Hollywood ‘fixer’ seeks design help to downsize

In advance of covid strike, Howard Bragman had two houses and a spouse. Right now the celeb disaster supervisor, identified for cleansing up some of Hollywood’s biggest messes, is solitary and residing huge in half the house he after had. For a feeling of what he has dealt with, past shoppers include things like Sharon Osbourne, Nick Cannon, Wendy Williams, Chris Brown and Monica Lewinsky, which just makes me truly feel grateful I’m not calling him for representation.

Going into the pandemic, Bragman occupied a 1,000 sq.-foot condominium in New York and a 4,200 square-foot, 5-bed room, five-bath modern-day farmhouse in Valley Village, a Los Angeles suburb. As soon as covid took maintain, supplying up the apartment manufactured feeling due to the fact any Tv work he did there he could now do remotely.

As for the California residence, at the time he and his partner parted strategies, “the put seemed far too major,” explained Bragman, 66. “I didn’t want the upkeep. I preferred to live in another way and vacation additional.”

He observed a two-tale, 2700-sq.-foot townhouse in nearby Toluca Lake. Other than needing a total makeover, it had what he required. The bones ended up excellent, but the put hadn’t been updated because it was designed in 1977.

“That was a moreover,” he extra. “I loathe having to pay for a undesirable renovation. I’d rather shell out for no renovation.” The spot also did not have place for his substantial art and images selection and his combined 5,200-square-ft worthy of of home furnishings.

Since a real specialist is aware when to phone for enable, the Hollywood fixer called on his longtime friend Beverly Hills interior designer Christopher Grubb to support him take care of the fixer.

“We’ve been on really a layout journey,” Grubb stated. “This home is 180-degrees different from his last just one.”

“When you’re going through a crisis, you discover out who your buddies are,” Bragman joked.

Bragman purchased the townhouse in Could 2020. He bought his farmhouse that summer, and moved into an condominium whilst he, Grubb, and architect Kenneth David Lee of KDL Architects went to function on the transform.

Making use of a palette of blues, grays, creams and taupes, they set up new cabinetry, flooring, fixtures and developed-ins, which include a ladder-clad library wall in the principal bedroom.

Then they grappled with the artwork and furniture. “What do you love and what will in shape?” Grubb said were the defining questions. They started off by choosing which big art items would keep and decorated all over them.

“Art has a humorous way of speaking to you and telling you exactly where it belongs,” stated Bragman, who estimates he marketed or gave away about 35 parts of considerable art. “After I picked out what I preferred to hold, Christopher made a amazing gallery wall.”

In the kitchen and breakfast place, loaded blue cabinets (Dunn Edwards Luna Pier) blend with warm gray counter tops, as satin brass components and a split-end chandelier include sheen. (Courtesy of Arch-Interiors Style Group, Inc.)
Due to the fact going from 5,200 sq.-toes to 2,700 can come to feel like an amputation, I asked Bragman and Grubb if they could translate their method into encouraging pointers for other folks facing equivalent everyday living and housing transitions:

◼️ Get out your happiness meter. “When consumers are downsizing, and we are doing work collectively to edit what goes and what stays, I start by asking what helps make them happiest. Then we appear at what suits,” Grubb reported.

◼️ Contemplate your art on mortgage. “I look at it this way,” Bragman claimed, “I may possibly have paid out for the art, but I don’t personal it. I am only the caretaker so extended as I have it. I take pleasure in that now anyone else will appreciate it.”

◼️ Prepare to subtract then add. Although much more than half of Bragman’s aged furniture created the slice, many of the major pieces did not. “When transferring to a lesser area, you basically want to get rid of extra home furnishings than you think,” Grubb said, “to make home for some new objects you are going to need to pull the place with each other.”

◼️ Enlist a pro. A skilled designer will aid you determine out what will do the job in which and what won’t. Grubb realized appropriate away that specified items would not perform, but he permit Bragman test them anyway. “He would say, ‘We’ll see,’” said Bragman, “when he really meant, ‘It will not get the job done.’”

◼️ Be real looking about worth. “I experienced a great deal of tailor made household furniture created,” Bragman claimed, “pieces that I truly cherished but that didn’t transfer nicely to the new household. I figured out they have been not worthy of significantly.” He sold some for compact amounts and gave a lot absent. “New home furnishings is like a new car, it depreciates the minute you generate it off the large amount,” Grubb included. As well as, today’s used home furnishings marketplace is flooded.

◼️ Discover the upside of downsizing. “I liked my farmhouse, but this is much more my type,” Bragman mentioned. “It feels great. I sense like I missing pounds. I have everything I will need and nothing I really don’t. When I stop by another person who life in a a lot bigger, extravagant residence, I take pleasure in it, but I thank God I don’t have it. I wish more men and women knew that if they scaled again, they could be so a great deal happier.”

Marni Jameson is the writer of 6 house and way of living textbooks, which include “What to Do With Almost everything You Own to Depart the Legacy You Want.”