Inside Interior Designer Olga Doykhen’s Mediterranean-Style Home in California

Hello, Luxury Home Show. I'm Olga Duyguyan, an interior designer. We're in Southern California and this is my home that I designed myself. I can't wait to show you around. You come in and you have this moment where you see the, how high the ceilings are and so much natural light. As a person who loves to cook, loves to entertain, all the materials that I chose, obviously it was meant to be for me because, you know, I love it's, it's, everything is very tactile. A lot of people love to say, Oh, it's, uh, you know, like a hotel. It's not, it's a house. I love that. It's feels like home. So before I show you inside, I want to show you my front yard, my landscape, and obviously talk a little bit about the architecture. We originally have a Spanish revival home, but it was a done very builder grade. And, um, I supervised the landscape. I didn't do it myself, but my number one priority was a privacy and very low maintenance. I don't have time for that. Um, here we did a little nook, uh, where you can have a sitting zone. It's a really open street and it's very beautiful and you can sit outside and watch your neighbors walk their dogs. You know, we wanted that Mediterranean feel and we sort of get rid of all the palms and got the Cypress trees, olive trees and everything that is looks way more European than it was before. Right on the home, everything that you see, every architectural feature were foam. We added wood, we added columns. We had a little, that Juliet balcony for the privacy, which I'll show you later on. This is a master. And then we added stone for it, but we kept all the features, um, intact to this house. So before we had home, there's another entry sequence that you see here. We had a lawn with a natural grass, um, right there. You can see a fruit trees. We did it all for first of all, the privacy and a kid's safety. You know, we have a latches on the, um, gates so kids cannot get out. I just love how green it is and very lush. And also before it was a sort of a very closed off with the railing, um, a patio, I would say. And we added those beautiful columns. We added this beautiful plaster. Um, everything that was here, including, you know, all around was foam. So we added spruce, so all natural wood all around. And then, um, to sort of have this little play between all the new, I really love those Louis Poulsen fixtures. Um, that is very, very modern. And then you kind of going to feel that, um, in my home that were the play between something very classy, um, you know, Spanish colonial revival, and then very, very modern pieces. So we are here in the entry. I want to talk a little bit about this because this was outside before. And as I'm heritage from Europe, I love that my shoes are kept in that my clothes are in. So I wanted to have this entry sequence where you come in, you take all your worries off. You put them back in right here in the little beautiful custom closet with rattan and Oak. And I wanted this transition from the gate to this limestone that actually comes in. So this is a sort of connection between inside and outside. And then we have a beautiful chandelier here. We have a spruce again, all over our ceiling, and we have light that is all around. I'll show you in a little bit. And then after seeing this, you come in and you have this moment where you see the, how high the ceilings are and how warm the beams and how beautiful windows and so much natural light. And that was probably number one thing that I loved about this home. It was very dated before, even though this builds in, you know, probably 2006 or 2009. And the first thing I loved, yes, it was a beautiful natural light that we wanted to bring in more and more. So a lot of changed here because the first thing you would see, it was one window. It was arched, was one window with two small ones on that wall. And then we had a fireplace actually where the TV is right now. And it's very interesting because when you enter the first thing you wanted to see is the fireplace. You want it to be central. You want it to be symmetrical and it's sort of, you know, the right in the middle of the living room. And now it feels so much more balanced after we moved it Underneath, we have a beautiful custom bench and I worked very hard with the engineer and low voltage guys to make this possible because stone is very, very heavy. So it's a very beautiful piece. I love how, you know, almost unseen it is. But when the guests are coming, we shove in all the toys, do this and no toys around. The other thing is the connection between again, indoor and outdoor. And it was very important. So just having this was very important for me. This is a bifolding door and opens up to our entertaining area. We have a beautiful wooden grill, a fireplace and the pool, and we can completely connect this room to outside into the outdoor patio in here. Well, it's the heart of a home. I feel like, well, besides the kitchen, which I'll show you next. But this is a beautiful BNB sofa. I took unkillable textiles because you know, my child runs around, plays. And as you can see, it's very rounded again, for the same reasons, for the safety, the poof went all the way from