Step Inside Olivia Culpo’s Enviable L.A. Home

Olivia Culpo doesn’t make rash decisions, and her journey toward a new home in Los Angeles was no different. The former Miss Universe, an actress and entrepreneur who lived in a very pink, girly 1,300-square-foot loft—half of which was “basically a glam room and closet”—looked at real estate for a long time before landing in Encino. “I lived in Hollywood right in the thick of it, in the middle of all the noise, and I realized I really wanted something that felt more calming, like a sanctuary almost,” she says. “A respite from the city.”

But finding the perfect home, a new five-bedroom house with a backyard view and pool to welcome her large, close-knit family, was only the first step. The interior design portion would take far longer. “For a lot of my friends and family, when year one turned into year two and I still had barely any furniture, everyone was freaking out, like, Why is she taking so long?” But, Culpo says, “I’m a very slow decision maker, I’m very cautious and methodical.” And, she adds, “I just couldn’t make up my mind!”

Culpo did enlist the help of an extra-patient and trusted collaborator: Jess Diab . (The home’s construction was handled by iBuild in L.A.) Diab designed her aforementioned “little sparkler of a loft” in 2017, at the time working with Orlando Soria and Hayneedle . The two were making progress, but then “the pandemic hit, and Olivia went home to Rhode Island and watched Kelly Wearstler’s MasterClass —as we all did,” Diab says. “To have known her from before, this marked [a shift]. We began talking about design in a different way. It was a perfect melting pot of these factors… And she was understanding the power of home in a way that we couldn’t before. That changed the course of everything.”

Fully invested, the pair completely scrapped their design plans and began furnishing the home piece by piece, literally, with a mix of new and vintage elements found in showrooms, on shopping trips, and through Chairish and 1stDibs . Periodically, Diab convened with her jet-setting client at a 37-inch desktop computer where she’d drop the sofas, chairs, or tables they were considering into renderings. “Every piece has lived in different rooms,” Diab says. The designer and Culpo moved furniture from place to place in order to find its most harmonious positioning.

This cautious but conscious pace may have been slow, but Diab feels it’s responsible for Culpo truly valuing everything in her home. “All designers can flip your house in 24 hours, and the photo shoot will look amazing, but you won’t have any connection to those pieces,” she says. Culpo admits that agonizing over each and every element “was not the easiest way, but I think for me it was the most rewarding.”

For the fashion influencer, the process was also a true education. Culpo realized she’s a sucker for symmetry, and has a strong affinity for combining textures. “I learned the importance of using different materials to make a room feel full,” she says of developing “an eye, because I was just so, so meticulous with every single aspect.” In her downtime she pored over French architecture and the work of many French interior designers, plus Instagram and Pinterest, in pursuit of a calming, refined aesthetic that would showcase unique textures and neutral tones. Subconsciously, the palette seems to riff off Culpo’s dog Oliver Sprinkles’ coat. “It wasn’t intentional,” she says and then laughs. “I just really love my dog, so maybe that was inspiring my decision making without me knowing.”

Aside from the coincidental coordination, taking her time also meant Culpo thoughtfully infused her home with personal touches. Take the adults-only family room, with its graceful iron cabinets, one of which holds a treasured century-plus-year-old cello her parents purchased when she was young. “I’ve played my whole life, so that’s kind of like the music room,” Culpo says. “My mom plays the viola, so when she comes to visit we play together in that room.”

The primary bedroom is her sanctuary, and Culpo’s large closet makes for a frequent retreat, but the self-proclaimed pool shark had the most fun turning the dark gray screening room into a billiards area. It features some particularly meaningful artwork: A hand-drawn map of Rhode Island, Culpo’s home state, and a special picture of her boyfriend, football player Christian McCaffrey.

That billiards room, which Culpo proclaims to be a favorite area of the house, was “a fun concept born out of how we relate to our homes differently post-pandemic,” Diab says. It embodies Culpo’s personality, which stretches from fashionable to fun-loving. There’s an elegant, sophisticated air—see the sleek tan-topped RH table, caramel leather vintage chair, and Pierre Augustin Rose mohair sofa, which Diab calls “her big girl piece of furniture. I was excited when Olivia made that commitment and investment.” Additionally, it easily transitions to game-day hangout or after-hours club. “You’ll play pool here, the lights will be dim, we’ll have a fire pit outside, and people can swing on the porch swing, watch the game, and make margaritas at the outdoor bar,” Diab says of her vision.

It’s exciting evidence of Culpo’s personal evolution over more than two years that saw her abandon the Sex and the City vibe of her loft and dive headfirst into a different form of femininity: Sensuously curvaceous and highly tactile furnishings that feel elegantly minimal. “She definitely went in as one person, and I feel like through the design process she grew into another version of herself, which was really, really cool to see,” Diab says.

