Their timing could not have been better. In the weeks leading up to the pandemic lockdown, designer Tammy Price of Fragments Identity was busy putting the finishing touches on her makeover of the Beverly Hills residence of actor and writer James Van Der Beek, his wife, Kimberly, and their brood of five preternaturally cherubic children. Little did they know how utterly invaluable a cozy, hyperfunctional, and blissfully serene home would be in the days and months ahead.
“We never really had the time to focus on designing the house properly before. We just kept having kids and working,” says the star of Varsity Blues, The Rules of Attraction, and What Would Diplo Do? (all certified fresh, btw, for jolly Corona-quarantine viewing). “Our home was a crazy jumble of pieces from different places we’d lived in before, all commingling, but not very happily; I called it the Island of Misfit Furniture,” he quips.
“I confess I’m something of a Fragments fangirl,” Kimberly adds, describing her initial online infatuation with Price’s Los Angeles–based product and interior design studio. “We were thrilled Tammy wanted to work with us. The first thing we told her was that we needed furniture that could move from room to room, indoors to out. When you’ve got five kids, and usually a houseful of friends hanging out, flexibility is imperative,” she insists.
Price’s decorative scheme—centered on spare, elegant furnishings (many from her own line) and a monochromatic palette of whites and other neutrals—established a new aesthetic lingua franca for the classic 1930s Spanish Colonial–style residence. “Happily, the house has great bones and generous spaces for outdoor living, so there was a lot to work with,” the designer explains. “We kept the color to a minimum but added a lot of different textures—kilim-covered pillows, sheepskin upholstery, flokati rugs—to make the home a richer experience. We also used a lot of outdoor fabrics to make sure everything is durable. You can clean most of it with soap and water, which is a big plus for a family with little kids.”
The success of Price’s ministrations lies in the designer’s ability to assimilate divergent decorative impulses. “In our earliest conversations, we talked about wanting the house to feel tribal and spa-like—words that you rarely find in the same sentence,” Kimberly recalls. Adds James, “The overall impression is tranquil and welcoming, but there’s still plenty of great energy here.”
One of the couple’s favorite pieces is the poolside daybed that James designed and built shortly after the birth of their daughter Gwendolyn, before Price entered the picture. “It was my own personal triumph over dyslexia. When I was drawing up the plans, I kept worrying that I would transpose numbers and screw it all up, but it came out great,” the actor says, with apparent pride. “Thankfully, Tammy wanted to feature it. She loved the daybed, so I loved her.”
The quarantine situation has given the family ample time to explore and appreciate the virtues of their newly refreshed domicile. “We took one room and covered the floor in mattresses and pillows. It’s the ideal place to read books and watch movies,” Kimberly reports. The tepees in the children’s playroom are another godsend. “That’s where the kids have pillow fights and set up their doll stations. When they have homework, we just say, ‘Go to the tepee!’ It’s perfect,” James notes.
Don't miss the AD PRO-exclusive workshop—Photo Finish: How to Showcase Your Project
Looking ahead, the couple is eager to reopen their home to the many friends that typically congregate there for impromptu musical performances, New Moon ceremonies, lively meals, and other socially un-distanced celebrations. “I can’t overstate how big an impact Tammy has had on our day-to-day lives,” James concludes. “She treated us with so much care and love. We feel it every time we walk through the front door.”
