Similar to many millennials, Jasmine Tookes frequently peruses real estate websites like Zillow and Redfin. “It’s my favorite place to aimlessly browse every day,” she admits. “I just enjoy looking at houses and I love interiors and architecture so much.” During the pandemic, the Los Angeles-based model and entrepreneur spent the early days of quarantine scrolling through real estate listings with her now-husband, Juan David Borrero, not expecting to immediately find what turned out to be their ultimate dream home—but that’s exactly what happened. From the moment they stepped into the house, the couple felt a “really great energy” that couldn’t be explained. “It had a lot of really beautiful light, and we just looked at each other, like, ‘We think this is the one,’” she recalls.
The primary bedroom is a perfect balance of Tookes and Borerro’s styles with its combination of light and dark elements. “We fell in love with this bed and chose the suede that is around,” the model says. “We wanted something light that feels welcoming and soft.”
The custom dining room table is made out of a burnished bronze sculptural base with bleached burl wood; Jasmine Tookes and Juan David Borrero were keen on the matte-finished tabletop having an irregular shape. “We’re never fans of square tables or long rectangular tables because we feel like you can’t really speak with anyone that’s on the other end of the table,” Tookes explains. The piece is surrounded by custom velvet chairs, a vase from L’Objet, and a Visual Comfort chandelier on Drop It Modern wallpaper. The walls in the room are painted with Roman Clay by Portola Paints and Hope Chest by Dunn-Edwards.
Tookes partnered with Crate & Barrel to design a nursery that would feel like a “princess bedroom” for her daughter, Mia Victoria. “Whenever I thought of having a baby, I knew that I wanted these really gorgeous blush limewash walls,” she says. “I also intended to paint the walls myself—that did not go very well, but I tried.”
The first major change they made to the house was painting the exterior black, at her husband’s request. “I had to give him that because he allowed me to have my traditional contemporary sort of style on the inside,” Tookes says with a smile. Working with Kara Smith, principal and creative director of KES Studio, was fundamental throughout the transformation process. Although Tookes claims that Smith was often on her side when it came to making most of the design decisions, the interior designer pushed both her and her husband to expand their horizons with out-of-the-box elements like a mural wallpaper on the ceiling of the dining room or Kenya Black marble behind the bar in the speakeasy room.
Tookes can’t get enough of the marble that they chose for the primary bathroom.
Compared to her previous farmhouse-style homes in Beverly Hills and Brentwood, this house marks a metamorphosis for the JOJA co-founder, especially as Tookes settles into her motherhood era (the couple’s daughter, Mia Victoria, was born in 2023). Smith doesn’t hesitate to label Tookes as a “forward thinker” who prefers going for something timeless instead of following trends. “We really tried our best to steer clear of anything that was having a moment,” the designer says. “Her vision was something that would be very livable and comfortable and suit their lifestyle. They love to entertain with dinner parties or karaoke in the home, but they also wanted a place to retreat. She does a tremendous amount of travel and wanted it to be this very calming space for them.”
Tookes effuses, “I love when you walk into a space and your eye is drawn to so many different things and just want to know like ‘Where’d you get that?’” In the family room, the sets of Cassina and Percival Lafer chairs were sourced from 1stDibs, while the green velvet sofa was custom made.
Tookes describes her own aesthetic as more classic while Borrero leans more modern, so the biggest challenge for Smith was blending their respective styles. He loves marble, she likes bouclé. Her fondness for nudes, creams, and neutral tones didn’t take away from his preference for darker tones—and even prompted them both to make bolder choices like a moody kitchen dominated by dark stone slabs with white veining and hints of camel. Despite their differences, Smith was able to find common ground. “It wasn’t too much of a box of concrete and I felt like I could blend my softer style into it,” Tookes insists.
The couple loves this painting by Angel Otero Piece from Calodney Advisory, which served as the starting point for infusing color into the entryway. Smith added a custom daybed with inset burnished brass and ebony stained wood alongside a Loredo accent table by Arteriorsbecause Borrero didn’t want a typical entry table. “He was like, ‘We want something fun and loungey that connects the spaces, but not in an unusable furniture piece,’” she recalls.
