Inside Sofía Vergara’s Personal LA Paradise she says…

The Griselda actor worked with designer Ohara Davies-Gaetano to create an inviting home for friends and family

Sofía Vergara doesn’t mince words about the condition of her palatial Beverly Park manse when she acquired the property. “There were arches on top of arches, all with columns. It felt like a castle in Transylvania,” recalls the effervescent actor-producer, currently playing against type as Colombian cocaine queenpin Griselda Blanco in the Netflix series Griselda. “But the layout was perfect, and I loved that you could see the landscape from every room, even though there wasn’t much of a garden to look at yet. I knew what I would do to make it my own,” she insists.

There were, predictably, a few challenges. Despite the voluminous rooms and high ceilings, Vergara wanted the house to feel “homey and comfortable, a place where people would want to hang out and relax,” she says. On top of that, the existing 1990s architecture did not exactly conform to her vision of “a house with history and texture, a well-lived house.” The structure may not have been new, but it most certainly wasn’t old in the way the actor fancied. After Timothy Corrigan worked for several years on the architectural design and interiors, ultimately Instagram led Vergara to the perfect collaborator to fully realize her transformation mission. Having long followed the work of Ohara Davies-Gaetano, Vergara simply dialed up the Los Angeles–based designer and got started. “I called her, we clicked, and I fell in love with her ideas,” the actor recollects. “When I handed her my inspiration folder, I realized most of the images were hers.”

In the dining room, Davies-Gaetano applied a foliate wall covering hand-embossed with plaster vines and leaves to the ceiling. “Every room has special flourishes to add depth and interest to the composition,” the designer notes. “We really focused on decorative lighting to underscore the emotion and essence of the house,” she continues, citing the baronial Spanish tole chandelier that tempers the scale of the double- height family room as well as the jewel-like Baguès rock crystal sconces that grace a powder room.

As for color, Vergara confesses that her predisposition is to avoid it altogether. “If it were up to me, everything would be monochromatic. I don’t like crazy jolts of color, and I really don’t like pastels—they remind me of The Golden Girls,” the actor quips. Nevertheless, while maintaining a ubiquitous palette of serene whites, Davies-Gaetano managed to introduce hushed tones in the form of upholstery details, antique carpets, artwork, and other subtle accents. The family room is a case in point: Davies-Gaetano gently tweaked the neutral scheme with throw pillows in various shades drawn from the hues of the carpet. Of course, the brightest chromatic pop in the room comes from a striking painting by Vergara’s fellow countryman, the late Colombian artist Fernando Botero.

bedroom
The primary bedroom is furnished with a Louis XVI regency-style fireplace from the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City and an antique Swedish armoire, mirror, and commode.

The primary influx of color arrives by way of the refreshed landscape. To rejuvenate the grounds, Davies-Gaetano brought in landscape designer and antiques dealer Stephen Block of LA’s Inner Gardens. “Initially we came in with a few great trees for the interior, but Sofía wanted more and more and more. The landscape had never been properly finished, so we tried to bring the property to life with new plantings and a mix of unusual antique urns, fountains, benches, and pots,” Block reports. “We also added a few tropical elements that connect Sofía to her roots. She was so excited and grateful for e