve always loved older homes,” says Zooey. “Modern is cool, but it doesn’t have the same draw for me. I love the character of old houses, the personality.”

Getting the Details Right

1. “It took a painstaking amount of calculation to get the patterns right for the moldings you see on the walls. It felt like 11th-grade math class,” says Jonathan. “Fortunately, I was really good at math!”

2. “Knowing that the floors are really what connect all the spaces together, we wanted to get it just right. We’re laying wide-plank white oak in a Versailles pattern for the front entry, with a chevron throughout the rest of the house. I love it!” says Zooey.

3. “The stairs will be solid white oak treads and white risers, with an iron railing and a Moroccan-style runner. For anyone with kids or dogs, it’s so much safer with a runner. We may take it off in the future, but for now it will be there and it will be beautiful,” says Jonathan.

By Lauren Iannotti | Photograph by Dennys Ilic

Check out the latest images and updates on Jonathan and Zooey’s Park House.