At Home With Top Design Judge Kelly Wearstler: Love Her or Hate Her?

By now you know that we're featuring the homes of the main cast of Bravo's Top Design reality show, which looks like a no-show this season.  Too bad because one of our favorite celebrity interior designers, Kelly Wearstler, was quite entertaining as one of the judges--even if only for those wild clothes she wore!

Love her or hate her, Kelly's the only interior designer who truly gets what was fabulous about 1980's design.  If you're old enough to remember watching "Miami Vice" and "Dynasty," then all you probably want to do is forget that era.  But Kelly will make you reconsider, as she has almost single-handedly changed the way boutique hotels look today.  Thanks to her, the tired zen look is out and the snazzy no-two-rooms-are-alike look is definitely in.

Lucky for us, we have a 2-for-1 on Kelly's "home" work today.  Vogue just featured her Beverly Hills home in its October issue and Metropolitan Home currently features her glam Malibu beach house in its November issue.

Up first, the Malibu beach house:

We love everything about the living room, above, from the marble walls and bleached walnut floors to the modern Soriano sofa paired with vintage chairs.  Did you notice the fireplace?  Or the abstract cabinet behind the sofa?

We even love the dining room, below, with its stone pedestal table and vintage bucket chairs:

 

This bedroom is a mix of old and new pieces:

The hand-painted wallpaper and side tables are designed by Kelly.  Everything else:  pure vintage.

Not exactly a beach-y look, but we don't care! It's totally fab!

But what about Kelly's Beverly Hills house?

Well, we're not exactly digging the foyer's hand-painted wallpaper custom designed by her.  It looks like her kids took a paint brush to the walls!  And she has the same gold Pedro Friedeberg "Hand" chair that we saw in Jonathan Adler's apartment. 

Gosh, she even has Friedeberg's "Hands" table in the entrance hall (below):

In the photo of her drawing room below, she boldly combines a vintage leather sofa with a marble checkerboard coffee table.  There's also a glamorous 19th century chandelier coupled with a ceiling covered in a paper similar to the one on the bedroom walls of her beach house.

Okay, so maybe it's all a little too much--even for us!  But we still love Kelly's style!  And her confidence too!

All photos by Francois Halard.   Be sure to check out the articles and slideshows about Kelly's beach house here and her Beverly Hills house here.