It is not news to The Cool Hunter readers that we value tasteful restorations. We believe that new and flashy and complicated is easy. Restored and restrained is difficult.

So it is easy for us to agree with British-born designer-to-the-stars Jake Arnold for whom his adopted hometown of Los Angeles can at times feel just a bit too new. His star client list includes Rashida Jones, Katy Perry and Chrissy Teigen.

On this lucky occasion, Arnold?s clients ? a young couple with a toddler and a baby on the way ? heeded his advice and instead of new, bought a 1951 house.

The 6,700-square-foot (622 sq.m), single-level, five-bedroom property located in Beverly Hills already possessed an ?old soul? having been designed by American architect Gerard Colcord (1900-1984), who designed more than 300 residences and 100 residential remodels in California. Among others, Hollywood stars such as Bob Newhart, Dean Martin, Nicholas Cage and Harrison Ford have resided in Colcord-designed houses.
His signature was not a modernist, or any singular, style but a variety of traditional styles ranging from Tudor and Country French to Spanish Hacienda and Monterey Colonial.
Arnold stripped away all of the previous renovations of the 1951 house to reveal its initial layout and feel, and to showcase the colonnaded porches and bay windows so typical of Colcord?s houses.

Arnold then added distinctive 1950s Scandinavian, modernist and Art Deco touches, such as the 1940s Swedish chairs and a retro Finnis...