Up Early on the Day I Died opened an unexpected

Turkish incense jars hang from the
chandelier Gloria Swanson installed
in the dining room (left and
opposite) when she lived here.
An ancestral portrait (below) hangs
prominently in the living room.
Drawn to this coveted area three years ago by friend and neighbor
Tim Street-Porter, Lawrence-Bullard heard of a house that was about
to come on the market, snuck in to see it the next day, and was in
escrow 48 hours later. "It was a wreck! A complete wreck," he sighs.
The kitchen was painted purple with orange tile flooring, the walls surrounding the living room fireplace were mirrored, the master bathroom's original black-and-mustard Malibu tiles had been painted beige,
and a dining room window had been stuccoed over. Paint and elbow
grease remedied most of the nightmare, but as the neighborhood is designated a National Historic District, the rules on building changes are
stringent, so the window lies in wait within the wall for now.
Built in 1923 along with 200 other terracotta tile-roofed Spanish
Colonial villas, Lawrence-Bullard's
home was first inhabited by
Rudolph Valentino. Next, Gloria Swanson set her size 4)1,foot across
the threshold. William Faulkner later typed in the sun on the master
bedroom's balcony. And still later, when the studio tried to put Miss
Swanson up at Falcon's Lair while filming Sunset Boulevard, she
balked and asked to stay again at the small villa down the narrow,
winding street. Thus the home is christened Villa Swanson.
This history enchants Lawrence-Bullard
as he shows off the
sconces Valentino hung in the stairwell ("They're crazy-looking
things! Aren't they fun?") and a chandelier of La Swanson's. He is the
first to acknowledge his whirlwind life seems to have come full circle,
"a classic Hollywood story in reverse," as he likes to say.
Scene: A traditionally trained actor from the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts comes to Hollywood to become a star. His part gets cut,
so what's a boy to do? Sell vintage jewels at the Rose Bowl, of course.
"I went and set up these huge Indian bowls on stands and put jewelry
in them," he says. "I came home with $50,000." Certainly more profitable than waiting tables.
Then a bit part portraying Eartha Kitt's boy toy in the film I Woke
Up Early on the Day I Died opened an unexpected door. The film's
producer loved Lawrence-Bullard's house and asked him to redesign
his offices, which lead to Liz Heller at Capitol Records, which lead to
Cheryl Tiegs. "Liz was getting married and seated me next to Cheryl,"
he explains. "Cheryl said, 'I've just bought this awful Hawaiian house.
Would you come and look at it?'" Lawrence-Bullard turned the lava
rock 1950s ranch house into a sexy Balinese-style pavilion.
"There we sat," Tiegs says, "on two little folding chairs in my
empty living room. I asked him to show me tear sheets of his work and,
well, he showed me fabrics he liked." He won her over, and within nine
months, stories ran in six international magazines. The bold-name
clients quickly followed: William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman,
Edward Norton, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Aguilera, Patti La Belle,
John Stamos, Craig Kilborn, and Aaron and Julia Sorkin.
Lawrence-Bullard's signature exotica, inspired from the cultures
68
DIS TIN C T ION
artvn
Becomes Eclectic
Martyn Lawrence-Bullard' s home
reveals a Hollywood glamour that
suits its past. By Dawn Moore
Photography by Tim Street-Porter
NESTLED INTO THE BOUGAINVILLEA-COVERED
hillside of
Hollywood's
Whitley Heights is the villa of interior
desigrrer Martyn Lawrence-Bullard. There's no obvious
front entrance or noticeable address, only a chic rusting
lantern that hints at which door grants entrance. The
weathered wood door creaks open to reveal Martyn and a
lushly terraced garden beyond. "I am so jet-lagged darling,
I must have some tea. Earl Grey?"
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67
Friend and client Cheryl Tiegs joins the
designer for a cup of tea in the kitchen,
with its vintage O'Keefe and Merritt
stove (opposite) and open pantry
(right). Small spaces become charming
nooks for time alone or with friends
(below left and right).
and aesthetics of Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Bali, and England richly layer
his interiors. Tobacco-hued carved woods, fabrics in deep jewel tones
of ruby and amethyst, and the shimmer of crystal and silver deliver an
earthy sexiness that is the hallmark of his work. Primitive pieces mixed
with fine masterworks create a softness in his living room, despite the
black-and-white
scheme with splashes of merlot inspired by ancestral
portraits of his mother's Italian family. "So I really do have noble
blood! Penniless, but noble."
