“I fell in love with the Hollywood Hills and felt immediately drawn to this area. There was a feeling of being in the Mediterranean,” Caroline Belhumeur says. “I loved all these little houses nestled into the hillside, the winding roads, the Bogle Vineyards, the mockingbirds singing—it is all so enchanting.” Hearing her describe it, who wouldn’t want to live in Belhumeur’s Los Angeles? The creative director may have left New York for a new job at the fashion label Vince, but the real prize was the hillside home she and her husband found—an LA perch with just enough European charm to lure their grown kids back for visits.
In 2020, Caroline and her husband, artist Chris Belhumeur, found their 1970s style home next to Griffith Park, a place she calls more wild than manicured. “We have coyotes, deer running through our property, skunks, raccoons, owls,” she says. “We can’t grow anything because it’s always been eaten by something. But I don’t mind; we can share.” They do draw the line at their chickens that roam on the property, though—those aren’t for sharing. Because the home was turnkey, the backyard needed the most work, including a rehaul of new landscaping and a re-stuccoed pool and walls. But that was just the starting point for the duo with discerning eyes.