
Mother Stories
A Creative Two-Mom Couple Shows Off Their Hillside Home
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Photographed by Hilary Walsh
Aug 11, 2015
Living in what’s essentially a very glam treehouse, and having not one but two amazing mothers—how lucky can a little guy be? Five-month-old Julian James, the babe of L.A. creatives Margaret Kleveland and Brett Ramey, gets all of that and a whole lot more. Here, his mamas—Brett is head of creative for Equipment, Current/Elliott, and Joie, and Margaret is a designer on the eve of launching her own line—open up their art-strewn hilltop home and talk motherhood, and life, work, and relationship after baby.
- Margaret: “The bassinet is by Leander (Danish, of course!). The design is good because you can either hang it from the ceiling or from the wood tipi-style tripod that comes with. We were a little nervous about how our super pushy French Bulldog was going to react to the baby. I figured if the bassinet was suspended from the ceiling the dog wouldn’t be able to barrel it over. Turned out to be a non-issue since our bully is crazy about Julian. I also love any baby product that allows for the baby to use its own momentum to move, rather than being rocked in a contraption. He is sleeping in his crib now, but sometimes still naps in the bassinet." Margaret wears a vintage jumpsuit from Rose Bowl flea and Margiela sandals.
- Margaret: "Our room is treehouse-meets-Morocco. The house is pretty rustic and full of windows, which gives our room a great airy feel. We took an amazing trip to Morocco with our friend Hilary Walsh a few years ago and some of my favorite things are textiles and floor cushions we brought back. I also love the look and feel of washed linen. The sheets are a combination of Matteo and Restoration Hardware. I am a die-hard white-sheet girl, but since we had the baby, it makes more sense to have darker sheets. We do a lot of half-asleep early morning breastfeeding, so it is a bodily fluid zone! Our vintage sputnik chandelier was a gift from our friend Rosetta. The tasseled throw is by Abanjá from Maison Midi in L.A."
- Brett: "Laurel Canyon neo-hippie treehouse I think sums it up. We both love living in the treetops and all those special details of the old canyon homes, the crazy hippie tiles that are inlayed in our steps and the overgrown hillsides. The stuff that you couldn't recreate even if you wanted to. We can't seem to get away from that style even if it means sacrificing convenience. Carrying a very well-fed little guy up a bunch of stairs is getting harder by the day, but as soon as we get up in our house we never want to leave. Feels like you're a million miles away from the city." Brett wears a Hanes t-shirt and Levi’s jeans. Julian wears a Bonpoint top, and harem sweatpants his moms made him from Current/Elliott fabric.
- Brett: "Both of us are pretty diehard Laurel Canyon people since moving to L.A. Something about all the brilliant weirdos, musicians, and artists that have lived and still live in the canyon made it the only place for us. After you climb about 200 stairs, our house is on Lookout Mountain up in the hillside and Joni Mitchell probably said it best with this quote: 'When I first came out to L.A. [in 1968], my friend Joel Bernstein found an old book in a flea market that said: Ask anyone in America where the craziest people live and they'll tell you California. Ask anyone in California where the craziest people live and they'll say Los Angeles. Ask anyone in Los Angeles where the craziest people live and they'll tell you Hollywood. Ask anyone in Hollywood where the craziest people live and they'll say Laurel Canyon. And ask anyone in Laurel Canyon where the craziest people live and they'll say Lookout Mountain. So, I bought a house on Lookout Mountain.'"
- Brett: "Several years ago our first Laurel Canyon home burned down to the ground from an electrical fire, so we lost everything. It was such a strange experience to wake up and have nothing but the clothes you wore to bed the night before. It was cleansing in a way. I think at that point both Margaret and I vowed that moving forward was going to be about bringing only things we really loved into our world. Our house is still filled with pieces that our incredible friends had given us after the fire. Most everything we have brought into our home is vintage. I love that old California mid-century style and natural elements mixed with clean lines. Our coffee table is a giant tangled old wood root with a piece of glass over it. Margaret gave me a huge old copper window frame from the Flatiron building in New York turned into a mirror for my birthday one year because she knew I missed the city. An enormous 10-foot long black leather chesterfield is one of my favorite pieces. A set of safari chairs. All things that have been loved before getting to us suits our style much more than a brand-new modern piece."
- Margaret: "That is a bridge we still have to cross, but I think we will always take a minimalist approach. We really believe that you don’t need much to have a young baby. Yes, we will have to make some changes for safety and clear stuff out to give him room to move. We have a great low deck off of our room that we are changing into an enclosed outdoor space for him, where he can have toys and spend time outside." Margaret wears a vintage Mexican dress.
- Margaret: "Brett moved here from New York after having worked at Interview magazine and Elle, where she was the photography director. So, she covers our walls with photography and art. Also, she started painting when she moved to California, so she did all the paintings around the house. She’s now the head of creative for the fashion lines Equipment, Current/Elliott, and Joie. We actually met through my sister while we were all three working at Joie. I have worked on both the business and creative side of the fashion industry, primarily as a footwear designer. In our combined 16 years in the industry, my sister and I saw that the industry is primarily male owned and overwhelmingly women employed. We started talking and have teamed up with an incredibly talented group of women to launch Dôen, a brand with a refined California aesthetic, rooted in a love for vintage/nostalgia. We are launching online-only in Spring 2016, founded, funded, and run by women."
