Hollywood isn’t known for its restraint. Instead, it demands excessive luxury: cars, homes, and clothes all competing to match the surrounding multi-million-dollar movie productions. Maybe this is why Ome Dezin’s newly listed Woodrow Wilson home stands out. It doesn’t shout — this design gently sings within the noisy urban Hollywood Hills.
Enclaved by a natural canopy of trees and greenery, this property’s private surroundings provide a sharp contrast to the home’s brutalist-inspired architecture. Originally built in 1997 by architect Jeffrey Mills, the design team of Ome Dezin, Joelle Kutner and Jesse Rudolph, describe the property as “an incredible artwork at the interplay of brutalism and California ease. The structure of glass, concrete, and wood allows the building to feel at home within the forest.” On paper, the contrast between concrete brutalist design and soaring trees seems too far apart — or perhaps not in favor of the architecture. Yet, this design proves otherwise.
The studio's Woodrow Wilson property dances between design periods effortlessly to create one harmonious and incredibly visually exciting modern home.
Surrounded by a natural canopy of trees and greenery, this property’s desirable private surroundings provide a sharp contrast to the home’s brutalist-inspired architecture.
Longtime friends Joelle Kutner and Jesse Rudolph founded Ome Dezin in 2020 as a design-build studio that restores character driven homes of Los Angeles.
Kutner and Rudolph find inspiration in the city’s many architectural styles, including Mid-Century, Art Deco, Spanish, Craftsman and Tudor, and aim to preserve these codes, while imbuing each restoration with thoughtful design and contemporary live-ability.
The Starting Point
“We were immediately drawn to the home's sculptural architecture, bold geometries, and beautiful relationship to the surrounding landscape," say Joelle and Jesse. "While the renovation was extensive, the home had such incredible architectural bones that we didn't feel the need to make any major structural changes.”
At first glance, the building seems older than its years, echoing earlier mid-century homes and Brutalist design styles, but this late-90s design provided a firm foundation for Ome Dezin’s design amalgamation. The exterior’s combination of wood, concrete, and the home's exceptional light allowed the designers to draw on multiple interior design periods. Mid-century-inspired warm wood-paneled walls frame more modern, curvaceous furniture pieces, not to mention the iconic cool-toned marble slabs.
"While the renovation was extensive, the home had such incredible architectural bones that we didn't feel the need to make any major structural changes."
“The process took approximately two years,” say design team Joelle and Jesse. “Much of our focus was on thoughtfully refining the existing spaces, while honouring the home's original character. Our goal was simply to enhance the most beautiful parts of its original structure while emphasising its surroundings. As usual, we leaned on natural materials, incorporating over 75 slabs of marble throughout the home.”
"We were immediately drawn to the home's sculptural architecture, bold geometries, and beautiful relationship to the surrounding landscape."
Letting Nature Lead
"The stone is the perfect storm of blues and greys in a rock formation."
Ome Dezin's designs are often led by natural materials. In Woodrow Wilson’s case, it led them straight to a stunning icy blue marble slab, which they used in abundance, understandably.
“We love materials with personality, and the whimsy blue marble felt like an unexpected counterpoint to the warmth of the wood paneling. Its natural movement and unexpected color choice introduces a sense of playfulness, while repeating it throughout the home creates a subtle connection between spaces and a good way to use all the remnants,” say Joelle and Jesse.
The duo draped this iconic slab all over the main bathroom, encasing it in its dreamy dark teal veining.
With a material this striking, restraint wasn’t necessary. Instead, the duo draped this iconic slab all over the main bathroom, encasing it in its dreamy dark teal veining. Here it provides a canvas for a dual shower, with tapware by Waterworks, a matching marble bath, and two vanity units.
The vast floor-to-ceiling mirrors wrapping around both opposing bathroom walls create a clever design trick too. Of course it bounces light around the room, but thanks to the room’s impeccable symmetry, it also reflects the vast wall slabs, giving the impression the material is wrapped around the entire space.
