Of the many story lines that converge in the marvelously idiosyncratic Los Angeles home of Kirsten Dunst, one of the most compelling is the enduring relationship between the actor and interior designer Jane Hallworth. The two met just over 20 years ago, when Dunst was only 18 years old and Hallworth, having recently alighted in California from university in England, was assisting her sisters, Dunst’s longtime stylists Nina and Clare Hallworth. A few years later, as Hallworth was beginning to establish herself as a player in the world of interiors, Dunst turned to her friend for help in designing the star’s first proper L.A. home, a kind of reimagined Scandinavian lake house tucked in the Hollywood Hills.
“I wasn’t particularly interested in clothes and cars, but I was excited about my home,” Dunst recalls. “Jane really educated me about furniture and design. I was her student in that realm.”
No teacher could ask for a more inquisitive, appreciative pupil. “Kirsten has worked with some of the world’s best costume and set designers, so she has an amazing eye. She gets inspired by beautiful things. She can see the poetry in them. For her, it’s not about style or pedigree per se, but that sweet, lovely call of home,” Hallworth says. “For that first house, I didn’t lead her to trivial pieces. We didn’t buy much, but what we did buy was the best.
Aubergine wall tile by Waterworks, 19th-century terra-cotta floor tiles by Chateau Domingue, majolica backsplash and marble by Compas Stone, cubby shelf from Nickey Kehoe, and Pierre Jeanneret stool from Galerie Half.
