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As one might reasonably expect, the California country home of Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway and her husband, jewelry designer Adam Shulman, has an intriguing narrative. We’d be disappointed if it didn’t. In the backstory they imagined for their enchanting 1906 Swiss chalet–style residence (which was destroyed by a fire in 1917 and rebuilt), Yves Saint Laurent once owned the property before director Wes Anderson moved in and put his own hipster-twee spin on the house. The fictional origin tale also includes something about Anderson and David Bowie cohosting an annual New Year’s Eve party there. That’s a lot of imagery to process, but Hathaway, Shulman, and their partner in drama, AD100 designer Pamela Shamshiri of Los Angeles’s Studio Shamshiri, embraced the challenge with gusto.
“Pam really leaned into it,” Hathaway says of the extraordinarily collaborative process of renovating her historic home, which was designed by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, authors of the San Marino residence of Henry and Arabella Huntington (now the main art gallery of the Huntington Library) and other prominent Southern California landmarks. “This house inspired lots of crazy creative discussions, but Pam wasn’t thrown by any of it,” Shulman adds. “She brought a sense of sophistication, magic, and fun to the whole process.”
Hathaway and Shulman describe the allure of their picturesque property in terms of a love affair. “The minute we came up the driveway and saw this incredible panoramic view unfold in front of us, we were hooked,” Shulman recalls. Says Hathaway, “It was the ideal combination of romance and great design. Our initial instinct was that this was going to be a very important place in our lives. I could really see raising a family here.”
For Shamshiri, the fairy-tale architecture provided a jumping-off point for the fanciful, decades-spanning interiors. “We were dealing with a California fantasy of a Swiss chalet, built as a hunting lodge and a winter getaway, so we looked at a lot of historical Swiss imagery,” she explains. “We tried to maintain the sweetness that made the house so special while adding new layers of color, texture, and furnishings from different eras that reflect the evolution of the home over time and the warm, generous spirit of Annie and Adam.”
That layering exercise comes to life with particular drama in the capacious music room, originally designed as a dance hall for young people from the surrounding community. Crowned with an early–20th century disco ball from a Turkish spa, the celebratory space hosts a piano, naturally; a sparkly Yves Klein Monogold table; and a broad array of cozy seating for Hathaway and Shulman’s frequent guests. “This room has been a long-held fantasy of ours—a place where the people we love can gather and our musician friends can play. It’s the heart of the house,” Hathaway says.
That same communal spirit animates the kitchen, where a long, slender island provides a perfect spot for guests to partake in the rituals of food preparation. Bathed in soothing shades of robin’s-egg blue and pale green, the kitchen opens directly onto a dreamy breakfast room, detailed with a scenic wallpaper set into the board-and-batten architectural details and, for a dash of Continental élan, a set of spruce modern chairs by the midcentury Italian designer Carlo di Carli. Shulman sums up the vibe, here and throughout the home, in one word: “Gemütlich.”
“Annie and Adam have a very adventurous sense of color, which I wholeheartedly supported,” Shamshiri says, noting the proliferation of peach and burgundy tones in the entry vestibule and music room, which were inspired by a favorite Gucci shirt. In another nod to fashion, Rihanna’s unforgettable imperial-yellow cape from the 2015 Met gala provided a touchstone for some of the golden fabrics and carpet in the music room and den. As for the soft pink that blankets the master bedroom, the designer notes matter-of-factly, “They’re very into pink. They embrace it!”
Yet for all the sprightly details and eccentric juxtapositions of contemporary and vintage furnishings, Hathaway and Shulman insist the true alchemy of their home rests in its less tangible assets—the scale of its rooms, the idiosyncratic circular floor plan, and its subtle connections to the landscape. “This is a house that expands and contracts based on how many people are here. When it’s just us and the baby, it feels very quiet and contemplative—the house feels like it holds you. When there are lots of people around, it opens up with energy and fun,” Shulman explains.
Hathaway, whose new anthology series Modern Love debuts in October on Amazon, seconds the notion: “This is a place that balances the needs for isolation and community. When I have to concentrate intensely on a project, I can escape from the distractions of the outside world and find inspiration in the glorious mountains and the birds singing in the thicket. There’s music inside and out.”
