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Tour the Sprawling Brentwood Compound

August 10, 2023

Tour the Sprawling Brentwood Compound That’s Home to a Hollywood Real Estate Investor and a Model

The family home is the private oasis for an agent trusted by the likes of Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen and Ellen DeGeneres

By Leilani Marie Labong
Photography by Sam Frost
Styled by Lisa Rowe
A few months ago, real estate investor (and listing agent to stars such as Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen and Ellen DeGeneres) Kurt Rappaport and his wife, model Zorana Kuzmanovic Rappaport, cradled their newborn daughter Zoe across the threshold of their French-style brick manor for the first time, a monumental event that bested the couple’s former favorite memory in the Brentwood Park home. (That would be an epic housewarming party DJ’d by none other than Snoop Dogg.) Notably, the 1936 estate—originally designed by iconic California architect Wallace Neff—received a 1990s refresh that focused on the gardens and orbiting buildings that was carried out by Robert A.M. Stern.
Kurt and his frequent collaborator, Los Angeles interior designer Clint Nicholas, had intended to embark upon an ambitious one-year renovation. “Kurt says, ‘Let’s take a year,’ every time he buys a house,’” says Nicholas with a grin. “Here we are, five years later.” But then again, there was a lot entailing the update of the now-three-acre property. (Los Angeles–based Scott Mitchell Studio designed and built additional structures on adjacent lots that Kurt had acquired.) As for the 12,000-square-foot main house, it had been a vision of “wall-to-wall florals, tons of silk, and heavy drapery” with a few architectural additions that were unbecoming of Neff’s “totally understated, elegant, and mysterious residences,” says the homeowner.
Nicholas and Kurt have been working together for so long that the designer says, “I’m beginning to think Kurt’s taste is my taste, and vice versa.” For this particular project, a kind of “luxe naturalism” prevails, thematically closer to Neff’s style than the floral smother and drapery stifle of bygone days. Foremost on the agenda was to authentically align the home with its superlatively sunny location. Such unabashed radiance would be just as much part of the decor as, say, the color scheme (eternally earthy), or the materials palette (sumptuously tactile). The atrium, for instance, is a soaring space where a gleaming new wall of double-height steel windows rises from a floor of wire-brushed white-oak planks. (Architecture firm ZU+ Studio was responsible for this effort, and much more.) Zorana and her husband sip coffee here in the mornings, snuggled cozily upon the room’s central objet d’art: a capsule-shaped Rick Owens Double Bubble daybed with a dramatic plywood grain that happens to recall the marbling of espresso and milk.
What other spaces lack in sunstruck volume, they make up for in seamless indoor-outdoor transitions and a natural layered-ness that can only emerge when a trained curatorial eye has been cast upon a few decades of worldly acquisitions. The living room, Nicholas says, epitomizes the design brief: A wall-size portal provides a generous transition between nature and an interior tableau of edited collectibles, from the charmingly catawampus Vincenzo De Cotiis mirror to the charismatically chunky sofa to a wood sculpture—Stack by Shay Alcalay. “Someone once said, ‘Beautiful things go with beautiful things,’ and I live by that statement,” Nicholas says. His client and alleged style twin concurs. “Everything’s chosen,” Kurt says.
Arguably the challenge of a neutral color palette is crafting spaces that aren’t neutral at all. Under this home’s Normandy roof, the design reaches beyond the status quo, in significant but subtle ways. The double-height foyer, for instance, is a minimalist space where the wall treatment is as artful as the pieces that hang on it: The velvety hand of lime plaster adds depth and shadow, and breathing room is prioritized for works by Ed Ruscha (Oh, 2008) and Christopher Wool (Double Brown Nose, 2003). The theater, or “Kurt’s man cave,” as Zorana calls it, mounts a dramatic play on scale: A pitched ceiling ascends 24 feet into the atmosphere, while the legless sheepskin-covered loungers and equally low-slung wood-slab coffee table are conversely down to earth.
Blurring the boundaries between retail boutique and personal closet, the primary wardrobe is outfitted with custom “dressing islands” of antique brass and oak, topped with glass cases for jewelry display. As a model for Shopbop, Gap, and Abercrombie & Fitch, Zorana’s garments fittingly receive the gallery treatment, and a sculptural bouclé sofa portends rest and relaxation rather than dress and dash. Just as her vêtements add a riot of color to the home’s prescribed palette, so too does the Schumacher chinoiserie-style wallpaper in Zoe’s nursery. Ironically, the potential of the blush pink interlude to endure past tweendom speaks to the longevity associated with neutrals. After all, more than any other art piece in the home, the whimsical depiction of flowering trees gets to the heart of the home—a growing family.
Art: © Christopher Wool. Ed Ruscha/Gagosian. © Kishio Suga/Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo.
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In the double-height foyer, a minimalist space where the velvety hand and subtle shadow of the lime plastered walls are as artful as the art that hangs on it, breathing room is prioritized for works by the likes of Ed Ruscha (Oh, 2008) and Christopher Wool (Double Brown Nose, 2003). The Pierre Jeanneret bench takes pride of place here. “Ellen DeGeneres is one of Kurt’s good friends, so if she has something in her house that I want for one of our projects, I just say, ‘Remember? Ellen has that piece.’ Works every time,” interior designer Clint Nicholas says. The general contractor on the project was Zac Taylor Development.
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The atrium, for instance, is a soaring space where a gleaming new wall of double-height steel windows rises from a floor of wire-brushed white-oak planks. Zorana and her husband sip coffee here in the mornings, atop the room’s capsule-shaped Rick Owens Double Bubble daybed.