Two magnificent pieces stand out amid many museum-quality
furnishings: An 18th -century Milanese ebony secretary inlaid with ivory
in allegorical depictions of Bacchus graces the living room, and in the
dining room an ebony 17th-century jeweler's cabinet intricately inlaid
with ivory inside and out stores his grandmother's ivory-handled flatware. "I started collecting items of ebony and ivory/' Law;e~ceBullard says casually-an
understatement
at best.
From the hand-stenciled
dining room ceiling hangs the Swanson
crystal chandelier. But Lawrence-Bullard
is nothing if not theatrical,
so he hung crimson Turkish incense jars from the bronze arms just for
fun. "The dining room chairs are early 19th century with mother-ofpearl inlay, and I had my painter do my family crest on the backs," he
DIS TIN C T ION
73
says. "I think I've just made them better."
Every surface is covered in exotically luxe objets-Venetian
gilded
frames, boxes detailed in ivory or mother-of-pearl
marquetry, silvermounted horn epergnes, and shagreen trinkets. Yet, in a gesture that
belies the preciousness of his collections, he casually pushes aside a delicate ivory box atop the coffee table (made of an 18th-century panel) to
set down his Hermes teacup. "I'm all about comfort," he says. "Things
have to be lived with."
Tiegs underscores
this. "I asked Martyn,
'Can't we put some fresh
rice paper above the fireplace where it's getting smoky?' And he said,
'No. You live in your house and it should look lived in.'"
Given his penchant for entertaining, this is a good mantra to
embrace. Almost every room of the house transitions up or down a stair
or three, yet parties for more than 100 have traversed the espressocolored planks reclaimed from an old barn in Iowa. "The only person
who has ever fallen was a waiter serving drinks!" he says. Dimmers and
candles set the mood at these soirees, and as he doesn't cook, a chef is
brought in to preside over the vintage O'Keefe and Merritt stove set in
the niche surrounded
(Lawrence-Bullard,
continued on page 110)
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(Lawrence-Bullard, continued from page 74)
by original Moroccan tiles. But ask for champagne and he opens the refrigerator to reveal
bottles of Veuve Clicquot, Pink Cristal, and
Dom Perignon, plus a few liters of Fiji water
for good measure. (And should you be lucky
enough to be invited to spend the night, don't
bother to pack your jammies; perfectly
pressed French toile du jouy pajamas-in
your
size and matching your suite's walls, curtains,
and linens-await
you in the closet.)
Clearly there is little reason to stock the
kitchen with perishables. Lawrence-Bullard's
schedule revolves around three TV shows,
including TLC's Material World; designing a
new furniture, fabric, and home-fragrance collection; and opening a jewelry store on
London's Walton Street with actress Tamara
Beckwith. He globe-hops from London ("I
just landed last night; we're working on Vidal
Sassoon's new home") to Mexico for Girls
Pushing aside a delicate
box to set down his teacup,
the designer says, "I'm
all about comfort. Things
have to be lived with."
Gone Wild creator Joe Francis to New York
for hip-hop's
Damon Dash, and to Palm
Springs for his latest project, the Colony
Palms. The Spanish hacienda was built in
1935 for Seabiscuit co-owner
and Purple
Gang mobster Al Wertheimer. It is LawrenceBullard's first hotel commission. "I'm keeping the Spanish bones, but making it edgy and
funky," he explains. "In fact, the basement
was a speakeasy and brothel with these erotic
art deco murals-which_
we're keeping." The
owners were drawn to Lawrence-Bullard's
taste for the dramatic, and encouraged the
creation of outdoor sleeping areas with headboards upholstered with fabrics hand-woven
in 400-year-old Turkish tribal patterns and "a
Spanish side table and the odd Eames chair
thrown in."
Begging apologies that he has to run off
and check in at his new offices next to Fred
Segal, Lawrence-Bullard
glances around and
says, "You know, it's gotten a little too fluffy
in here. I need to be challenged, so I think I
might be doing something new .... " As his
voice trails off, one wonders how balancing
his explosive design career and international
travel isn't already challenging enough. D
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