Germany. It's made of a coconut husk. It's compressed. And it's also very soft, which is I feel another, a good feature in the living room. It's very cozy. You'll skin, you know, put a tray with your drinks or, you know, popcorn and watch a movie. And if you can see it's very modern, it's very low. We're, you know, playing around with highs and lows with darks and lights a lot of shadow. If you can see from, you know, from our grid, from the windows and then it's not very bright. I, you know, I've worked in interior design, so it's gets a little bit too much for me to be in lots of colors. So in my own home, I wanted a lot of texture and I'm very tactile person. I love, you know, wood and I love all the natural materials and then, um, leather wool, as I said, a coconut husk, a metal and everything is just really nice to the touch. And all the furniture was custom made specifically for this space and under my drawings. And I love that because it's answers all my, um, needs, you know, we wanted here, wanted books, you know, some, some, we actually keep DVDs still. That's how old school we are. Hi Sophie. Come on. Good girl. Yeah. It's my little pups. She's very old. She's almost 14 and she's another little piece in my own home. Right girl. I really want to talk about, um, portals. Um, in my home, we wrap them in silver travertine. I feel it adds so much oomph to it. Um, it's just so non-generic and also it's very practical because, you know, my child takes the scooter, you know, we bring luggage in. So the corners stay corners. So here are the beautiful piece. Uh, we made it, we stripped it all to be honest, it was overwhelmingly outdated. Uh, now it just has a very clean lines and it became a feature in the living room. And also it's something that you see first when you enter and obviously beautiful chandelier, we have staircase that, um, have light up and then those beautiful bocce chandeliers that is just gives it, you know, beautiful feel. I love the Oakwood. We use it throughout the home. Um, and then very, very simple linear iron. Um, the reason is as what I mentioned outside, I wanted to combine the Spanish colonial or Spanish revival. We're a very, very modern minimalistic clean lines. So usually space underneath the staircase I left untouched, but I made this a little cozy sort of nook with all my little design pieces. And, um, I feel, um, if you want to actually know a little bit more about our process, we launched our YouTube channel. Um, and I talk a lot about how I work, how I design and how do I pick my materials and my decor. So this long corridor actually separates house and two, uh, that way it's going to be my library and a study where, um, I do all my work, um, uh, guest bedroom. And then that way would be another office laundry and the kitchen. But here right now we are in a dining room. It's another thing that is attached to the living room, which is all about what I said about the flow. Uh, we have a combo of light wood and dark wood, which is again, a play of a light and dark. And a lot of things are came from Europe and I really love, we did a water feature here and just listen how beautiful it is. It's a really cool, um, feature to have lunch or dinner and hear the water trickling. So, so I love the scones by VBA. They're very modern. I love the combo of, um, very, you know, grounded sculptural stone and very light fixtures. They're adding a very soft light. You can play with, you know, obviously with, uh, dimmers, they made of metal and it just, I feel like they're adding that whole feel of what I was trying to accomplish lightness space up. So where you're standing right now, it's supposed to be a wall. This was very closed off and, um, a person who loves to entertain need to see her guests. Um, so we did open this up. So before it was a pretty big pantry. Uh, now this is a very cool open space. We have a coffee station there, a pantry there, and it's pretty enough for me. We are love cooking, um, more fresh foods. Um, we don't keep a lot of things in our pantry. This, everything about that, uh, being completely redone. We, from, you know, flipping the kitchen, uh, completely opening, obviously that wall and to have everything work for me as a person who loves to cook, loves, loves to entertain. And, um, all the materials that I chose, obviously it was meant to be for me, because, you know, I love it's it's, everything is very tactile. We have a silver Travertine that is leathered. Um, and I'm so in love with the natural materials and I use them throughout my designs. And I know a lot of people are so scared about staining and everything, but I think this is history. This is what it's makes this house talk about itself. You know, what's this party about? Where did you just build the wine? Where'd you cook? And obviously a gigantic sink, you know, two dishwashers that, you know, very comfortable because, um, everything was, you know, make together. So from dishwasher coming here, putting it silverware right here, everything's design. Every detail was about the flow, like how I function, how I love to cook. And, um, Oh, here's a little jar where my fermentation going, uh, which is a fermented cabbage. We love to ferment and pickle our stuff. I feel like this is going through