Chynna Phillips wistfully recalls that throughout her childhood she was always traveling. This is my first real home. Phillips is the daughter of Michelle and John Phillips, cofounders of the group The Mamas and the Papas, who divorced in Last year Chynna became a pop star in her own right with the group Wilson Phillips, whose debut album went platinum.
The three girls grew up together in Los Angeles, scions of a privileged yet turbulent rock-and-roll lifestyle. The success of their first record, however, did allow the purchase of some stability—they all bought new homes. Phillips, twenty-four, chose a 1,square-foot apartment in Santa Monica with an unobstructed view of the ocean. Among the many elaborate thanks given to musicians, producers and engineers on the album, there is also thanks to Allan Warnick, her interior designer.
Warnick was an old family friend, having first met Michelle Phillips when she was pregnant with Chynna. As the younger Phillips's singing career began to take off, he suggested that she come up with a more striking personal image by adopting the smart blond bob that has become her stylistic trademark. Warnick looked beyond the somewhat sterile contemporary architecture of the apartment and created a welcoming, cozy and frankly feminine series of rooms. He started by asking what colors she liked. I didn't know how different colors could work together.
A one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old hand-hooked rug in tones of mauve, ivory and pink sparked her interest in collecting early Americana. It now rests on the living room floor, surrounded by a sofa covered in a floral linen, a pair of pink dining chairs with rush seats and backs and floral cushions, and another pair of hearth chairs that appear deceptively small, as though waiting for visiting elves. The room is centered around a wood table painted pale rose and covered with knickknacks that Phillips either bought with Warnick, collected on tour or culled from her childhood.
Roseville ceramic vases from a shop in her neighborhood, a nineteenth-century Lalique glass vase from London and an old abacus and spelling book are arrayed on the table with rag yarn and turn-of-the-century children's slippers. Rising above a cloud of dried flowers in the alcove over the fireplace and casting a benevolent gaze over the scene is a late-nineteenth-century carved wood angel from Maine. I love it. I call her Sweetheart. A stuffed doll and bear recline on the bed. Story lamps on end tables are made from a chalkware sailor and an English ceramic biscuit box.
Unsightly reminders of contemporary hustle, such as the television, VCR and stereo, are tucked away in painted wood consoles specially designed by Warnick and Mulligan. Draped across the end of the bed is an early American quilt in shades of ivory, sage, mauve and blue. Guys walk in and just laugh. The layout of the living room allows for a dining table, but Warnick has put an armchair in that area near the windows so Phillips can watch the sunset over the Pacific. The adjacent kitchen, with its granite counters and gleaming fixtures, looks untouched.
The office, which seems well used, is equipped with a broad table doubling as a desk and a s Windsor chair. The walls are hung with evidence of Phillips's success—gold and platinum records and framed photographs of the group.
Another wall bears three photographs of Phillips, aged six, wearing studio headphones and singing into a microphone, a real rock-and-roll baby. But when I'm touring day in and day out, those sterile hotel atmospheres make me feel cold and distant. I bring my framed pictures and my quilt to try to warm it up, to make it as much like home as possible.
I feel so comfortable here where I can light my candles, run my own bath and relax. It's special. This article originally appeared in the May issue of Architectural Digest. Allan Warnick says he balanced her "strong personality" with a feminine design in the Santa Monica apartment. Most of the furnishings—including the hand-hooked rugs, the circa Pennsylvania cabinet and the painted low table in the living room—are from Richard Mulligan Antiques.
Fabric on hearth chairs, Ralph Lauren. Explore Celebrity Homes celebrity style from the archives magazine may