Kirsten Dunst Doesn’t Like White Kitchens

Kirsten Dunst knows what she likes. 

“I don’t like featured walls and I don’t like white kitchens and I don’t like open-concept. How about that?” The actress, 39, told Architectural Digest. “Give me a room where I can shut a door.”

Dunst brought that aesthetic to life in the 1930s ranch house in the San Fernando Valley she shares with her fiancé, actor Jesse Plemons, and their two sons, three-year-old Ennis and baby James. 

“I’m really a Valley girl. It’s just more peaceful here than the other side of the hill,” she told AD. 

After the structural renovations of the property, Dunst brought in interior designer Jane Hallworth, with whom she’s worked for 20 years. Hallworth understood Dunst’s love of weathered items that are filled with imperfection and history.

“There is something more haunting about certain things that aren’t new, and fixed, and perfect,” said Dunst. “I like the combination of girly and masculine. I like things that have age and patina — really anything that sparks an emotional connection.” 

The team created a space that serves as a gathering spot for family and friends who come over to “eat, drink, swim, make music,” said Dunst. “The bar is always in full swing. We want people to have a good time, so as much as we value pretty, nothing is too precious.”

The kitchen was done in an aubergine wall tile that Dunst said reminded her of “old brick.” 19th-century terracotta floor tiles and a large, marble center island contrast with a lighter-colored majolica backsplash. There’s plenty of unique additions, like a lamp made out of popsicle sticks in the corner. 

In the living room sits one of Dunst’s biggest purchases, a Fritz Henningsen wingback chair she bought after “Spider-Man” came out. (There’s only about 50 in existence.) There’s also a variety of antique ship models, many made by Dunst’s grandfather. 

In the dining room, a vintage ceiling light hangs over an antique New England dining table, while an 18th-century Swedish secretary comes from the oldest castle in Sweden. The unique historic features continue throughout the home, from the bathroom door that belonged to Jackie Onassis in her New York apartment to the oversized copper chandelier reminiscent of a boot spur. 

“Jesse was a bachelor dude, so I brought decorating into his life,” said Dunst, noting the Texan influence is visible throughout the property. There’s also plenty of musical features, like guitars, two pianos, and an antique parlor organ said to have belonged to the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.

The outdoor space also provides a comfortable atmosphere to hang out, whether it’s the veranda at the front of the house with an Italian barrel table or the deck off the primary bedroom that leads to a cedar soaking tub under a pine tree that “feels like you’re on vacation in Big Sur.”

That blend of Texas comfort and Hollywood style is the perfect fusion of Plemons and Dunst’s aesthetic. 

“There’s a dash of Jesse’s cowboy aesthetic mixed in with Kirsten’s more glamorous things,” said Hallworth. “We had to shake it all up into just the right cocktail.”