Culpo admits that, for her, the very idea of interior design changed through this experience. “Before I saw it as just a finish line, like, Get furniture in here and be done with it. But now I really do feel and think of interior design as a reflection of myself and my self expression, similar to the way I’ve always felt about fashion.” Being so heavily involved in designing her domain, a grown-up environment for an evolving 29-year-old woman, Culpo has realized that this creative outlet is infinite. “It’s a project that will continue forever,” she says. “I love it, I’m addicted. I now have the bug!”

Culpo and her pup, Oliver, in her home’s entry, which features a vintage table made of a vintage limestone wheel formerly used to crush wheat into flour. Even working with someone she trusted completely, Culpo says, “I could not let up on the reins.” She was involved in every single decision.

The front living room was navy blue when Culpo moved in, but took on a “dreamy” feeling after being painted white, Diab says. The builder, Roei Grinberg, who the designer says was like their “concierge for anything,” had chosen the marble on the fireplace.

A lifelong cellist, Culpo keeps her 100-plus-year-old instrument in the adults-only front room that doubles as a music room, especially when her viola-playing mother comes to visit. A sumptuous LD Shoppe rug and vintage calf hair chairs add texture to a sleek custom-made sofa in the style of Pierre Paulin and LD Shoppe iron cabinets.

“The wind is blowing through it, it’s just very rejuvenating and recharging, and it feels relaxing and also unpretentious,” Diab says of this space. In the living room, which opens to an outdoor lounge via glass pocket doors, there is an RH sofa and cane chairs from Frances & Son in the style of Jeanneret. Culpo’s NFL running back boyfriend bought her a record player for the room and made a record of their favorite songs too.

Culpo still isn’t done with the house. She plans to lightly renovate the kitchen at some point by replacing the countertop stone. She already installed new simple iron pendants, with “sort of this equestrian Ralph Lauren vibe,” as Diab puts it.

Culpo knew she needed a big dining table to fit her large family and friends, who are also represented on the wall in a grid of framed photographs. She and Diab custom designed sconces with Calcutta Viola marble leftover from her fireplace, and chose for the custom Everhem window treatments (featured throughout the house) plus a long waxed concrete table, comfy upholstered chairs, and a classic chandelier from RH.

The billiards room, which was formerly a dark gray screening room, is Culpo’s and Diab’s favorite area of the home thanks in part to a new marble backsplash, cabinetry, and a Pierre Augustin Rose sofa, which the designer describes as “her big girl piece of furniture.” The room leads out to the backyard fire pit, a swinging daybed, and the pool. “I feel like I took the most risks in that room and to see it come together so perfectly was really, really rewarding,” says Culpo, a self-proclaimed pool shark.

Despite being very white, the house is surprisingly kid-friendly, Diab says. (Culpo’s nieces and nephews love it.) In the family room are a Mongolian sheepskin chair by CB2 , a funky Hannah Polskin mirror, a custom travertine coffee table, and a wooden table from L.A.’s Big Daddy’s Antiques .

“I couldn’t shake the glam in me,” Culpo says of the “flashy” fluted glass chandelier in her bedroom (not pictured). She adds, “I didn’t want that style throughout the entire house, but I felt like I allowed myself to have that moment in the bedroom.” The room, with cooler, sophisticated tones, an iron RH canopy bed, and vintage bouclé chairs, is a big departure from her previous one. Culpo calls it “literally my sanctuary.” One of Diab’s favorite pieces is out of view on the balcony: A green Kelly Wearstler table that Culpo’s boyfriend, McCafferty, gifted her. “I’m like, Wow, that’s romance,” she says.

Fun fact: Culpo’s closet has a locking door to keep her younger sister out. “She steals my stuff all the time,” says the clotheshorse, who spends a lot of time in the space that was conveniently already built out when she bought the house. Her fashion collection is on display alongside her tiara and crown from her Miss USA and Miss Universe wins.

“We saw it on Instagram, I believe,” Culpo says of her swinging Magnolia Porch Swings daybed, pictured here with her pup Oliver, “and then I just had to have it.” It’s the outdoor continuation of the beloved billiards room, which Diab says “really allows for socialization and conversation, playing and hanging out.”

Culpo’s large family—she’s one of five siblings—pops by often, and so the house is often filled with people lounging in the grass, playing volleyball in the pool, or barbecuing. A large outdoor dining table was a must, and the collaborators found the look they were after in a Serena and Lily hefty table and woven chairs.

For Culpo, a pool was non-negotiable, since she has siblings with children who visit often to play. Chaise lounge chairs and chic umbrellas lend a resort-like atmosphere to the area, which faces rolling valleys and hills. “I wanted this house to feel very calming, because I felt like I needed that mentally,” the fashion influencer says.