my blood. Um, and we always have something, um, either cabbage, carrots, radishes. So I love that. And it's also, I think it's a pretty cool piece, right? You know, could it be a little decoration? Other thing that you actually seen around, it's very clean and very sleek. Um, but everything is hidden. I do not love clutter. And I think, um, this is probably one of my biggest accomplishments here because there's nothing. Um, and, uh, but there is all my appliances are hidden. Everything is, um, you know, hidden in the spaces. All my dishes are hidden except, you know, every, the ones that I use every single day. And then the other thing is that you can bring this color and seasons into your space. I, with flowers and a little decor, I don't want it to, uh, use a lot of colors in my, um, own home. And as I mentioned, uh, texture was, you know, uh, the main here, we have a Gaggenau piece. Um, we did a little, you know, a little thing with it. Uh, we put the controls right on the Travertine. It was a hard thing to do. You know, we tried a couple of things. So we ordered special extensions here, but you know, this is, um, this is made a very sleek, I feel like. And again, it's a super durable, uh, they dropped in. So there's no food pieces, you know, going around to always stays clean. Um, somebody is against the pot fillers. I love this piece because I do love my borscht and I do love my soups. So that's always, you know, uh, helps me, you know, not carrying a lot of big pots around. And also, um, you know, you can tell that, um, for some, it's not, you know, for California luxury homes, this kitchen is not that gigantic. We don't have a gigantic Island, but it has everything in it and everything I needed. And, um, you know, all of my, um, drawers are, you know, precise. I know where everything goes. I know where everything holds. And, um, we have a little, you know, little secret storage in here also for the things that I use barely. Uh, until functional, we have drawers in here. You can just got in until my baking stuff. I bake very rarely. Um, and also this little corner, as I said, you know, little pieces, little nooks and crannies. My daughter always have breakfast here. So, you know, there's some chips already on the chair and so on, but it makes my heart warm because just, I know that's, it's already been, you know, a couple of years, and we already making history in this house. We have a beautiful coffered ceilings that we added to get this Spanish revival feature. But, um, the spruce has this knots and warmth of it that is brings to that very high ceilings that, you know, you don't feel like you're in, um, you know, open space. So I want to talk a little bit about those beautiful chandeliers. They're from bocce. And as you can see, they're not lined up. Um, and I'll show you why when we're going to go upstairs, because upstairs there is a hole, which is open to the kitchen. And from the hole, you can see the chandeliers, which was more up. You can see closer to the comparing to the way is more down. And because everything is so symmetrical here, it's a sort of a little joke from me. I don't know, still laughing. And the other fun part is, um, same company, but they have their own, um, you know, daughter companies called 22 systems. We did those beautiful plugs are in the stone. We have it throughout the kitchen and I'm also having them in the bathrooms too, because all our bathrooms are plaster, which I also really love. So we have this beautiful pocket doors that brings you right outside. And the flow is just works, you know, from the kitchen to the outdoor dining. We added spruce right here. We have the heaters. Sometimes California winters are cold and we love to spend time outside. We added those beautiful arches. They're separate the space, but also combine it. And again, the materials go from one to the other. So it's a continuity of, uh, what you see coming from the kitchen to this, you know, lounge area with a fireplace. And then we have Kalamazoo wood fire grill. As I said, I love to cook. And this guy is fire. We have a smoker and, uh, this is a, again, the silver travertine, the same guys we used in the kitchen is just matte finish. And then right here before was nothing. We added the pool with the plaster. So, um, it goes with the home and the landscaping is actually sort of features the house and brings all the architectural features. So it's pops. And I love that. We also have this kind of a health thing going on in California. We added cold plunge, the sauna, the outdoor shower. I'm, you know, I'm loving the cold plunge, to be honest, you know, mornings with the cold plunge, you know, you're getting your flush, your lymphatics going and, you know, you're ready for work. And this place is, uh, you know, we love to entertain. I come, uh, with my girlfriends come in, we do sauna, we do grilling. We stay by the fire. We see our kids playing and jumping on the couch when the door by folding doors open, everything flows. This is sort of a circled around. So this is an office, um, which is also, uh, play sometimes as a guest bedroom. If you have a lot of people staying, uh, this is a sleeper sofa. Uh, I did this beautiful feature wall. Uh, we design it to, you know, have a storage