THE HOUSE OF FUN

Fearlessly flamboyant is the best way to describe every space of this 1960s French Regency-style mansion in the hills of Los Angeles

- RUTH CORBETT

Fashion designer and Swinging Sixties icon Mary Quant once said, 'Good taste is death; vulgarity is life. Mary Kitchen, the owner of this extraordinary house, might well agree with her. The television presenter, model and philanthropist has little time for the tasteful properties that ripple across the hills of her Los Angeles neighbourhood. Mary's new house had to shout 'full-on fun' rather than whisper 'discreet good taste, and interior designer Jamie Bush willingly obliged, when invited to join her in its daringly different renovation.

Mary and her husband, Jonathan Orszag, bought the house from rock vocalist Adam Levine and his wife, Behati Prinsloo Levine, who had moved on mid-way through renovations, leaving it stripped almost to its bones. Built in 1966 by noted architect, Caspar Ehmcke, the French Regency-style mansion came with grand proportions to its rooms, some of which were still bedecked with vintage crystal chandeliers.