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Located adjacent to the atrium, the family room is the most used and comfortable room in the house, owing to its deep-seat bouclé sectional and super plush mohair rug by Woven. “I was thinking about the baby crawling around and what she would need to be stimulated and also cozy,” Nicholas says. A Wyeth Chrysalis blackened-steel coffee table offers textural contrast even as it aligns with the soft silhouettes in the room.
Art: Raw-Edges
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Inside the living room’s wall-size portal is a tableau of carefully edited collectibles, from the charmingly catawampus Vincenzo De Cotiis mirror to the charismatically chunky sofa to a wood sculpture—Stack by Shay Alcalay.
Art: © Anish Kapoor. All Rights Reserved, DACS, London/ ARS, NY 2022
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“I wanted the dining room to have a more sumptuous feeling with darker neutrals,” Nicholas says. “It feels really moody in there at night.” An Anish Kapoor mirror amps up the room’s burnished glow, and the capsule-shaped Rick Owens plywood wall sconces echo the oblong surface of the cedar-and-blackened-oak dining table.
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The exhibition kitchen (not to be mistaken for the chef’s kitchen) in Kurt and Zorana Rappaport’s Brentwood home lives up to its title. “Kurt and Zorana don’t cook, so this space, while functional, is really for display,” Nicholas says. The designer opted against hardware to let the travertine veins of the island and backsplash, along with the vertical grain of the white-oak cabinets, steal the show. Though upholstered, the counter stools by Studio Balestra echo the kitchen’s stone-scape.
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In light of its dangling position, the patina of an antique Poul Henningsen Artichoke lamp adds gravitas to a corner breakfast nook that’s mostly glass and light. The antique wood round table and N°172 Ruemmler chairs are from StudioTwentySeven.
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Naturally shed peacock plumes cover the walls of this moody space, proving that bars are a great way to feather a nest. The Peacock Ore wallpaper is by Schumacher, and the (Wh)Ore Haüs Studios barstools in jade leather are by Moore & Giles, Inc.
Art: Thomas Hammer
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The media room, or “Kurt’s man cave,” as Zorana calls it, fittingly exhibits a theatrical play on scale: A pitched ceiling ascends 24 feet in the air, while the furnishings—from a pair of custom round loungers by Donna Furniture, covered in Thomas Lavin sheepskin, and a wood-slab coffee table—are conversely low-slung.
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“I could never understand why powder rooms are often an afterthought,” Nicholas says. “Every single guest that comes to your house will use the powder room, so don’t skimp on it.” Here, the designer dialed up the drama by choosing Belvedere, a “sexy stone” with a supple, leathered finish for everything from the floors to the custom vanity.
Art: CJ Heyliger/Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles
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A canopy-level view is where the similarities between the primary bedroom and the treehouses of youth begin and end, unless your leafy childhood forts were also lined in cashmere carpet and appointed with the likes of a Jeanneret cane bench, shearling chairs, and a massive Art Deco bronze floor lamp rather than, say, an old mattress and some string lights.
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The primary wardrobe blurs the boundaries between retail boutique and personal closet. Custom “dressing islands” of antique brass and oak are topped with glass cases for displaying jewelry and other accessories.
Art: Richard Prince/Two Palms, NY
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For the primary bath, which opens to Zorana’s wardrobe, “I did want this space to have a modern Parisian feeling,” Nicholas says. The custom vanity is made of Mystery White marble. The vanity stool is by Nickey Kehoe, and the bronze side table is by Rick Owens.
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Ironically, the blush pink chinoiserie-style wallpaper by Schumacher in Zoe’s room just exceeds the home’s prescribed palette, but its potential to endure past tweendom actually speaks to the longevity associated with neutrals. An acrylic Nursery Works Vetro crib is transparent about not detracting from the mural, but it’s also a worthy showstopper.
Art: Jose Dávila/Galleri Nicolai Wallner
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The design of Zorana’s office, which overlooks the atrium and benefits from its flood of sunlight, started with the luxurious alpaca rug by Modern Rugs. A marble desk by Studio Balestra offers a solid counterpoint to the soft shag, and a Masala lounge chair by Michel Ducaroy for Ligne Roset is a more relaxed take on an office guest chair.
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The footprint for Kurt’s home office essentially doubles, if you count the adjacent patio. Japanese antiquities, sourced by Adriano Balestra of Studio Balestra, include a 19th-century outdoor side table and a stone coffee table used inside. An olive Jeanneret Committee chair is reserved for more formal conversations.
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The guesthouse is aesthetically tied to the main house through its textured neutrals (a pair of Danish lounge chairs are upholstered in bouclé) and collected objects. A Ruemmler No.556 pendant hangs overhead and offers a serene space some peaceful illumination.
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A custom 100-foot pool has a lake-like look. Custom sectionals and teak loungers occupy the Indiana Gray limestone pool deck.
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The tennis court and adjacent gym building were added during the Rappaport-era renovation, along with a 100-foot pool.
This article is originally available in www.architecturaldigest.com