After purchasing a 13,000 square foot residence in Irvine’s lush Shady Canyon community, Jessica and Ali Omid struggled to find a designer willing to commit to their schedule. With two toddlers and a baby on the way, the Omids planned to revamp the debut interiors in just a few months. Fortunately, At Huma Sulaiman’s The Laguna Beach-based design firm likes a challenge.
“We finished this house in record time,” says Sulaiman, reflecting on the top-to-bottom transformation, which included multiple bathrooms, two kitchens, two living and dining rooms, a master suite with its bathrooms and its closets, three children’, and a living room and theater in the basement. “We did it all in eight months, which is just amazing.” Perhaps most remarkably, Sulaiman was able to outfit each room with custom details to suit the family’s needs.
With the exception of the formal living room and dining room, a sleek entertaining space covered in cream and beige, the young parents asked the designer to create a safe environment for their children where nothing would be off limits. With two children at home, Sulaiman has struck the right balance between high-end design and family friendliness. She favored furniture with soft, curved edges; lowered modular seats; and a performance fabric that could handle the inevitable spills. “On a normal day at home, furniture is moved to different places and children run around,” she says. “They let the kids go everywhere.”
Even though the family room’s deep mossy green performance velvet was inspired by the surrounding cactus-studded landscape, Sulaiman admits she also considered little hands and their respective snacks. “I love that you can’t tell the kids are enjoying life on this piece of furniture,” says Jessica Omid. Upstairs, she asked Sulaiman to get some floor beds for the kids’ rooms. “When toddlers are sleeping, they toss and turn and roll over,” says Jessica. However, the Montessori-style floor beds that Sulaiman found online were far from fancy. So she took matters into her own hands, designing a button-tufted frame with an irregular scalloped edge that’s both sophisticated and soft.
But Sulaiman hasn’t reserved all of his problem-solving prowess for his smaller clients. According to the designer, one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the project was reimagining the travertine columns found on the first floor. Removing them was out of the question, due to structural and time constraints. So Sulaiman worked with Camp Studios on a fluted plaster design to cover the existing travertine. “It was the biggest change we made to this house,” she says. Plaster walls continue throughout, nodding to the Mediterranean exterior, while modernizing the interiors.
Other custom solutions include the 15-foot-long kitchen island and custom storage in the master bathrooms. “We entertain a lot…. It’s great because there’s a prep kitchen, and then we can put all the food on the huge island,” says Jessica. “It’s a good current.” Sulaiman removed the upper cabinets, moving the storage under the island. “It’s more like a living space,” she says of the party center.
For the main bathrooms, the designer did her research. “We went to their house one day to look at all their stuff – makeup, hair products and things like that,” she says. The resulting quartzite vanities have a place for everything. To eliminate visual clutter, Sulaiman even added recessed storage to the counters for any products the couple need close at hand (face cream, toothpaste, etc.) but don’t necessarily want to be on display.
Reflecting on the finished project, Jessica says, “It was a long process! I [need to] call Huma and take her to thank her! But the cold-blooded Sulaiman has a different view: “Honestly, it was super easy. The most important thing is that they really trusted me and let me take the lead. Challenge accepted and completed.