space and sort of continue with the play of, uh, you know, all the natural materials, um, again, some modern touches. And, um, I love the continuity of, um, the, you know, brass and Oak and leather and wool in my home. So we use it throughout the space and, um, all of this is storage obviously. And, you know, everything is used, everything is functions. It's not just for pretty, um, it's, you know, this is a lighter tone. I wanted to play with the honey tones, um, um, throughout my house. Um, the kitchen is a little darker and, um, I feel this is perfect for my zoom calls. Now we're in the era of zoom, you know, again, layered lighting throughout, uh, which is, you know, I think a big importance. Um, and now we can come in to our library slash my study art room. But before there's a little gem I want to show you, this is a powder room and a very cool part about it is we also use Travertine which a different color it's called storm Travertine. And it's, again, has this brass Vola fixtures and handles that is just brings this color, you know, just pops. And also we have those plugs again, the 22 system plugs and the, uh, plaster. Um, and I feel, again, you can see me touching everything, all this because texture is everything would plaster everything. So here, as you can see, we have a different material. Uh, first of all, there's a step down and I wanted to show, um, the difference. So, you know, nobody falls or anything, but the other thing was a functionality. I do do my art sometimes and I do work here a lot. So this is a more of a durable flooring. We have custom shelving everywhere. I have a lot of books I love to cook. So you see on that side, that's a lot, a lot of cooking books. And then on this side, everything is about literature and home interior architecture decor. Um, I love, uh, to pick my inspirations from books and magazines. I do not like Pinterest. I'm sorry, but, um, I feel, um, that's, you know, a perfect place here for me to just being inside my little nook and create. And I feel like, um, everything around me right now is, um, helping me to do. So the natural light, um, the beautiful architectural, uh, rug, um, you know, this, um, said by hay, but obviously I couldn't just sit on the chair. You know, this is a perfect one for my back. Um, and then I'm hoping, uh, we're going to get my daughter to start doing piano classes. Uh, I'm not sure about it, but maybe. Um, and also when you come in, when my clients come in, um, I invite them here. There's a actually door right in. So, you know, they don't need to go through whole house and, you know, we can have a couple of glasses of champagne. We're talking about our projects. Um, I put my stuff on TV. We're sit here all around and talk and, you know, and make decisions. Um, and I feel this is a perfect representation of how I work, what I do. Oh, it's come in for, if you know, if you want to be guests in my house, we have a beautiful guest bedroom. Also, I want to mention what we did with, um, those doors. Um, this is a really cool company from Miami. It's called your doors. Um, they're solid and obviously the sound doesn't go through, but the best part is that you probably didn't notice, but the ceilings, if they're not, you know, two story like kitchen and living room, they're really, really low. And those doors that goes all the way to the ceiling brings your eye up and so sort of elongates the walls. And I feel like now, but just by looking, you know, into the corridor, you don't feel it's cramped. It doesn't, you know, sit on your head. So coming in, it's very cozy. You know, I wanted to make this room very inviting, very cozy. And a lot of people love to say, Oh, it's, uh, you know, like a hotel. It's not, it's a house. I love that it's feels like home. Um, every detail we, you know, thought through, you know, if you can see this headboard is literally the same size as this, you know, behind wall, we have a light fixture and I feel like it brings it all together. And again, brings that warmth. And what do you do in a four white walls? You know, obviously we wanted to bring some interest inside. And again, again, with the materials, um, this is porcelain and, um, this is leather again, oak and a wool rug and another cool feature. Well, first of all, it's, uh, has the same Travertine, you know, that we use throughout, but it's also flush. There's no step in. And a lot of guests are telling me, Oh God, it's going to be a water splashes and everything. Uh, it's heated floors. There is a little bit of splash. It will dry in five to 10 minutes and you'll be fine. And I absolutely love that. We did those custom pieces as vanities. Uh, we elevated them. It's a pretty small tight space. And by elevating my vanities, I'll give this air underneath. And also if I have allowed to talk about toilets, this beauty is by Stark and it's also elevated and get some space. And also it has a heated seat. So which my guests absolutely love. Well, now let's take you upstairs. Well, this is, uh, our staircase. I feel like it's a beautiful architectural piece now and the view from here to the living room is just breathtaking. I know. Can I say compliments myself? We had actual beams here, but they were metal. So I didn't feel, I didn't feel the warmth