At Home with Tiffani Thiessen

Tiffani Thiessen and her husband, Brady Smith, didn’t take much time deciding to buy this Encino, CA, house. It’s almost 6,000 square feet and set on an acre of lush tree-lined property, and as soon as they saw it, they were sold. The neighborhood is quiet, and nearly every room in the house overlooks the yard. “The moment you arrive, you don’t feel like you’re in Los Angeles anymore,” says the host of Dinner at Tiffani’s. “I love that.” Despite all the space inside (there are five bedrooms!), Tiffani ends up spending a lot of her free time outdoors. Her kids, Harper, 7, and Holt, 2, and the family’s two dachshund-terrier mixes constantly run around on the grass, and Tiffani raises chickens in the backyard. It’s the perfect respite for someone who has been working in L.A. for most of her life. “We knew this was going to be the home we stayed in for a long time,” she says.

Tiffani and Brady are huge film buffs, so they designed a room just for watching movies — with a projector, a 6' x 8' screen, a custom Moss sofa and tons of extra seating, including a yellow ottoman and small white shearling poufs.

This room is the family’s most recent renovation project. They installed new fireplace tiles and wood ceiling beams, and they bought all new furnishings, including a tufted Anthropologie bed and antique-looking rug. “I wanted a cross between vintage and upscale,” Tiffani says. “I like that it feels French but also very American.”

When the couple bought the house, this room was a grown-up lounge with dark finishes and moody lighting. They converted it to the total opposite: a bright playroom. They used the built-in storage to hold books and toys and resurfaced the fireplace with cheery turquoise Walker Zanger tiles. When the kids aren’t outside, they’re usually in here. Harper draws or plays dress-up, and Holt plays with cars and dinosaur figurines. “This has been one of my favorite rooms that I’ve remodeled because it gets used every day,” Tiffani says.