They Bought Serena Williams’s Former Bel-Air House and Set to Work Giving It Better Flow

Time：2024-08-01 Click：

Los Angeles interior designer Rodrigo Vargas and his family brought cohesion to a Colonial-style house that had gotten a hodgepodge of updates over the decades
BY NANCY A. RUHLING
 | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 27, 2024 | MANSION GLOBAL
 
 
The 1920s house is in the middle of nearly 3 acres.
GAVIN CATER FOR SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALTY
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It was the half-dozen century-old sycamore trees that really caught the eye of Los Angeles interior designer Rodrigo Vargas when he first toured Serena Williams’s former house in Bel-Air.
He and his partner, Erik Storey, who is in the TV industry, had a home in Los Angeles’s historic Hancock Park neighborhood and were looking for a larger house and property where their daughter, Pilar, who is now 12, could hang out with friends.
They decided to buy it and in 2020, paid around $7.95 million for the 6,100-square-foot house, which “was perfectly suited for us,” said Vargas, adding that it’s on one of the oldest streets in the area. “The neighborhood is a beautiful and serene enclave. The house is large, it’s on a double lot, and it’s in the middle of mountains and trees. The first night it was so quiet that we could not sleep.”
Trees on the property really caught the eye of Los Angeles interior designer Rodrigo Vargas when he first toured the home.
Gavin Cater for Sotheby’s International Realty
The two-story, 1920s Colonial-style house, set in the center of nearly 3 acres, had been updated through the decades, with the last renovation, completed in the 1980s, covering only the primary rooms.
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The house, which lends itself to large-scale entertaining with an abundance of indoor-outdoor spaces, has several amenities, including a swimming pool and spa, a media room and home theater, that are ideal for a family.
“There were a lot of things architecturally that were not cohesive,” Vargas says. “This was an opportunity to make the entire house speak the same language. All the renovated rooms have the same story running through them.”

After upgrading the systems, Vargas, who renovated his previous house, focused on the cosmetic work during a six-month renovation while the family lived on the premises. That involved gut-renovating the kitchen, the six bedrooms, the six full bathrooms and the half bath, restoring the marble floors and cleaning up the overgrown grounds.
That involved gut-renovating the kitchen, the six bedrooms, the six full bathrooms and the half bath.
Gavin Cater for Sotheby’s International Realty
“There was no need for additions,” he says. “The footprint of the house was sufficient for the lot, which includes nearly an acre of flat land. The interior spaces are generous; they just needed to flow for better function.”
Vargas, whose eponymous design firm specializes in commercial and hospitality projects, chose a neutral color palette centered around crisp, clean bright whites.
“The house was very dark,” he said. “Living in the canyon, there are shadows a lot of the time. But the house has light coming in from all four sides, which surprised our architect.”
The furnishings, classical and contemporary, evoke the home’s old-world charm and the lifestyle of the new inhabitants.
Now that Pilar is older, Vargas, who is 56, and Storey, who have two other homes, have decided to move on. In June, Louis DeLaura and Ernie Stone of Sotheby’s International Realty-Beverly Hills Brokerage listed the property for $13.5 million.
The primary bedroom features neutral floral paper on the walls.
Gavin Cater for Sotheby’s International Realty
MORE: Montecito, California, Mansion Built in 1910 Lists for $52 Million After Multimillion-Dollar Renovation
Vargas and Storey are looking for something smaller in the same neighborhood to house the two of them. “Leaving this home,” Vargas said, “will be bittersweet.”
Vargas provided more details on the project.
How do you describe your aesthetic… it’s timeless
My advice to others… is to have patience. Enjoy the process, and be flexible because you don’t know what you will find behind the walls. You might have to do things differently than you planned. And whether it’s the architect or the air-conditioning installer, listen to the professional.
The biggest surprise… was finding fixtures, moldings and door knobs that would match the ones that were installed 20 years ago. We replicated some and used stock items for others. We had to look at what was worth going to the expense of getting custom made, and the opportunity to combine custom and stock products makes the story of this house flow seamlessly.
My favorite room after the renovation… is the library, which had been an office. It’s the first room off the main entry, so it’s used a lot. I love how the light hits the room, which is in one of the quietest parts of the house. It’s a great room throughout the day. It’s beautifully paneled and has a bookcase. The scale of the room is perfect. It’s a nice size, but if you’re in it by yourself, it feels cozy, yet it is ample enough for several people.
The most dramatic change… was in the living room. It’s a half-moor or semi-circular room, and it’s very dramatic with double-height ceilings. It opens into the garden, so it feels like an indoor-outdoor room. We removed the heavy drapery and changed the lighting. 
The living room underwent the most dramatic change.
Gavin Cater for Sotheby’s International Realty
MORE: F1 Champ Jenson Button’s California Compound Has Emerged From a Major Renovation
A favorite material or product discovered during the process… was the vast selection of architectural lighting that’s available. The house had large can lights in the ceilings, and we changed them to small pin lights. This really transformed everything, making the rooms serene and elegant, proving that small accessories can make a big difference.
An unexpected expense… was the landscape. It just kept on growing. One of the old sycamores was felled in a recent storm, and we kept on buying trees and hedges and planting flowers, but that’s the beauty of the place.
The landscape was an unexpected expense during the renovation.
Gavin Cater for Sotheby’s International Realty
Total cost of the renovation… is probably several hundred thousand dollars. We have logged all the expenses, but we haven’t started adding up all the numbers yet.