Jennifer Aniston has flexed her creative muscles a lot in Hollywood over the years. Of course, she played Rachel Green on Friends and now plays Alex Levy on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, and she has produced extensively with her production company Echo Films. But it turns out the entertainment industry isn’t the only arena in which Aniston likes to express her creativity. According to a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, interior design is the one profession she’d want to try outside of acting.
“I love putting homes together and creating spaces,” Aniston told WSJ. “I can walk into a house and see what it needs. And it’s a fun process. Some people dread it. It can break up relationships. I thrive during that process.”
Aniston has had multiple homes featured by AD over the years, so this predilection isn’t entirely shocking. The first home, featured in a 2010 issue of the magazine, was designed by midcentury architect Harold W. Levitt in 1970. Aniston worked on the property with AD100 interior designer Stephen Shadley to bring it back to its original glory. “The house has a rather glamorous, old-fashioned Hollywood quality,” she told AD in 2010. “I can just imagine the Rat Pack stopping by; someone is playing the piano, and people are laughing in the next room.” This might seem a bit of a stretch, but Shadley and Aniston’s commitment to midcentury details, especially with all those extra large table lamps, makes the Sinatra-era fantasy feel a little less zany.
Published in 2018, the second AD-featured home speaks further to her love of midcentury design. The Bel Air structure was designed by acclaimed architect A. Quincy Jones in 1965, and Aniston brought it back to life with Shadley and LA designers Kathleen and Tommy Clements and Jane Hallworth. “Sexy is important, but comfort is essential,” she opined at the time, reflecting her thinking behind the lush textures and cozy furnishings that populate the home. Both homes reflect a devotion to midcentury design’s sophistication that’s tempered by a realistic outlook on what makes a home livable. Though hopefully she learned her lesson on wall-to-wall carpets with this primary bedroom.
Needless to say, with these educational experiences of working with such accomplished designers (and certainly others under her belt), we’d count ourselves lucky to have a home designed by Jennifer Aniston. And frankly, we’re just grateful to see a Royère sofa outside of the confines of Kim K’s all-white Hidden Hills manse.
