However, some turns in the plot – including that Bryce Dallas Howard directed The Mandalorian on the west coast as of 2018 and the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 – they made the house never receive full remodeling. After taking refuge there during the pandemic, Howard and Gabel focused on the interiors in 2022: «What had been an office became a classroom,» he recalls, «and we realized some things. As perhaps the walls should not be black in the dark room.»
The creative Claire Thomas – director, decorator and co -founder of the Sweet Laurel pastry – designed the family's house on the west coast. For Thomas, the decoration is similar to production design: «Always childbirth of a very narrative place,» says Thomas, and reveals that she and Howard describe the general aesthetics of the house as «Wes Anderson directs a Jane Austen movie.»
But before Thomas could hit the decoration and rebuild it, he had to let the light in. «Bryce and Seth didn't stop talking about how dark it was,» says the decorator, who has transformed her good ration of little enlightened spaces. «My God, I wasn't emotionally prepared!» He exclaims. So Thomas painted the walls of «the dark room», also known as the room, with the Lime Wash color of Portola Paints in Sparks, «basically using the walls as a giant rebound letter.» In other places, Thomas played with color to maintain the luminosity: «I was inspired by movies in Technicolor of the early 40s. They are completely crazy! They are a real madness. Color combinations and palettes are so beautiful and fun. «
Another source of chromatic inspiration was Howard's grandmother's glass collection: «I had never seen so much glass of the time of depression in my life. I stayed as: 'Go, grandmother Jean,'» says Thomas. The rose and green cake of the glassware are present throughout the interior: «We think of grandmother Jean as the patron saint of the house,» says Thomas.
Howard's grandmother is not the only family member who has contributed to the design of the house. The dining room and piano table, in which Howard learned to play as a child, are a loan of Howard's parents. «They were going to keep the table, so I asked: 'Can we keep it in ours?'» He recalls. «The answer was: 'Yes, whenever you have a very resistant tablecloth.»
For Howard, the finished project is an amalgam of everything personal, from works of art to furniture. The redecoration process changed its relationship with the house, says: «In the end it became something much less aesthetic and more related to the place where we pass our lives.» The actress says she is grateful to have spent the summers and vacations at home with the family, and her own parents «can come to see how the table and piano are.» Now that her children approach the university age, the actress wonders how the history of the house will evolve: «It is beautiful to be in a space where I can dream of a future,» he reflects. We will let Howard imagine that Hollywood end.