“I love this bathroom,” says the design duo. “The vintage lights, warm wood, exposed beams, and clerestory window. The stone is the perfect storm of blues and greys in a rock formation."
"As usual, we leaned on natural materials, incorporating over 75 slabs of marble throughout the home."
Stained Glass Statements
"Rather than closing [the pantry] off with solid doors, we wanted to celebrate it, so we incorporated textured and coloured glass into the doors."
Lighting is a key pillar of this home’s design, one which design duo Jesse and Joelle intended to honor within their revival. Throughout the house, you’ll find playful ways the designers manipulate light, not just in architectural features, but also in artificial fixtures. As Ome Dezin says, “For us, lighting is much like art — it helps shape the character of a space and influences how people experience it. Lighting is the jewellery of the home”.
In the bathroom, natural light floods the space in three forms: a high-level clerestory window framed in the design’s signature warm wood; a circular porthole window; and a large overhead skylight, all offering glimpses of the exterior’s vast foliage.
Then comes the lighting design’s pièce de résistance, the stained glass. Most pantries remain hidden, concealed, and secret. Not here. Ome Dezin turned this concept around and highlighted a traditionally overlooked area. “The pantry sits within a small nook, but there’s a window at the back that brings in this beautiful natural light,” explain Jesse and Joelle.
“The pantry sits within a small nook, but there’s a window at the back that brings in this beautiful natural light."
“Rather than closing that off with solid doors, we wanted to celebrate it, so we incorporated textured and coloured glass into the doors created by a father-and-son stained-glass duo local to Los Angeles, called Sunshine Glass. When the doors are closed, the light still filters through and animates the glass. We also loved the idea of taking something very functional and giving it a more decorative, jewel-like quality.”
This design choice wasn’t made purely on light, though; it also firmly played into the design duo’s famous era-blending. As Ome Dezin explains, “There’s something almost endless about stained glass — the combinations of texture, opacity, shape, and color can completely change its character. We also love that it can reference so many different eras of design and architecture. It can feel Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, mid-century, or entirely contemporary depending on how it’s composed. In a more neutral space, it becomes this small moment of surprise and personality.”
“There’s something almost endless about stained glass – the combinations of texture, opacity, shape and colour can completely change its character."
The Art of Era-Blending
Mid-century style wood panelling covers the walls, ceiling and bookcases, framing a built-in petrol-blue sofa
Image credit: Patrick Biller Design: Ome Dezin
Mid-century style wood panelling covers the walls, ceiling and bookcases, framing a built-in petrol-blue sofa
Image credit: Patrick Biller Design: Ome Dezin
Mid-century style wood panelling covers the walls, ceiling and bookcases, framing a built-in petrol-blue sofa
Image credit: Patrick Biller Design: Ome Dezin
For me, Ome Dezin’s era blending is one of the most joyful parts of their designs. It means the home is never constrained by one idea, or the notion that one era’s architectural qualities must accompany its furniture. Here, the art, walls, furniture and fixings all dance in and out of multiple design eras with ease.
In one living area, mid-century wood paneling covers the walls, ceiling and bookcases, framing a built-in petrol-blue sofa. Yet when it comes to the other furniture, modernism steps in with a hint of retro style. Curvaceous abstract chairs sit next to a 70s-esque amber-toned glass side table to match the space’s warm, inviting glow, all contrasting in surprising harmony.
The modernist vibe continues in the larger seating area, where a statement navy-blue curved sofa sweeps around a post-modern glass side table.
The modernist vibe continues in the larger seating area, where a statement navy-blue curved sofa sweeps around a post-modern glass side table, matching the home’s brutalist shapes in refined light jade glass. The vast concrete-effect fireplace surround echoes the home's brutalist materials, but turn right, and you'll be struck by an abstract monochrome seat alongside an immensely rich abstract-impressionist canvas occupying the entire back wall.
