Designer Secrets for Making Your Home Prettier and More Comfortable in 2021

When it comes to helping a home put its best foot forward, even icons look to the pros for expert help. Just as Hollywood starlets turn to personal stylists, A-list homes — like this seven-bedroom, 14-bathroom, 15,803-square-foot Beverly Hills residence designed by William Hefner — call for special guidance.

Designer Lisa Vail of Vesta (an interior design, custom furniture and home staging powerhouse that has tackled more than 2,000 properties in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami) is the special guide who helped these rooms come alive. She walked HGTV through the process of cultivating the gracious, luxurious West Coast vibe of the home — and how anyone can follow in her footsteps.

Lisa’s goal in outfitting the home “was to keep it elegant and sophisticated with a slightly modern feel,” she explains. “It reminded me a little of the old Hollywood Paul Williams [a famed Los Angeles architect who designed for celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball] homes of the ‘30s and ‘40s with the classic winding staircase at the entry, so I guess that would have been my main inspiration for the design.”

Yup, you read that right. “The last few years I have noticed fewer and fewer window treatments in homes and am rarely asked if I can add them,” Lisa says. Not quite ready to let it all shine out? Go minimal: “I think letting the light in whenever possible is always best, but in spaces that require privacy or light filtering, I recommend a simple solar shade,” she explains.

An experienced bartender will tell you that quality quaffs require just a few high-quality, well-balanced ingredients — and an experienced home bar designer will tell you the same thing. When pulling together an entertaining space like this one, “I like to use things in pairs or threes to keep it less fussy, [to arrange] things that are actually used in a bar and try to keep them a similar material,” Lisa says. “I think it looks too busy and distracting if there are too many colors and materials in a small space.”