Production designer Erin Ellwood gave her simple 1924 tract house in Franklin Hills more than a makeover; she gave it a point of view. The final scene, a tranquil indoor-outdoor 'treehouse.'
By Lisa Boone, Times Staff Writer
July 20, 2006
AS a production designer, Erin Ellwood is charged with creating an ambience that immediately tells a story and reveals characters' personalities — a skill she says is important at home too.
"People's homes often don't express them," she says. "It's not about the couch. Anyone can go buy seven pieces of furniture and put it in their house, but that doesn't create a feel." Walking through massive glass doors — "mall doors," she calls them — in the open, light-filled home, Ellwood says the overall mood is what's most important. "It's the vibe that matters."
High above Fountain Avenue in Franklin Hills, Ellwood's house is a cocoon of tranquillity just a few miles from the frenetic tempo of Hollywood.
No one knows the lifestyle better than Ellwood, 51. Her mother, actress Gloria Henry, is best known as the mom on the 1959-63 TV series "Dennis the Menace," and her late father was California Modernist Craig Ellwood, described by one biographer as "the Cary Grant of architecture."
Inspired by the Mies van der Rohe credo "God is in the details," Ellwood took an ordinary 1924 tract house and gave it a point of view, one of serenity, beauty and humor. She bought the house for its views and its large yard — a rarity in the hilly neighborhood.
