I need to brag about my dear friend Linda Grasso for a second.

Linda is the editor of Los Angeles magazine Ventura Blvd and the host of the SheSez with Linda Grasso podcast. She is a veteran journalist who interviews fascinating women about their bold, innovative, and sometimes badass moves. She and her husband Charlie recently remodeled the kitchen in their fantastic Encino home. They’ve lived in the house for years and have raised their sons there.

A little background, Linda and I go way back. We both worked at E! Entertainment Television, where we became friends after working on a project together. She has since been a fabulous confidant and consistent sounding board over the years! You may remember when she interviewed me on her podcast — which you can catch up on by clicking here.

Anyway, I went over to Linda’s house right before the remodel to have lunch with her and to brainstorm with her about fixtures, counters, the works. I loved her old kitchen… it had a Tuscan or French country feel to it. Linda and Charlie were ready for a change, though. This whole project started as an interior paint refresh, but it turned into a whole new kitchen. Like me, she is an avid cook and entertainer — so I understand her desire to create an inviting place that she’s proud of.

As far as exterior color goes, the house in this first picture is my inspiration for the color scheme on the exterior of the  COCOCOZY Design House! The inspiration house was designed by my COCOCOZY Design House partner, amazing real estate developer, Steve Jones of BetterShelter

I am in the process of picking all the exterior colors for the renovation of the stunning 1860-square-foot Spanish style home built in 1930 in the heart of View Park, LA. I have never had to make so many decisions in such a short amount of time other than right now. We started actual construction the first ever COCOCOZY Design House in the middle of April — and since then, I have been running around like crazy!!! Arghhhhh.

One of the decisions that was easiest for me was picking Benjamin Moore as the exclusive paint partner for the project. The Benjamin Moore team was nice enough to give me all of the paint for both interior and exterior of the home. I felt honored that this brand was open to the idea of working with me and my team on this inaugural COCOCOZY Design House.

Taking a quick break from the COCOCOZY Design House craziness for a Laurel Canyon home tour!

I lived just east of Laurel Canyon for such a long time, so this one hits home for me. I love the rustic nature of living in the hills above Los Angeles. One of my favorite things is finding a really refined spaced in the midst of the windy roads. This grand 1925 Mediterranean-style mansion belonging to interior designer Brigette Romanek and her husband Mark is quite fantastic. It is a 2800-square-metre untraditional family home (previously owned by legendary music producer Rick Rubin) that has true California refinement and obvious musical history.  

Let’s take a peek (below)!

Major life update alert!

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you already know that I’ve started my first big COCOCOZY design house project! And now that I’ve got my footing, I want to bring you all along on the journey with me in hopes we can learn a thing or two together!

Basically, I bought this house as an investment property a few months ago in an historic area here in Los Angeles called View Park. The Spanish Style home is 1860 square feet and was built in 1931. It sits on a large, magical lot surrounded by palm trees and birds of paradise. It was 3 bedrooms and 3 baths — but now we are morphing it into a 4 bedroom and 3.5 bath home!

If you know me, you know I was admittedly OBSESSED with the Royal Wedding!

I am still on a detox after days of being glued to the TV, live streams, and social media soaking up every detail I could about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. I can’t be the only one who cared that much, right?? Help me please.

One thing I can’t stop thinking about from the magical weekend is the Cliveden House, the exclusive hotel property just outside of Windsor where Meghan and her mother, Doria Ragland, stayed the night before the nuptials.

As you can imagine, the dreamy seventeenth century estate located in the quaint Berkshire countryside is incredibly historic and sits on about 400 acres of land. Surrounded by trees and gardens, the venue also offers stunning views of the River Thames. Inside there are ornate chandeliers, gold-plated furniture, heavy-canopied beds, oil paintings, and velvet couches. The definition of glamour!

What a dream!

Feeling inspired after seeing Rose Uniacke’s complete renovation of her stunning nineteenth century home in London. The space was originally an artist’s studio featuring a gallery and private residence — but with some major work, Rose was able to turn it into an incredible house for her family.

Take a look around (below)!

It is all about the high ceilings and exposed beams in this canal loft house in Amsterdam.  Renovated by the design team at Netherlands based interior design firm Nicemakers, this 1600s built loft on a canal was once an orphanage.  Today here’s a little house tour for you from Europe!  Love pitched ceilings in the living room and the exposed beams in the kitchen…check it out!

My mind has been swirling lately with all of the craziness in the world. Today, I am finding my refuge in escapist beautiful aspirational images of living spaces. This is not to say I am tuning out of what is going on…I am so concerned and I encourage everyone to stay alert and aware, to be understanding and helpful to our fellow citizens and to engage, to speak out when you see wrong and to use your votes to act. Over the last year, I have been so busy.  I have been finding it hard to carve out time to blog. Every time I am just about ready to write a blog post, some political crisis or natural disaster strikes and I am so shell shocked about the state of the world (our country in particular) that I cannot bear to write about what I love – design. This last week, I am finding refuge in my website…not bury my head in the sand kind of refuge…but recharge my soul kind of refuge, pick up my chin, and stand tall (or kneel) and face what is going on around us all.  Recharging is necessary these days…don’t you think?  That being said…today I bring you beautiful beautiful Paris apartment living in an Avenue Montaigne home designed by French architect Joseph Dirand (have a huge crush on his design sensibility).  Unique, classic, modern…Paris ultra modern at its best…the closet and the floating marble counter in the kitchen are certainly my faves…take a look….