that I wanted to feel. And we wrapped them in spruce and also as you see that, you know, continuity from that little, um, chandelier that we had in the guest bedroom, we use from the same series one right here and one right here. Right there. And again, it's kind of brings it all together. So we have this beautiful, almost, you know, fragile chandelier, which is a, such a good combo between, uh, this iron heavy railing. And, um, we have this, uh, you know, sort of theme going throughout of light and dark, you know, cold and warm. And here you can see a lot of masculine and feminine. I think in this sort of like angles in this space. So after the landing, we are right there in a corridor, which we have the same exact corridor underneath us. And again, it separates this, um, you know, story into one side as my daughter's side and one side is mine. Welcome to my primary bedroom. I made it as cozy as possible. To be honest. Um, again, as an interior designer, I tried to stay very saddled with the colors. Um, it's a lot of natural colors, very, uh, a lot of earthy tones. And as you can see again, texture, texture, texture everywhere. I love those scones by pinch. Um, I feel, I was so worried that they were a little bit smaller for the space, but they're so they have this natural feel to it. And the light is so warm, uh, beautiful McSALTA bed. And I feel like this is again, something very traditional that we've had a play on with Spanish revival. And then again, we have a super modern chandelier above us, uh, a grasshopper right there and a boucle, you know, chair where I love to read or do my red light therapy. Um, I feel this, um, a lot of people say boucle is out. I don't think so. And I don't think there'll be out ever. Another thing that we have here, which was not in here is fireplace. Uh, we'll literally build it from scratch. And, uh, please remember the pattern of this Travertine. It's another one. Um, as you know, I love to use my materials in a different spaces. You're going to see that one in my primary bath. Um, and then the master is very cozy, is very serene. And then the best part of my room and it's many, many layers because the curtains, as you see, we have three different layers of curtains. So when it's dark, it's actually very dark right now. You only can see me because of the light, but my, my bathroom is just, it's very interesting though. It's not your usual master. We separated it with a shower in the middle. So you have this wow moment when you enter and you come in right here, you have this view of the bathtub and the material just shines. The material just gives it, it's just a piece of art right now for, you know, if I can say, but it's about the stone because it's just, it doesn't need anything anymore besides this. And also we have this brass chandelier. And if you can see, it's also gives it like a little shadow. So the light comes from here, it's comes up and you have this little shadow right on the ceiling. And it is so romantic during night when just this light is on. And obviously, um, I love to watch some Netflix shows or our luxury home show. I put that on TV right there. I lay in this bathtub and you know, I watch it and spend some evenings soaking up as the other bathrooms. We also have a heated floors and there's two sinks on both on different sides. And you can say his and hers, there is this controls, that's, you know, controlling, um, the flooring and also this extra door that I made that, you know, goes right into my closet. And before behind this wall was a bedroom. Um, obviously I love fashion as I love the design. So I needed a bigger closet. Um, and we got space out of that bedroom. This was the wall before. This is how much, how big primary bath was. And now we added pretty big amount of space so it's, I don't know, it's bigger, it's more spacious. I want to talk a little bit about toilet again. I know nobody talks about toilets, but that slab right there is just dang. I love it. And to make it even more architectural, we added three arches. So the arch that is in the middle is window and then two arches on the sides that, you know, bring some, you know, perfume and a little decor pieces, obviously a lot of storage. And to be honest, this bath has a lot of storage. You know, we have everything hidden, um, everywhere. Again, there's the thing that I love, you know, very minimalistic, nothing outside. This is a beautiful work, uh, from the New York artist. Um, he made it custom for me. I absolutely love this piece. It was gigantic. Um, and there was a whole pain to bring it up. And I feel like this gives us a such a cool thing because you can see from downstairs, upstairs in this corridor, you can see the chandelier. And when you look in it, you can see the outside, you can see the greenery of the windows and it makes this just a simple corridor, a simple hallway, a little bit more fun. You can give it a little sneak peek in this beautiful room. Um, this is my closet and it's a little dark specifically. So my purses are stay safe, but, um, everything is custom made here. Um, the beautiful part is that, uh, we have brought all the fixtures, um, all the hardware from Europe. And this is a, I love to show this. This is so much saving space. I haven't not