The queen of TV dishes on her new home renovation, struggles and all.
We love Shonda's description (written, of course, by herself) of the renovation of her Los Angeles home. Designed to be filled with light and livable - by the standards of young kids. You might think that once you have reached the levels of success that Ms. Rhimes has, you would be immune to the typical stresses and strains of a construction project. Not so. In the February 2019 issue of Architectural Digest, Shonda describes the ups and downs of tailoring an "ugly" home on a beautiful lot into an oasis for herself and her girls.
“Renovating a house in real life is not like it is on TV. On TV, the home renovation takes place during a clever 30-second montage while Stevie Wonder song plays. The actor playing TV Shonda holds up swatches and nods, peers at tiles and nods, uses sledgehammer on a wall and smiles...and never loses patience or the will to live.
That is not how renovation works. This was no 30-second montage. There are a lot of change orders. There are permits. There are delays. There is still tile arriving from Morocco, broken, that has to be sent back.” (page 71)
Shonda describes working with architect Bill Baldwin of HartmanBaldwin. Together, they discovered that her historically-listed home was mis-classified, with an incongruous facade that was the result of a 1950's renovation of the original 1920's building. After finding drawings of the original design in the Italianate villa style, they worked with the LA Office of Historic Resources to re-define the home, and then found custom stone masons in Chicago to recreate the original Elmer Grey masterpiece.
She also worked closely with interior designer Michael Smith (designer of the Obama White House residence). He worked to find fixtures, furniture, and decorative objects that were kid-tested and Shonda-approved.
I recommend picking up the February issue to read the full article and see beautiful images to the final result!