Tour a Swanky Hollywood Regency–Style Home in LA Reimagined for a Modern Lifestyle

In reconfiguring and updating the house, which hadn’t been touched in half a century, the couple embraced experimentation. This thrilled Rios since he could push himself further than a traditional client. Take the plump lacquered fiberglass bar in the former bridge room. “We don’t play bridge, but I drink, so it became the bar!” laughs Rios. The shapely volume is a frequent dinner spot for the pair as well as the first stop when entertaining. It’s the centerpiece of the would-be living room they fashioned into a spacious cocktail lounge, complete with a baby-grand piano, fireplace, and swivel chairs—Rios’s liberal use of lattermost element is “crazy and quirky,” he admits, “but it makes for better living and better community.”

“We walked inside of it—and Guy has a very strong design opinion—but we immediately said, ‘Oh my god, we have to do this,’” says architect Mark Rios (right) of his first visit to the circa-1949 Jack Elgin Woolf–designed house with his husband, reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Guy Ringler. Still, they updated a lot to make the home livable for their lifestyle, adding a high-shine fiberglass bar to the space they refer to as a cocktail lounge (in lieu of a formal living room) and restoring some of the original parquet flooring.

Portrait: Michael Wells. Art: © Annabel Gault/The Redfern Gallery Ltd, London.

The couple was delighted to showcase their collections in a joyful, bold way as opposed to how a museum might approach it. To wit, their blue and green Blenko glassware occupies the red library, the palette of which was entirely inspired by a beloved Mary Fennen painting over the mantle. A 1960s Roche Bobois sofa covered in Missoni fabric that Rios had his eye on for some time was the impetus for transforming an octagonal pavilion into the Moroccan-esque lounge they jokingly call the “drug room.”

“I think this house wanted to have different experiences per room,” Rios says. “It’s much more emotional than our last.” And each space does offer a distinctive point of view. Aside from the sorbet-colored palate cleanser of the primary suite, they pushed themselves throughout. There’s the pair of octagonal powder rooms they made complete opposites, with one festooned in Sherle Wagner hardware featuring tiger’s eye gems. And the glass-sided formal dining room, which retains its original mirror-topped table designed by Woolf, creating illusions with an air of trippy splendor alongside a mirrored ceiling, candlelight, and lush flora outside. The walls are a Rios favorite, Farrow & Ball’s Studio Green, to make it feel like dining in a garden while enhancing their lighter paintings.

Between Rios’s dedication to beauty and Ringler’s commitment to comfort, the two dreamed up a home that pushes them to live boldly and with ease, thanks to a design that follows “the sequence of how we want to live,” the architect says, reflecting on the project. Plus, he adds, “Jack Woolf would love coming to dinner in this house.”