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Cabinetry is designer Cynthia Abi-Naked’s love language. The founder of Los Angeles-based firm Anry Naked Interiors has spent most of her life around custom millwork. Her family runs A to Z Cabinets, which has made bespoke pieces for the likes of Jake Arnold, Night Palm, and Disc Interiors, with Abi-Naked still serving as managing designer. So when she’s tackling her own renovations for clients, you bet she’s going to go all out on clever storage. “For me, form follows function. It’s not just about what looks good,” says Abi-Naked. Her new Bel Air project is proof: there are now cubbies for storing board games next to the breakfast banquette, a hidden hamper in the bathroom vanity, and—an absolute must—a trash pull-out in the kitchen.
Before Abi-Naked started sketching up ideas and sifting through stain options, she took a good hard look at the bones of the house. It was flooded with light thanks to the abundance of French doors and skylights, but the layout was quirky. “I was like, why am I walking through the closet first before I get to the bedroom?” she recalls. The home’s bathrooms (one of which is located in the guest house) were also asking for a gut job. Ahead, the designer takes us behind the scenes of the renovation.
Stripping Back and Filling in Gaps
Abi-Naked was especially curious about the ceiling beams in the living area: Was there something even better hiding out underneath the white paint? She had her contractor chip away to find out the answer and it turned into a win. They were solid wood.
The gray brick fireplace needed a bit more of a pick-me-up. Before painting it the same white hue as the Roman Clay walls (just 20 percent lighter), she filled in many of the deep gaps with grout to avoid any dark shadows. “The edges of the brick almost disappeared in some areas, it just felt a bit more lived-in,” she says.
On the Surface
An easy way to elevate the kitchen without fully gutting it was to remove the upper cabinets that were stealing light from the large window over the sink. She replaced them with two thick floating shelves that match the ceiling beams. The existing cabinets got a fresh paint job with Sherwin-Williams’ Naturel and aged nickel hardware (Abi-Naked swapped out many of the pulls for knobs). She also didn’t see a reason to rip out the marble countertops, so she simply had them honed to take off some of the shine.
The Furniture’s Second Act
While Abi-Naked wants to put her own touch on a house, she’s also game for what her clients have to bring to the table. In the case of the kitchen, that was a large modular sectional. The designer upholstered the U-shape piece in a maroon fabric and surrounded it in millwork to create the feeling of a built-in banquette. She even designed a custom table to match the light oak wood. “They love having game nights, so the goal was to create a space where 10 people could sit around and play,” she says. The cabinets on the ends of the bench are the perfect size for stashing Monopoly boards.
The homeowners also didn’t want to part with their bed frame, so the designer riffed off the dark wood piece in the primary bedroom with a rich stain on the beams and Portola Paints’ Rustica Roman Clay on the walls. “I like finding ways to use elements clients really love from their past and not just getting rid of everything,” says Abi-Naked.
A Tall Cabinet Tale
The primary bathroom was a mashup of shapes: a half-moon vanity, a hexagonal jacuzzi, and big square tiles. Beyond the wonky layout, the room was unnecessarily large and soaking up precious space from the neighboring closet. The designer simplified the footprint with a straight vanity, jazzed up with bullnose doors, a freestanding tub, and a hidden toilet room. Then she got to work on storage.
“There are some beautiful hampers, but if you have the opportunity to integrate something into millwork, that’s a great thing,” the designer shares. The tower cabinet at the end of the vanity was built for that very purpose: it holds a pull-out double hamper and provides shelving for tall bottles and piles of towels.
Ditch the Niche
The one and only nod to the old guest bathroom’s ways: 4×4 tiles. Between the verdant shade of green zellige and the large skylight overhead, “it almost feels like you’re in the jungle,” she says. “It magnifies the colors so much more.” Rather than carve out a niche within the new tile, Abi-Naked chose a sleeker solution: the shelf of a Calacatta Viola marble slab.
The Ultimate Hangout
The guest house is now part pool bar, part cigar lounge, part PlayStation den. An antique mirror and lots of leather dialed up the moodiness factor while a low pile rug keeps things practical for friends walking in with wet feet. The designer tricked out the stained oak cabinetry with a paneled mini fridge, wine cooler, and ice maker and topped it with a leathered quartzite fittingly dubbed “fusion blue explosion.”
Reading Nook to the Next Level
The initial plan was to fill the shed with gardening gear, but when the designer learned one of her clients is a bookworm, she came up with a better use. Using IKEA bookcases (custom woodwork wasn’t a justifiable splurge for such a small space), she turned it into a cozy library. The doors and shelves are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Classic Burgundy while a backdrop of velvet curtains hides an awkward window at the back of the structure. This is no place for a lawn mower.
