�Flipping Out:� Ryan Brown at Home in L.A.

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

It�s no secret that I love reality shows. My favorites are the ones that feature talented people doing what they�re best at, and Flipping Out fits the bill. It�s fun to see designers likeJeff Lewis and Ryan Brown at work. It�s the third season of the show, and their original business of flipping houses together is no longer as lucrative, so they�re doing more design work for clients instead.

The L.A. Times recently featured Ryan�s home in California. We�ve gotten glimpses of it on the show, and it always left me wanting to see more.

Here are Ryan and his partner Dale Monchamp (who was an interior designer himself before becoming a chef) in their kitchen with their adorable daughter Chloe.

If you�ve seen the show, then you know how Jeff Lewis likes to teach Chloe to say funny things. If Jeff asks what she wants to drink, he taught her to say, �Chardonnay!� �Where do you want to work when you grow up, Chloe?�  �Hooters!� He thinks this is hilarious. (Ryan, not so much.)

For the large center island (it seats 10!) they used river-washed black granite.

The living room:

The dining room:

The master bedroom:

The master bath:

One more shot of the kitchen, just because I love it so much. This is what my kitchen wants to be when it grows up (and starts earning its own paycheck):

Jeff and Ryan haven�t been getting along very well this season (<�understatement), and it looks like they might be going their separate ways.  If they do, I hope Bravo will give Ryan his own show (Andy Cohen, are you listening?!).

Ryan has a blog, Brown Design, where you can learn more about his current projects. Check out the L.A. Times article for all the beautiful photos and more information about his home. Or go to the official Flipping Out page on BravoTV.com to learn more about the show.

UPDATE: Did you see the cast reunion show? We�re discussing the Jeff Lewis-Ryan Brown throw-down here. Oh, and I posted photos of some rooms that Ryan designed for his clientshere if you missed it!

Jennifer Lopez New House and New Job

As I�m sure you�ve heard by now, Jennifer Lopez was chosen to be one of the judges on the new season of �American Idol� that starts tonight.  Hard to imagine the show without Simon, and I�m still surprised by the decision to put Steven Tyler in the mix, but it�ll be interesting to see how the new lineup works out.

Not only does Jennifer have the �AI� gig�she�s got a new house in California, too, which was redecorated for her by designer Michelle Workman. It�s featured in the current issue of Verandamagazine, so let�s take a look!

�Jennifer and I wanted elegance, but we didn�t want it to look stuffy or conservative or serious,� says Workman. �We wanted it to be graceful, with just enough sparkle.�

The kitchen is probably my favorite room of the house. I love the gray-blue cabinets:

Designer Michelle Workman says, �There are all these tones of gray, and we played with that�using a bit more of a gray-taupe here, a bit more of a gray-blue there. It�s almost like a black-and-white film from the forties.�

Maybe that�s why I like it. I�ve always wanted to live in a black-and-white �40s movie (with Cary Grant as my love interest, please).

The guest room is painted a pastel peach color, and the headboard is from Williams-Sonoma Home:

Workman says she had almost finished decorating the house in a ch�teau-inspiredstyle when her famous client changed her mind about the whole thing and pulled the plug. She wanted to go in an entirely different direction.

(Can you imagine? After all that work? I�d love to see the photos of how it was looking before they changed it around.)

�Jennifer wanted to go modern and streamlined but retain the sophistication and stylishness,� says Workman. She didn�t want to be locked into a classically French look.

According to Veranda writer Degen Pener, �In less than three months, the designer re-imagined the new house�s living room, kitchen, family room, bedrooms and baths.� Wow. That�s fast work!

What do you think of her place? Do you like her style?

Read the story and see the photos in the February issue of Veranda. �American Idol� photo via Billboard, which has more information about the upcoming season here.