Mindy Kaling never really considered herself a hostess. “I always thought, 'I’m just a busy comedy writer,'” the creator and star of Hulu’s The Mindy Project confesses. But filming Disney’s big-screen adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time in New Zealand introduced her to costars and consummate entertainers Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey. If Oprah has time to throw a Wonder Woman–themed party for 28 ten-year-olds and Witherspoon can arrange her own flowers for a Fourth of July brunch, Kaling reasoned, she could find time to host a party or two. “These grown-up actresses are way busier than me!” she explains. And her new Hancock Park home would be the perfect venue—with a little love.
After ten months of renovating and decorating, Kaling has lived in her Los Angeles house for just six weeks. But she's loved the historic neighborhood for years. "I was specific about Hancock Park," she says, adding that finding her dream house wasn't as easy as she had hoped. "It's one of these places that no one ever leaves. I fell in love with three houses, but I kept losing to these Chinese billionaires who were paying in all cash. I wish I were an Indian billionaire. Finally, I found a house that wasn't listed—a pocket listing—and I came in over asking."
But the Hancock Park real estate scene wasn't the only thing that surprised Kaling. “I’ve lived in L.A. for 15 years and I’ve never had a second floor. Now I do and it’s a little frightening,” she says. “I’ll watch a murder documentary on Netflix, and then I’m too afraid to go upstairs. There have been two nights that I’ve slept on the couch downstairs.” Luckily for Kaling, interior designer Katie Ridder is multitalented—and she knows how to pick a good sofa.
“Mindy wanted to be able to seat a lot of people and have an open plan,” says Ridder. There are a number of seating areas made for entertaining, including a dining room table that accommodates 12 guests. The table is one of seven pieces Kaling inherited from her parents and refurbished. Ridder covered some of the traditional rosewood furniture in Swedish fabrics with bright pops of color, and she also displayed her hallmark command of color with bright wallpaper.
The living and entertaining spaces are designed to flow outdoors to the pool and big backyard. “Her writers, they spend a lot of time together, and she needed areas where they could write together, watch shows together, eat together—and swim together,” says Ridder. “The lawn is incredible,” Kaling says cheerfully. “I was so excited when the drought ended. I could water with impunity.”
Kaling originally fell in love with Ridder's work via social media. "When I was going through her Instagram, I felt like I already lived in that home; I could see myself living there for years," Kaling says. "I think it was pretty carte blanche," the actress says of the freedom she gave Ridder. "Of all of my partnerships, this was probably the easiest, and we understood each other."
For Ridder, as well as Kaling's architects Adrian Koffka and Cynthia Phakos of Koffka Phakos Design, the project was all about bringing the house back to its former glory. "It's beautiful," Ridder says. "It's a house from the 1920s with original fireplace and original molding. It hadn't been renovated in a long time so it needed a little bit of an update." The tweaks included working with Kaling's architects to move walls to create a large family room where Kaling and her guests could watch television and host meetings or parties. "Now, there is a nice flow," Ridder says.
The addition of color also gave the house an instant facelift. “She wanted it to be happy. She wanted it to be warm,” says Ridder. "You see the way she dresses on the show. She didn’t want bleached floors. She didn’t want everything whitewashed or stripped down. She wanted a lot of layering." The result? A gorgeous array of oranges, corals, blues, and yellows were sprinkled throughout the house. (We especially love the pink pineapple wallpaper in the powder room and teal bookshelves downstairs.) “It’s a little Wes Anderson,” Kaling says. "It's how layered it looks—he's very conscious and he's very generous with the colors in his palette."
As for perfecting that grown-up-actress-entertaining routine, Kaling's still working on it. “I don’t want to have everything catered. I want to, you know, hit the grocery store," she insists. We hope we make the guest list.