Talking about their signature design blend, Jesse and Joelle say, “We love creating a dialogue between different design periods. Woodrow's late-20th-century architecture provided a wonderful foundation for introducing elements of mid-century modernism alongside the playful, sculptural qualities of 1970s and 1980s design. We find that materiality and proportion are what ultimately bring these different influences together.”
Curating a Collection
Given that the Woodrow Wilson project was formerly an art gallery, the space naturally had ample opportunities for the duo to make their artistic statement.
Image credit: Patrick Biller Design: Ome Dezin
Given that the Woodrow Wilson project was formerly an art gallery, the space naturally had ample opportunities for the duo to make their artistic statement.
Image credit: Patrick Biller Design: Ome Dezin
Given that the Woodrow Wilson project was formerly an art gallery, the space naturally had ample opportunities for the duo to make their artistic statement.
Image credit: Patrick Biller Design: Ome Dezin
When it comes to artwork, Ome Dezin take careful consideration. Given that the Woodrow Wilson project was formerly an art gallery, the space naturally had ample opportunities for the duo to make their artistic statement.
“Transforming the flow of the home from an art gallery into a residential space was one of our biggest challenges," say Joelle and Jesse. "We wanted to maintain its openness and architectural drama, but introduce the warmth, intimacy, and functionality needed for everyday living.”
Art was carefully curated by Joelle and Jesse. This hallway canvas was discovered by the duo in an antique store by Lake Arrowhead.
Described by the pair as their “favorite little painting” with “the most delicious color palette,” the hallway canvas was discovered by Joelle and Jesse in an antique store by Lake Arrowhead. It's hard to deny its expressionist influences, breathing fresh air into the mid-century style panelling behind it. The work’s colors echo the surrounding home design too. The deep teal of the right figure’s jumper can be spotted in the sofa upholstery, and the copper and amber skin tones in the surrounding panelled walls.
Woodrow Wilson's art is loud and punchy. It immediately grabs and steers you into a less-predictable style.
While the furniture is mostly understated — albeit with a splash of fun in pieces like the bubble monochrome chair — the art is expressive and punchy. It immediately grabs and steers you into a less-predictable style. Take the dining room. Here, you’ll find understated warm wood wishbone-style seating nestled under a delicious glossy ink-black dining table — a bespoke design for this property. But adorning the back wall are two almost floor-to-ceiling portraits by photographer Nadia Lee Cohen, acquired through Creative Art Partners. Their almost cinematic vintage color palette contributes to the warm sepia-toned hues that saturate the Woodrow Wilson project. The perfect conversation starter over dinner with friends? I think so.
“Transforming the flow of the home from an art gallery into a residential space was one of our biggest challenges."
Bringing the Exterior To Life
But it’s not just the interior that strays from usual design tropes. The pair have paid exceptional attention to the property's exterior, and one outbuilding in particular.
In such an organic setting, it seemed almost certain the designers would opt for equally organic materials in their sauna design. But not so. Instead, the team chose a dark mirrored exterior finish. Much like the mirroring in the main bathroom, this material cleverly sinks into its surroundings and reflects the garden's foliage and landscape.
“We wanted the sauna to feel like a sculptural monolith that almost disappears into its surroundings,” say designers Joelle and Jesse. “The darkened mirror reflects the landscape and changing light, creating a beautiful contrast with the intimate wood interior of the sauna as well as a brightly coloured connected full bathroom.”
Elsewhere in the garden, you'll find plenty of private social pockets, all accompanied by a stand-out water feature. Running alongside the garden steps and resting next to an outdoor seating area, this feature looks like it’s been naturally carving the grey stone it runs across for centuries.
If Ome Dezin's design shows anything, it's impeccable consideration. This reimagined property is sensitive to the original design and surroundings, but breathes fresh air into traditional design tropes.
The house is a mixture of serious brutalism and warm, inviting light. Slick furniture is paired alongside cool and punchy artworks, while the overall finish still feels immensely high-end. The Woodrow Wilson project is full of surprises, none of which disappoint.
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