seen a lot of this in, um, United States, but this is what we use in Europe all the time. So you can have all your closets all the way to the ceiling and it's easy to use. And as you can see, it looks pretty good. And I love the custom glass that we did because it can seal my clothes through it. And again, brass hardware, a little step stool if I need to pick up, you know, my hats and scarves. And also again, the doors, every door here is more than eight feet. This is the part that I wanted to talk about. And I started talking about when we were in the kitchen about the chandelier. So when you step out, you can actually see that this chandelier is almost the same length as we're, we're standing right now. So we can, it's sort of leveled with me and then separating this space, we added the spruce portals, same wood as we use on a coffer ceiling. Again, to separate the space between, you know, transitioning from living into again a kitchen, even though we're on a second floor to another, um, extra living room, which is my daughter uses a playroom. Um, I love, uh, again, little architecture features, little nukes, storage, this, you know, plays a big part in the home. It's not always functionality. I love some pretty stuff. Pesce up chair, which is absolutely comfortable. I love to sit in it. I love to watch my daughter doing her, you know, art or playing around. Um, obviously I cleaned this up. We only have a couple of things, but this is her library with all her kids books. And this is a cool room because it's very playful with the chandelier and also very durable materials, but something that she can grow into. Obviously she's not going to be a toddler all her life. You know, she's going to turn into a teenager. She needs to study. She needs to, you know, watch TV with her friends. And I feel like this space is always going to transition with her, which is, was my goal in this space. And right now with, you know, again, you don't really see toys, but there's a lot of them. Uh, when all the toys throughout, it looks like a playroom, but you will obviously year two, three, four, you'll see this room transitioning with her age. Um, here's attached to this room, her bedroom. And I feel again that we accomplished this playfulness with, you know, Spanish revival features because we added those beams. The beams were not here and natural materials in drapery, but then some fun, you know, it's obviously kids bedrooms. There's some fun, there's some fun rug and you know, that fun chandelier will house a lot of storage. Um, again, it's all Oak and you know, I absolutely love that she has the space that she can grow into because she has her own closet, she has her own bath and you know, it's a, it's pretty big closet. I would say the cool feature about this. First of all, I love those mirrors that are very modern, but they give this as such a beautiful, warm lighting. Also the cool part is that we use again, the Travertine everywhere. And this is a Roman Travertine, very classic Travertine. Some, some Travertine that, you know, used in Rome. And, uh, this is what my designs are, you know, separate from the others. I absolutely love those materials that stay throughout centuries. I love that we added bathtub. Would every mother need a bathtub for a child? And also we squeezed in a shower and the materials here, again, plaster that I absolutely love. And it's, it's almost as a Tadalact, uh, which used in Morocco. The thing about it, you know, my daughter does the splashes and the water's literally to the ceiling, but as you can see, it's not stained. It's very, it dries really fast. And so water resistant, mold resistant. And, um, you know, and it gives that warm, cozy feel. And also on the other side, if you transition from bedroom to again, to this extra living room, we have, we call them twin bedrooms because this is exactly the same size as my daughter's room, but it's this for my guests. Um, and, um, it's has the continuing again with the same chandelier. Um, it's a little smaller and, but it's very, this room is a little bit of colder on the side. We used, um, um, a little bit of, um, earthy gray. I would say gray beige, whatever those cold. Um, and I feel we accomplished this adult space, you know, even though it's comes right after the playroom where all the toys are and gets this sanctuary feel. And I feel in this room is the most where you can see the difference between cold and warm tones. And I feel like in this tapestry is also interesting play on it. And it gives this, I don't know, it feels, I love this room. And then again, it's attached with the closets, pretty big closet with the rattan and lay oak and another, another bathroom, no bathtub, unfortunately it's too small. Thank you. Luxury home show for visiting my house. I hope you really enjoyed this episode. And if you want to reach me, there's information down below in description and you can subscribe to our new YouTube channel. And also if you really like this episode, I'm pretty sure you're going to love this one. Hey, luxury home show. My name is Kim Lapine. I'm an interior designer in Los Angeles. Welcome to my home. So we are in my entryway. And when we first came to look at this house, it was very cozy and homey, but very outdated.