You guys…I will be in Paris at the end of this week!  So excited to travel back to one of my favorite cities in the world.  This year, am stopping in Paris for a few days to see my mother at the beautiful Parisian apartment she leases ever year.  My dear friend AT is coming in from London for a few days, I’ll go back to London with her for a day to hang out with AT and her guy AND to see a top secret project I have been working on…and then back to Paris and then off to Greece.  I cannot wait.  I have a full schedule in about 11 days but I am so excited.

Anyhoooo…all of this talk of Paris travel has me dreaming about Paris interiors.  Here’s a Paris house tour of one for you…a $6.5 million dollar apartment in the 8th arrondissement….take a tour….

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend.  I certainly did.  Lots of fun dining out and very productive on other fronts.

For the blog, today, I thought it would be fun to kick off with a $35 million dollar Beverly Hills mansion tour.  Why not?  Right?    In today’s See This House, I bring you a $35 million dollar Beverly Hills mansion.  This one has its own vineyard!  Curious?  Take a tour…

Years ago, back in 2013, I covered this wonderful two toned farmhouse style Hamptons home’s amazing kitchen on COCOCOZY (old post is here).  I loved the striking open kitchen area with a dark black painted ceiling with the color creeping down onto the walls and down below the second level clerestory windows.

Now, I just learned that new photos of this lovely East Hampton kitchen on Further Lane designed by Dan Scotti Design have surfaced!  I spotted the new snaps on designer Dan’s website and on Architectural Digest’s website too.  The home is fantastic.  Still my favorite room is the kitchen…but I am loving the pool area too.  This one is for bestie AM and her hubby JE…take a look at the pool…ideas ideas perhaps for their East Hampton outdoors….

My style sits somewhere in the middle of traditional and modern.  So a I can appreciate a home that is sleek and streamline while at the same time I can adore a house with traditional touches.  This Pacific Palisades house by designed by Kristen Panitch Interiors is what I am calling “soft traditional”.  It is not hard core classic and it is not modern either.  It has some really lovely soft touches that you might find in a classically decorated home but the designed is finessed.

It starts with the light pink chinoiserie style wallpaper in the foyer.  A nice entry hall that sets the tone for this house tour!

HGTV’s 2017 Smart Home is a beautiful, modern, southwestern style space featuring high tech lighting collections by Legrand.  Celebrity interior designer Tiffany Brooks created a serene and sophisticated oasis in Scottsdale Arizona.  We were invited to take a sneak peek a few weeks ago.  My favorite room…the stunning kitchen.  Take a look!

It’s Friday.  For some reason it feels like a Monday.  I have so much to do!  In back to back to back to back meetings all day and have a million questions and projects I am working on.  I thought Friday was supposed to be the day you wore casual clothes to work and you wrapped up everything from the week and got started on planning for the next.  Organized, reflective, strategic and casual is what I hoped Friday would be (and with a little weekend dreaming in the mix).  Not mine. It will be a frantic dash from here and there. My Friday is a Monday kind of Friday!

With that said, I began the week on Monday with a luxury home tour here on the blog – it was a multimillion dollar real estate listing mansion tour.  For pure symmetry and because today already feels like Monday did, I’ll end the week with another house tour.  This time a million dollar listing in Paris.  As many of you know, my mother rents the same lovely Parisian apartment every year and I try to visit for at least a few days.  So today, in the middle of everything, I am thinking of summer in the back of my mind and Paris.

Here is another beautiful Paris apartment house tour for you to contemplate!

This weekend I was house hunting again.  This time I ended up on the east side of town in hills of Los Feliz, Larchmont Village and Hancock Park.  I have no focus area in my search for a new house…I think I could live anywhere.   First I thought west side of Los Angeles only, now who knows!  Watch my instastories @cococozy on Instagram to see the houses I toured this weekend.

Today, I bring you a house tour of a classic Connecticut mansion that was recently reduced in price! This real estate listing is for all of you East Coast readers!  110 Clapboard Ridge Road in Greenwich, CT is a nearly 17,000 square foot Georgian style home that was first listed a few years ago for $35 million dollars but has now been reduced to $29 million.  Not at all in my price range and a little too traditional for me but I love house touring so I thought why not this one?  What I like about it is the exterior and the over 5 acres it sits on.  Take the tour…I even found a video of it…and let me know what you think…

No fear of pattern, print and color in this whimsical East Hampton home I bring you today.  This one is from Anna Burke Interiors.  We showed you the marvelous tile kitchen backsplash last week from this seemingly summer house.  Now here is the rest of it.

Every single trick in a designer’s playbook is used in this home from grass cloth wallpaper to custom window coverings to bold lighting and art.  If you like pattern and color…this all works – a fun cheerful space with lots of cottage charm.

Take a peek…