“It’s the magic of cleaning supplies,” Jen Atkin reveals about the pristinely white home she shares with her husband, photographer Mike Rosenthal, and their two rescue dogs, Roo and Chewy. That, and obsessive paw-washing after every outdoor excursion. Because from the crisp ivory bed linens to the creamy L-shaped sofa that commandeers their living room, not one soft surface is darker than beige.

A neutral palette was always the plan, though. “My Pinterest board was all over the place, but I love clean, white neutral tones, really bare walls, and art here and there,” says Atkin, the Ouai Haircare founder who is just as famous for her model-off-duty hairstyling as she is for coiffing Bella, Gigi, Kendall, and Kaia when they’re on the clock, too. “Our lives are so hectic and busy that I wanted home to just feel completely calm and peaceful.”

“That’s Petey,” Atkin says of the library’s taxidermied peacock, who’s made it through three moves, and even appeared at a friend’s wedding in Colorado. “It’s so glamorous ’80s and Old Hollywood.” Two costume chairs offer up spaces to get warm by the fire, and a Sonneman Lighting fixture hangs overhead.

Honestly, the pair were scrolling Redfin for fun when they stumbled upon their future Brookside five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom home two years ago. “There were some details that I could see in the pictures that looked interesting. And I thought, you know, we should go just see what they did, as ideas for things in the future,” Rosenthal says. But as soon as the couple walked in, they were blown away by the home’s warm minimalism, courtesy of Obermeyer Architecture . Or to put it in more L.A. terms: “It was the poor man’s version of Jenni Kayne’s house that Rosie Huntington-Whiteley bought,” Atkin says with a laugh.

Most of all, the home had details that reminded them of some of their favorite hotels, places they used to call their homes away from home before quarantine: Il Sereno in Lake Como, Monteverdi in Tuscany, Aman Tokyo, and One Gun Ranch in Malibu. So they bought it and hired design firm Maison Trouvaille to help them create—and maintain—a minimalist vibe. “Erick [of Maison Trouvaille] would come over and say, ‘No, all your plants need to be in one area together in this room. And all the pillows that you have scattered along the couch those need to be in one center area together,” Atkin says. “Those little changes made all the difference. It makes everything just even more calm.”

Pre-pandemic, the couple would host group dinners and game nights around their RH table and chairs. “We’d have everybody check their phones at the door, so they had to have old-school conversations,” Atkin says. “We’ve played Heads Up and UNO, and it’s so much fun.”

Part of the chill through line comes from working with professionals, of course, but also from starting over furniture-wise. Their last home was sponsored, so this was the first time the couple could really weigh in on the pieces they wanted. “I was always told from a pretty young age that furniture is a terrible investment,” Rosenthal says. “And, you know, if you’re looking for a financial return, that’s probably true. But what was never really explained to me is the emotional return on that investment. And this is the first time where I have ever really spent money on furniture. Even though sometimes there was a bit of sticker shock, walking into the house is like a reward every time.”

The couple says they’ll regroup on their everything-ecru color scheme again when they have kids—“Then it’ll look like a McDonald’s PlayPlace,” Atkin says—but for now, it’s a serene spot where they can both work and relax. Says Rosenthal: “We both still walk around the house sometimes and say, ‘I can’t believe this is ours.’”