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Emma Roberts’s Los Angeles home became warmer and more personal through a small number of deliberate decisions by AD100 designers Emily Ward and Louisa Pierce: one unifying beige paint, a dusty-blue accent, woven wood shades, a genuinely useful compact island, and pattern placed where it has the most effect. Their April 2024 Architectural Digest interview shows how those sources support everyday life for Roberts and her son without making the rooms feel crowded.
The idea behind Emma Roberts’s home
Roberts told Architectural Digest that she had lived in 10 houses by the time she was 15. After having a son, she wanted a home that felt “really ours” and reflected their memories and style. She described the finished house as being “like a womb,” while the accompanying video called it a “grownup dollhouse.” Those descriptions explain why Pierce & Ward did not treat the project as a showroom. The rooms are layered, but they are also arranged for reading, cooking, getting ready, playing and hosting.
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The living room, for example, is used when guests come over and during the holidays, when furniture is moved to make room for a Christmas tree. Roberts also calls it a quiet room where she likes to read on the couch. The designers’ sources therefore solve practical problems as well as visual ones.
Pierce & Ward’s sources, room by room
| Space | Source | How it was used | Design purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole interior | Benjamin Moore Manchester Tan | Painted across the formerly white interior | Warms and visually unifies many white surfaces while keeping the house light |
| Living-room windows | Benjamin Moore Cos Cob Stonewall | Applied to the window mullions | Adds a deep, dusty-blue note |
| Windows throughout | Hunter Douglas Provenance woven wood shades | Used as the foundational window treatment | Filters daylight, adds an earthy texture, provides privacy and preserves an outward view |
| Petite kitchen | Urban Outfitters Grayson kitchen island | Compact, off-the-shelf island | Creates a place to sit, turn around and put things down while cooking |
| Primary bedroom | John Derian Rose Mosaic Forest fabric | Headboard, bed frame and custom drapery | Concentrates a floral pattern in one enveloping composition |
| Child’s bedroom | Mulberry Home Flying Ducks wallpaper | Installed on the ceiling | Gives a child a special view from bed without covering every wall in pattern |
| Primary bathroom | The French Tradition | Custom vanity with two storage towers | Provides organized storage, good lighting and a comfortable getting-ready or desk area |
| Living-room shelving | The French Tradition | Replaced transparent chicken-wire panels with caning | Softens colorful books and hides electronic equipment |
| Living-room sofa | Rose Tarlow glazed linen stripe | Reupholstered Roberts’s existing RH sofa | Uses a stripe as a versatile neutral with a subtle sheen |
What paint colors did Emma Roberts use?
Manchester Tan for a warmer, calmer backdrop
The starting point was a problem common in bright interiors: too many slightly different whites. Pierce & Ward and Roberts selected Benjamin Moore Manchester Tan to make the surfaces read as one warmer background. The color was chosen to retain the home’s light quality rather than turn it dark, so its effect is cohesion and softness instead of a dramatic color change.
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Manchester Tan is most useful here as a whole-house strategy. A single warm neutral lets furniture, fabrics and books supply the variation. If you are adapting the idea, view a large sample on several walls at different times of day. A beige that looks balanced in cool morning light can appear more yellow beside warm lamps, and the exact result depends on the room’s existing flooring, trim and daylight. The Roberts project demonstrates the value of judging a color in context, not from a small chip alone.
Cos Cob Stonewall on the mullions
In the living room, the window mullions were painted Benjamin Moore Cos Cob Stonewall, described in the interview as a deep, dusty blue. Roberts responded positively after seeing the color in the room. Restricting the blue to the mullions gives the windows definition without competing with the larger neutral field. It is a useful pattern for a light room that needs contrast: put the stronger color on an architectural element rather than every wall.
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Emily Ward calls window coverings an important budget priority because they “instantly add layers to a home.” For Roberts’s house, the foundational treatment was Hunter Douglas Provenance woven wood shades. Ward describes the bamboo-like material as a way to filter light, add an earthy element and remain down for privacy while still allowing occupants to see outside.
The choice solves several needs at once. Bare glass can make a pale room feel flat; woven texture introduces depth without a heavy curtain. Keeping the shade lowered supports privacy, while the open weave maintains a relationship with the view. The interview presents this as Ward’s reasoning for this project, not a universal rule that every window treatment must be expensive.
How to apply the shade idea to your own windows
- Check the light: Decide whether the room needs gentle filtering or near-blackout coverage. Woven shades are suited to filtered daylight, not automatically to every sleeping space or screen-heavy room.
- Decide how much privacy you need: The Roberts approach keeps the shade down while preserving an outward view. Test a fabric sample from inside the room at night, when interior lights can change what is visible from outside.
- Match the material to the architecture: The earthy weave balances warm paint and natural-looking furnishings. A very glossy or sharply colored shade would create a different effect.
- Measure each opening: Window depth, mullions and the desired inside- or outside-mount position determine whether a shade will fit and operate correctly.
How to make a small kitchen work with an island
Roberts initially believed her petite kitchen could not accommodate an island. Pierce & Ward showed her a compact, off-the-shelf Urban Outfitters model identified in the feature as the Grayson kitchen island. Ward says it changed the space because an island gives someone somewhere to sit, turn around or set something down while cooking.