Considering how the couple already managed to pull off a wedding in the wake of COVID, they anticipated a few minor setbacks and delays here and there; but nothing could have prepared either of them for record-setting storms that caused massive leaks in the house and fully derailed the progress that had been made. “We finished our primary bedroom—it was all beautiful, paint was done, furniture was in—and we got this huge leak,” Tookes recalls. “We had to shift and change things with the furniture and materials that were available. Everything was quadruple the price when it came to picking stones.… There were a bunch of pivots that we had to make, but I think everything came out so perfectly.”
Tookes and Borrero use this seating area off the living room to entertain guests. “I really wanted a gaming table because we’re always playing cards,” adds Tookes. The set of Ojai Tub Chairs are from Sabin; the Dania dining table is by Nuevo.
Given their passion for entertaining, it was extremely important to Tookes and Borrero that they have a variety of designated areas for hosting friends and family. Smith was determined to make these places pop from the lighting down to the glassware on the shelves. “We have a ton of game nights, that’s our thing—our friends come over and we do karaoke,” says Tookes. “We wanted to build a nice space for all of our friends.” The dining room is another standout space that warmly invites guests to unleash their playful side with the terracotta-tinted walls before the groovy wallpapered ceiling stops them in their tracks. (The goal was to use rich, warm hues for a calming effect instead of anything that felt too loud or abrasive.) In order to maintain consistency so the interiors still felt contemporary, Smith combined ’70s influences with a blend of eras.
“I think when anyone walks into my office after walking through the whole house, they’re like, ‘Wow, this is so Jasmine.’ It’s just so clear that the neutral tones, and the light and airiness of it, is very true to me,” Tookes says. “It’s very relaxing and serene.” The daybed is custom made, the side table is by Estúdio Orth, the bouclé armchair is from Soho Home, and the mirror is from Ethnik Living.
Some might find it surprising that when Tookes seeks a moment of serenity in the comfort of her home, she retires to the privacy of her sophisticated blush-toned office—not the primary bathroom with marble countertops and glam lighting. But the most satisfying room transformation of all came from tearing down the “horrible” lacquer cabinets that were originally in the couple’s primary bedroom and replacing them with custom built-in shelving space. “My husband was, like, ‘These are great cabinets,’” Tookes laughs. “Kara and I were, like, ‘We need to get them out of here immediately.’”
Tookes’s home office is her favorite room in the house. She loves the view from behind her Éstudio North desk while sitting in the Lulu & Georgia chair; a table lamp by Elisa Uberti decorates the shelf against the limewash walls. “She wanted a backdrop for videos, so no art, just a great place for her to shoot her content and to work from,” says Kara Smith. “She likes a sophisticated and neutral palette. I feel like her interior style really mimics how she dresses; she’s contemporary but also very classical.”
In terms of artwork, Tookes and Borrero have an impressive collection of original pieces from James Turrell, Rose Wylie, Angel Otero, Otis Jones, Jordy Kerwick, and Hank Willis Thomas. “They have amassed a great art collection that represents a very well-traveled young couple,” says Smith. “It’s really on point for who they are and the family they’re building.”
“This room was something that they wanted from the start—a space that is totally different from the rest of the house to entertain,” Smith says about the speakeasy on the third floor. “They wanted something that was karaoke-focused, but also had a great bar—Juan recently started a tequila brand—so we wanted something that was just pure entertaining. It opens up to a private outdoor terrace that has a fireplace.” Hank Willis Thomas’s Believing is seeing/Seeing is deceiving hangs on the wall, which is covered in Phillip Jeffries Suede Lounge wallpaper.
Although there are still other areas that are works in progress, now that they’re basically done with the house, Tookes is most excited about how it will grow with them over time as a family. With their daughter now in the picture, the precious memories that will continue to live inside these walls simply can’t be rendered. “If I ever designed another home, I would definitely do it with Kara,” she says. “I’m very happy with everything.”
“My husband dreamed of having a black kitchen,” says Tookes. Her personal touch comes out with the bouclé backs on these Thomas Hayes Studio stools in an ebonized satin lacquer oil and black metal finish. The pendant light hanging above the island is by Aurora Lampworks.
