See How Minnie Driver Turned a Double Wide Trailer Into One Killer Beach House
Everybody has a happy place. For actress and singer-songwriter Minnie Driver, that place happens to be a trailer park. Yes, you read that correctly. But-as you might suspect, given Driver's celebrity status-this is not your ordinary trailer park. The actress and her family have a double-wide unit in a chic trailer community in Malibu, where they like to escape for weekends of outdoor fun.
"When I’m there, I surf, we ride our bikes everywhere, we skateboard," says Driver dreamily. "It’s a super tight-knit community, which is what I was really looking for." But, despite the fresh air and friendly community, there was one thing Driver's home-away-from-home was missing: the right design.
"It was all slightly misproportioned," the actress explains. "It was lovely and charming, but I wanted something that really worked as a space to entertain in."
Enter One Kings Lane. The home company's in-house design team, led by Becca Roderick, partnered with Driver to create an interior worthy of her happy place. When Roderick and her team came on board, the space was far from a blank canvas, though-thanks to Driver's own interest in interior design.
"Minnie had taken on a thorough updating of the home with some space planning that really optimized it for the way she lives within it," Roderick tells House Beautiful. "She and her architect had done a fantastic job of selecting finishes: great new wood floors, colorful kitchen cabinets, and a lovely paint color. This created an inspiring blank slate for us to insert our creative ideas-and a fantastic palette as a jumping-off point."
That palette is one of light blues, bright whites, and dashes of natural woods-all of which serve to reflect the home's beachfront locale while creating a sense of calm.
"I didn’t want a huge amount of pattern, and I wanted it to be this kind of streamlined, calm space, " Driver explains.
Adds Roderick: "It was important that she feel like the space was a sanctuary-a great getaway that she could turn to when she needed to relax and tune into herself, her family, her friends and the natural environment."
So, the One Kings Lane team set about sourcing pieces that, as Roderick explains, "reflect the location and the feel of a classic California beach bungalow-like a bench and chair from California-based Community and a vintage driftwood coffee table.
"However, it was also important that we reflect Minnie’s classic British influences," Roderick explains. So, the team layered in pillows made from antique fabrics. "The goal was to create a true mix of these two aesthetics, and have the space that can become a safe haven for Minnie," says Roderick. "The collected items are a definite merging of California and the UK."
Driver was an active participant in the process from start to finish. "I’m very, very hands on," she explains. "I was not handing over to a designer to say, 'okay, do what you want because I don’t have any ideas?'-I knew very much what I wanted. And what was so brilliant about the design team was that they translated all of my ideas."
The admiration, it would seem, is mutual: "Minnie has very refined taste when it comes to design and decor," says Roderick. "It’s in her blood, as her mother was an interior decorator. It’s always a great experience to work with someone who has experience with interior design; the relationship can then become a true collaboration-with both the designer and the client bouncing ideas off one another." As such, she says, "it was a fantastic ongoing conversation with the most beautiful outcome!"
Or, as Driver sums up in recalling her reaction to the finished product: "I was absolutely blown away."
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