Inside the Stunning Palm Springs Home of Designers to the Stars Brian McGrory and James Houston (Exclusive)

Brian McGrory and James Houston are never without a creative project on their plate. McGrory is a renowned restaurateur, designer and hospitality industry veteran; and Houston is a famous beauty photographer who has shot Jennifer Lopez, Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett. But the pair create some of their best work when they’re together.

The partners, who share daughter Dylan Geraldine, 4, (pictured above with their fathers) founded Studio JBD, a Los Angeles-based interior and landscape design firm whose projects have been featured in Architectural Digest and Elle Décor, and which boasts high-profile clients and celebrities including Connie Britton, who fell in love with their relaxed yet luxurious visual language.

The trio are neighbors in Los Feliz, and met through the former owner of Houston and McGrory’s bar, a television executive and friend of Britton’s.

“[Connie] came to [our] house and said, ‘Oh my God, who did this?’ We said, ‘Well, we did’. Then she said, ‘Would you come look at my house?'” Houston recalls. They visited Britton, shared their design ideas for her home, and she was immediately impressed. “She said, ‘Write me an offer.’ So she really became our first client as a design company.”

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James Houston

“Brian and James are first and foremost the most imaginative, honest, collaborative design/build team I have ever worked with,” Britton tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Every step of our project to reinvent my landscape and outdoor space has been a joy.”

“They brought vision and insight that maintained the historic integrity of my home and honored how I wanted to create the space,” she adds. “And they did it in the most time- and cost-effective way, courteously and transparently every step of the way,”

For the couple, Britton is a dream client for another reason: they share a creative way of working. “If they like what you’re doing, they’re more open to what you think will work,” says Houston. “We’ve been very fortunate in that sense to be able to have clients who really appreciate and respect our vision and just want us to be a part of it.”

James Houston

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In October, McGrory and Houston opened up to PEOPLE about their latest passion project: a complete renovation of a run-down Midcentury home in Palm Springs, California.

Their hearts were set on a place in the iconic desert city. “It’s a very special place, especially when you live in LA. You can drive two hours and it’s like a whole different world,” says Houston.

James Houston

“It has a beautiful peaceful energy. When you go there, you really relax and switch off,” adds McGrory. The city has also experienced a shift since the pandemic, when many left the bigger cities, he notes. “During COVID, it completely turned around. It became this really cool destination, a new place to live, where a lot of new people discovered it and all these amazing restaurants opened,” says the former London restaurateur.

They bought their 1950s post-and-beam home after FaceTime with their realtor without ever seeing it in person, but their real estate instincts were spot on. The location, with a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains, was perfect and all the aesthetic and structural problems of the house were no match for this duo.

James Houston

Over a year and a half, they remodeled and expanded the property’s floor plan to include all the modern conveniences while maintaining its trademark Midcentury shapes. “We’re proud not only of the actual structure and finish, but the way we furnish it, the art, the landscaping,” says Houston. “It’s like going back to Slim Aarons in terms of the way it feels and looks.”

Now that it is complete, the fate of the house is open. They toyed with keeping it, selling it or renting it out. “Ideally, we designed it as the ultimate rental home, which is why we called it Mountain View Lodge,” says Houston.

James Houston

And while they cite newly raised ceilings, a redone fireplace and the addition of a romantic outdoor tub as favorite features, McGrory says the view is still the best part, “100 percent. It’s really stunning. It’s very magnetic.”

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James Houston

The desert oasis was far from the first major home renovation the couple had undertaken. They previously renovated their primary residence in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, a modest townhouse in Brooklyn, and a cabin in upstate New York.

Britton also referred them to some famous friends for whom they are now designing homes across LA. When asked about their dream celebrity client, Houston joked that he would love to visit Britney Spears’ home, before adding: “I know Brian would probably love to do Taylor Swift’s house… I’d love to work with Gwyneth Paltrow. She has great taste.”

And their projects are not limited to domestic creations. Houston is also writing a book, a thriller based on his life as a model in the ’80s and ’90s, and they tease that they have a few more celebrity projects up their sleeves, but for now, at least, those clients are under wraps. “It’s not Taylor Swift. That’s all I’ll say,” Houston says.

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Source: HIS Education