Since building a home for herself and her three kids over the past few years, Jennifer Garner has shown glimpses of the sunny farmhouse dwelling through her social media posts. The kitchen’s exposed wood beams and stone fireplace can be seen as she carries her fluffy cat, Moose, to places in the home he’s “never seen before” (inside the refrigerator and microwave, up high to peer at the family aquarium). She showed off her home gym and hillside pool views, too, filming herself as she trained to reprise the role of Elektra — and also, jokingly, announced that she had failed to make the Olympic Games.
But until now, Garner hasn’t given a full tour inside her Westside Los Angeles property. That’s all changed with Architectural Digest’s latest cover story, which reveals a cheerful, rustic space designed and constructed from the ground up by Steve and Brooke Giannetti — with help from designer Laura Putnam — who are well-known with design circles for building spacious and light-filled arcadian houses integrated with the natural world.
“I wanted (the home) to feel old and cool and historic, but I also wanted to make it work for a big family with a lot of things going on,” Garner told AD for the October issue. She had searched for a home with privacy, but the ones she toured all felt too “grand,” she explained. Instead, she tasked the Giannetti’s with building an entirely new space, which they based on the actor’s memories of her childhood in West Virginia, according to AD.
“I had this idea of creating something that felt like a farmhouse and a barn,” Steve said in the cover story. “We wanted natural wood, coziness—a kind of warm embrace of a house for her because she’s such a lovely person.”
The home reflects that sense of comfort, with natural materials and a neutral color scheme topped off with antique and repurposed furniture in the living room, brass chandeliers and marble countertops in kitchen, and a nickel soaking tub with views of the greenery outside.
“There’s also something a bit whimsical about her,” Brooke added. “And she likes gentle shapes, curves. This place is kind of the house version of Jen’s personality.”
There’s plenty of opportunities to connect with nature, too. The kitchen opens up to the tranquil pool and a bucolic fruit and vegetable garden, while floral and arboreal wallpaper appear in the kids’ rooms and bathrooms. It’s a house fully in use, too, rather than siloed off — a rarity for a house with multiple pre-teens and teenagers.
“I am happy that I feel like we use the space really well, and that the kids are all over the house,” Garner said. They’re as comfortable sitting in the living room as they are doing homework in the dining room. And that’s the dream, right?”
That’s the vision that Garner had, the designers explained — a thoughtful approach to how everyone might use the space once it was built. Perhaps most touching are the stained-glass windows in the study and reading room, inspired by the children’s book “All the World” by Marla Freeze — a cherished book in the family. The windows were made by the author’s son, the artist Reed Bradley, as a tribute to his mother’s work. But he incorporated Garner and her family into the symbolism of the windows, with owls representing each of the kids, as well as an appearance by their dog, Birdie.
