From a small apartment in Brooklyn to a dream home in Malibu, legendary singer, actress, and filmmaker Barbra Streisand has always had exquisite taste and a passion for beautiful homes. One such home is the one she waited 11 long years to buy and then chose as the venue for her wedding.
The house, a stunning piece of architecture nestled on California’s breathtaking coast, caught Streisand’s eye more than a decade before she could call it her own. And although she may own her dream home now, the vocalist’s journey to success was not easy.
Born into a family with limited means, Streisand grew up in a small apartment in Brooklyn, where she shared a bed with her mother. Despite the lack of space and furniture, Streisand found solace in her imagination, often seeking refuge under the dining table. Eventually, her mother found love again and remarried, leading them to relocate to a housing project where they acquired their first couch.
Streisand was overjoyed. The couch, with its nubby olive green and shiny grey texture, may have been considered unattractive by some, but to her, it was a treasure. It also sparked her love for furniture and interior design. She shares, “It’s hard to say how one acquires an eye for art or design, but I don’t think I developed it at home unless it was in rebellion from what I was seeing.”
When Streisand moved away from home at 16 to pursue her acting career, she discovered the joy of decorating her own space. Despite her limited funds, she furnished her apartment with thrift shop finds, including an old dresser topped with a fish tank and a fake Persian rug. Her taste evolved over the years, especially after she started earning from her Broadway shows. She developed a love for Art Nouveau furniture and Tiffany lamps, filling her homes with these beautiful pieces.
Streisand’s journey to create her dream home was a labor of love that took years to complete. She chronicles it in her first book, “My Passion for Design.” The property is an homage to craftsmanship, focusing on woodwork and old beams. The design echoes the impact of renowned architects and furniture designers such as Greene and Greene, Stickley, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
For Streisand, the process of crafting a dream home brings as much satisfaction as creating a film. “You have something to really show for it afterward,” she says. The property comprises four buildings — the mill house, the barn, Grandma’s house, and the main house — spread over 3 acres. Interestingly, Streisand patiently waited for 11 years before the main house became available for purchase.
Inside this sanctuary, Streisand indulges her love for craftsmanship, architecture, and style and displays her exquisite collection of treasures. Her journey as a collector began when she was just 16 and had just moved out of her mother’s house. With limited resources, she found beauty in simplicity, framing empty spaces on white walls with old picture frames.
However, as her career took off, earning her numerous accolades and awards, her ability to collect expanded. She amassed enough art, furniture, and decorative arts to fill her New York apartment, Beverly Hills house, and Malibu home. Streisand’s approach to collecting is methodical and immersive.
She goes through phases, exploring different styles and periods in depth, as if she were making a movie with a unified vision. Like a seasoned director completing one project before embarking on another, Streisand creatively curates her collection, often parting with items to ensure they find homes that genuinely value them.
A notable example was when she auctioned her Art Deco collection in 1994 at Christie’s in New York. This collection, featuring Lalique glass, an inlaid-ivory desk by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Tamara de Lempicka’s painting Adam et Eve, and clocks by Cartier, Cheuret, and Lalique, had been on display in a guesthouse/poolhouse on her Malibu property since the mid-1970s.
Streisand transformed this space into an Art Deco haven, paying attention to every detail, right down to the doorknobs and drawer pulls. For its garage, she even acquired period cars — a 1926 Rolls-Royce and a 1933 Dodge. Moving through her living space, the fireplace in the living room is adorned with a Mondrian-like arrangement of stainless-steel decorative panels from the landmark Art Deco Richfield Building in downtown Los Angeles.
In the bedroom, the carpeting, replicated from a 1930s Bigelow original she had seen at the Huntington Hotel in San Francisco, showcases Streisand’s commitment to authenticity. When original furnishings weren’t available, she either had reproductions made or offered her own unique interpretations.
Streisand’s holistic approach to design is evident in her meticulous creation of a necklace that harmonizes seamlessly with her house. This minute attention to detail draws parallels with architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, whom she admires and whose design philosophy often extended beyond the house and the furniture to include dresses for his female clients to wear at home.
She says, “That’s the way I see things — as a complete vision.” She applies this vision to her color choices as well. Faced with the dilemma of choosing between gray and burgundy for the house’s exterior, she boldly embraced both, resulting in a visually striking composition — gray on two sides, burgundy on the other two.
This duality forms the foundation for the interiors, where the color palette oscillates between black to gray and burgundy to pale rose. Every room within the house is a unique blend of these two spectrums, adhering strictly to Streisand’s vision. Even the most minor details are not spared from Streisand’s strict adherence to her chosen color palette.
Candy wrappers in the candy dishes are also meticulously color-coordinated, reflecting her relentless pursuit of harmony. Streisand says there’s no room for deviation, “I don’t put a black vase in the gray-and-burgundy room.” This meticulous attention to detail is also evident in the floral arrangements, ensuring that burgundy flowers are absent from the rose bedroom and pink flowers don’t disrupt the burgundy-and-gray living room.
While some might find such constraints limiting, Streisand embraces them, stating, “I like monochromatic rooms, and I like black-and-white movies.” Even the family photos displayed on the piano in the living room are black and white. It is a conscious decision; a commitment to maintaining the harmonious ambiance she has cultivated, believing that color photos would disrupt it.
Her penchant for monochrome guides her fashion choices as well. “I like to wear one color; I never wear prints,” Streisand asserts, articulating a belief that the subtlety of a single color enhances personal presence, while prints might diminish it. Yet, Streisand, ever the creative explorer, didn’t shy away from experimenting with prints in specific rooms.
She playfully christens the study off the living room as her “Art Deco Matisse room,” a homage to the artist renowned for his enchanting juxtaposition of patterns in his paintings. The room houses a Deco sideboard, a piece that had been abandoned by a previous owner and left to the mercy of the rain.
Streisand, recognizing its potential, salvaged and refurbished it. When she chose to repurpose it as a stereo cabinet, she had a pair of speaker cases crafted. The intricate carvings on these cases perfectly match those on the sideboard, a detail that Streisand is quick to highlight, underscoring the exquisite craftsmanship involved.
This careful attention to detail and commitment to preserving beauty is a recurring theme of Streisand’s life, permeating beyond her collections and into her personal life. On June 14, 1998, Streisand made a late entrance to an intimate dinner hosted by John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston.Upon her arrival, she divulged that she had just met with a rabbi who was set to officiate her wedding to James Brolin. They kept this revelation confidential and shared it with only a select few. A few weeks later, and a colossal white tent was erected on Streisand’s Malibu property, signaling the impending nuptials.
On July 1, 1998, the second anniversary of their first date, Streisand walked down the aisle in her formal Malibu living room. “It was probably the most beautiful wedding I’ve been to,” said Travolta, who was present at their wedding. Streisand and Brolin exchanged their vows, surrounded by close friends and family. Much like Streisand’s home, the wedding was a testament to her patience, love for beauty, and fondness for privacy.
