AT HOME IN HOLLYWOOD WITH DESIGNER TO THE STARS

AS SHE REVEALS HOW SHE SPRINKLED STARDUST ON HER OWN HOME

‘For me, a house tells the story of the person who lives in it’

As Kari Whitman says: “For me, a house tells the story of the person who lives in it.”

And the spectacular villa in the Hollywood Hills owned by the designer to the stars tells the story of a woman totally at ease in the showbusiness world, from its colourful furnishings to its cinematic views.

Born in Boulder, Colorado, Kari moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s as a model and musician, then quickly found success as an actress, with plenty of movie and TV credits to her name. Naturally, she also made lots of celebrity friends. “I think it’s our creative understanding that unites us,” she says.

It was a fellow star who sensed her talent for interiors. “I hated acting,” she says, “and one day, shooting a scene of NYPD Blue, I thought: ‘That’s it.’

“I didn’t really have a plan B, but I’d done the 1990 movie Men at Work with Emilio Estevez and his brother Charlie Sheen, and Emilio – who is a fabulous person and the brother I never had – said: ‘I’m going to give you your first job as a designer. I want you to design a wine cellar in my house in Malibu.’ It’s thanks to him that I’m where I am now.”