THE HOUSE THAT DREAMS BUILT!

After fantasizing for years about the perfect family sanctuary, TV powerhouses Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil achieve their vision with the help of designer Tiffany Howell.

- MARJON CARLOS

When talking "home" with writer and director Mara Brock Akil, you're not necessarily going to discuss paint swatches, sconces, and square footage. I mean, you should. Besides being the creative powerhouse behind such TV shows as Girlfriends and Being Mary Jane, the screenwriter and producer turns out to also be a design maven who has masterfully renovated the Los Angeles home she shares with her husband, Black Lightning director Salim Akil, and their sons, Yasin and Nasir. It's awash in exquisite original detailing, vintage Murano chandeliers, and a robust collection of work by Black artists, including Lorna Simpson and Noah Davis.

But for Brock Akil, design is about more than just the details: It's about the kind of lifelong longings that pull at your heartstrings and prompt you to mood-board since you were a teenager. "We really are our heart's desires," she says. "And I want my home to reflect that."

Brock Akil's career-she helms her own busy L.A. production studio and has a Netflix development deal-is in overdrive. But in recent years, she realized she craved a sanctuary as a source of inspiration and restoration. That need became even more immediate in the aftermath of the 2016 killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, two unarmed Black men gunned down by police that summer within weeks of each other. A generally optimistic person, Brock Akil found herself paralyzed with fear in a country that was constantly undermining and devaluing Black life. "Joy is deserved," she says. "We don't have to keep waiting for it. And that's what this house is."