The important lesson is the function, not a claim that the same Grayson model is still sold. The 2024 feature does not establish its current inventory, dimensions or price. When searching for a comparable small kitchen island, start with the footprint that leaves a clear working route around the existing counters. Then check whether the top is deep enough for the tasks you actually do, whether storage opens without blocking circulation, and whether the height supports sitting or only standing prep.
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- Measure the open floor area, including door swings, appliance doors and the path to the sink, range and refrigerator.
- Mark the proposed footprint on the floor with painter’s tape and live with it during a normal cooking routine.
- Choose the function first: seating, landing space, prep surface, storage or a combination.
- Confirm the island’s listed dimensions, materials and stock status before ordering. Comparable listings are not necessarily the Urban Outfitters Grayson model shown in the feature.
- Keep the finish compatible with the warm neutral room so the island reads as part of the kitchen rather than an obstruction added later.
Pattern that feels intentional, not overwhelming
John Derian’s Rose Mosaic Forest in the primary bedroom
The primary bedroom’s floral pattern is John Derian’s Rose Mosaic Forest fabric. Pierce & Ward used it on the headboard, the bed frame and custom drapery, allowing one pattern to wrap the main pieces of the room. Ward characterizes it as timeless, feminine, fun, youthful and sophisticated. Repeating the same textile gives the pattern scale and continuity; it does not require adding several unrelated prints.
This approach is especially effective when the surrounding walls and larger surfaces remain quiet. The fabric becomes the room’s defining gesture, while the repeated application makes the choice look architectural rather than incidental.
Flying Ducks on the child’s bedroom ceiling
In the child’s room, Mulberry Home’s Flying Ducks wallpaper appears on the ceiling. Ward explains, “We thought it would be so fun for a kid to be lying in bed and looking up at something special like that.” Moving the print overhead gives the child a point of interest without wrapping every wall in pattern. It is a targeted use of visual impact: memorable from the bed, calmer from the doorway.
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Custom details that improve daily use
The bathroom vanity
Local cabinetmakers The French Tradition built the primary bathroom vanity with two storage towers. Ward says it gives Roberts somewhere to get ready with great lighting that feels cozy and can even function as a desk. The towers keep supplies organized vertically, while the seated or surface area supports more than one routine.
The lesson is to design a bathroom station around the actions that happen there. Good lighting, accessible storage and a usable surface can matter as much as the vanity’s finish. A desk-capable area also makes the room more flexible when a bedroom or office is occupied.
Caning on the living-room shelving
The French Tradition also replaced the transparent chicken-wire covering on the living-room shelving with caning. The change softens the shelves’ appearance, tones down the visual noise of colorful books and conceals electronic equipment. Caning still suggests what is behind it, but it is less stark than exposed wire and more forgiving of the practical items a living room accumulates.
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Why the living room’s stripes work
Pierce & Ward reupholstered Roberts’s existing RH sofa in a Rose Tarlow glazed linen stripe. Ward calls stripes a neutral and says of the fabric, “We love this fabric because it has that sheen to it—it looks elevated in a formal room and it helps keep the volume in the pillows.” The stripe supplies order without behaving like a loud motif, and the glazed finish adds refinement to a room that still has to withstand regular use.
The designers’ own club chairs combine stripes and florals, showing that a room can mix patterns when each has a defined role. The sofa’s stripe establishes rhythm; the chairs add a more concentrated pattern moment. Ward also notes that stripes can hide stains better than some alternatives, an upholstery observation rather than a guaranteed performance rating.
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Ward’s upholstery distinction is simple: piping reads as more traditional and formal, while leaving it off supports a younger, more modern silhouette. If a full patterned sofa feels too strong, the same idea can be reduced to piping or a pair of pillows while the main upholstery stays neutral. That keeps the room’s pattern budget under control.
A repeatable method for using the Pierce & Ward ideas
- Unify the background. Identify competing whites and test one warm neutral in the actual rooms before committing.
- Add one architectural contrast. Use a deeper color on a limited feature such as mullions, trim or an interior door.
- Layer the windows. Select a shade or blind for the required light and privacy, then evaluate its texture as part of the room’s furnishings.
- Solve the circulation problem. In a small kitchen, tape out a compact island before buying and prioritize the tasks it must support.
- Give pattern a job. Repeat one fabric across related bedroom pieces, or move a child-friendly print to the ceiling instead of covering every wall.
- Customize storage where routines demand it. Towers, concealed panels and a well-lit surface can make a bathroom or living room easier to use every day.
- Use upholstery details deliberately. Choose stripes as a quiet organizing pattern, then decide whether piping’s formal outline suits the desired mood.
What the 2024 sources do—and do not—establish
The interview and companion coverage were published April 15 and 16, 2024, for the May 2024 issue. They document the materials and decisions in that project; they do not verify present-day retail inventory, current specifications or prices. The Grayson island may no longer be available, and any replacement should be checked as a separate product. The same caution applies to fabrics, wallpaper, shades and paint products whose stock or color formulation can change.
What remains useful is the design logic: warm the broad surfaces, reserve strong color for a precise architectural feature, treat window coverings as part of the room’s texture, and spend pattern where it will be experienced most. In Roberts’s home, those choices make a light interior feel lived-in without sacrificing calm.
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