Last month on Gardenista, we featured the transformation of a pool and patio by LA architecture practice Simo Design (members of the Remodelista Architect/Designer Directory). The firm?s owners, Alexi Rennalls and Sam Gnatovich, have made a side business out of rehabbing LA houses with ?good bones? and putting them back on the market. (See Pool of the Week: A Modern Update in Beverly Hills on Gardenista for more.)
As it turns out, that sprawling estate on Beverly Hills’ Hutton Drive is the former home of Mary-Ann Mobley?actress and 1959’s Miss America?and her husband, talk-show host Gary Collins. The house was built in 1948 in an East Coast?traditional style and had been lovingly cared for, but had also received a few unfortunate injections of glamour over the years. “What was there was extremely dated,” said Rennalls. ?The floor plan made sense, but everything else needed a complete overhaul.” Photography by Jessica Sample.

Above: Visitors enter a dramatic double-height entryway with ash wood paneling, flooded with light from a skylight above. “There wasn’t really an opportunity to do much in terms of staging this space as an entryway,” said Rennalls, “so it was important for the materials here to be special.” The pair replaced the existing staircase?it was heavy and dated, with a carved bannister?with a modern floating staircase of wood, steel, and glass. “You can see these stairs from many pe...