- Brett: "What Margaret and I call our 'summers of love' are spent surfing every weekend, all weekend together. We did take a little break from it because spending a small fortune on fertility doctors makes you a little hesitant to lay on your belly and get smashed by a wave, but now that baby Julian is finally here and he has turned into a beach bum with us, we're picking up where we left off. The surfboard you see on the wall is actually how I proposed to Margaret. The other side you can't see in the photos has a fiberglassed graphic of a diamond solitaire ring on it. Margs is the guitar player. She likes to sing to baby Julian and the kid is music obsessed. He has this deep little voice and he croons along with her. We made him a playlist when he was born and it was the only thing he cared about. We put it on and he was instantly soothed. A little bit of Neil Young, some Cowboy Junkies, and Rickie Lee Jones. He loves The Kills. Every morning we sing Cat Stevens 'Morning Has Broken' and his bedtime song is The Mamas and The Papas 'Dream a Little Dream of Me.' When we are getting really heavy, we sing him a little 'Maybe Not' by Cat Power."
- Brett: “So, funny story. We had this beautiful nursery we had done in our upstairs guest room (when our master bedroom was downstairs) right before he was born. It was a huge room with a little tipi and the old spudnik chandelier, tons of light, with all these cute little strings of colored circles dangling from the ceiling that I bought him when I was in Paris. I watercolor painted him these images of shapes. I spent so much time on decorating his space. Then on day five of Julian's life we had movers come and move our master bedroom from downstairs into the upstairs guest bedroom that we had made his nursery, and moved him into the small room right off of that room that was once our office. Apparently all our mom friends weren't kidding when they tried to politely tell us that having a new baby on a different floor than we were sleeping was gonna be hard. So, we improvised and took a tiny space and made it really cozy for him. There’s tons of stuff hanging from the ceiling, lots of art, and things to look at."
- Brett: "I put a huge wall-size blown-up image of a Corrine Day pic of Kate Moss from when Kate was so young right across from his crib. She has a giant scrunched up smile on her face and looks so young and happy. We also have a carved wood mid-century mobile above his dressing table area that I'm really into. I couldn't help but get really into the whole stuffed animal craze. Margaret likes all those Maileg ones that look hand-sewn and I can't get enough of those life-like Hansa ones. The little deer are too cute. Baby Julian could care less about either of those, however, and would prefer to eat his hands.”
- Margaret: "Discovering everyday of who this person is. Plus, I can’t wait to simultaneously shape him into my long-haired spiritual yoga boy."
- Margaret: "It is tough to be doing something (the mom thing) for the first time ever, and do it with enough confidence that your child feels secure. Even as a tiny baby he picked up on everything. I really want to be conscious to model a situation for Julian that is free and easy and filled with laughter. I don’t worry at all about him being raised by two moms and how that might feel for him later on. We have such a strong extended family of friends and there will always be someone to talk skateboards and anatomy."
- Brett: “It's like rediscovering everything for the first time. Everything feels brand new through his eyes. He's discovered our dogs recently and watching him interact with them gives me a whole new love for our pets."
- Brett: “I’m not nervous about being a mother at all. He's our sidekick. He's so into everything we do that it just feels normal, like he's always been by our side."
- Margaret: "Julian James. No big story. We both loved Julian as our boy name. James is Brett's fathers name. Julian James sounded like a hot art boy name so we went with it. Plus, it was good enough for Yoko and John, so..."
- Brett: "The ocean. We hope to raise him in the water. There's a spirituality and respect that the ocean teaches you at a young age. He doesn't have to be a surfer, but I think the nature that's available within an hour of every direction in California is a pretty incredible way to come into the world."
- Brett: "We couldn't have a better network of people here. Margaret's sister Katherine and her two boys (our family can't seem to make any girls) live 15 minutes up the hill from us. Baby Julian loves his cousins so much— Wilder is 3-years-old, Shep is 18-months-old, and baby Julian is 5-months-old. Great for us we never need to buy a single piece of clothing! Margaret was born and raised in Santa Barbara, so her whole family is still up there. We spend tons of time on the beach with them. Hilary Walsh, who took these photos, is one of my best friends from New York (we met years ago, she used to shoot for me when I was at Interview) and she and her family (also two boys) live in Silverlake. Rosetta Getty adopted me when I first moved to L.A. and was my saving grace. She and her four kids are like family to Margaret and I. Baby Julian has his group of 'pseudo uncles,' all scattered around the city—Dylan Rieder and Curtis Buchanan, who will teach him to skateboard. Jon Mosier and Rick Simon, who gave him his first Hermes blankie. Our house is part of a commune of houses all built in the hillside of the canyon and our neighbor Mara Scalise is a beautiful jewelry designer and has her shiny product all over her house, it's one of Julian's favorite places to hang out. He stares at all her necklaces and shiny things like he's at Disneyland."
- Brett: "Margaret is more often 'mama' and I'm 'mom' or 'mommy' (or jokingly 'mom-dad') when Margs refers to me, but we aren't sold on anything yet." Margaret wears a vintage Indian top and vintage Levi’s from Filth Mart. Brett wears a vintage t-shirt and Levi’s shorts.
- Brett: "Balance. Trying to work, be a mom, be a wife, be a daughter, a sister. It's a lot."
- Margaret: "When I was in my twenties and working, running around, everything was about me. It came as both a relief and a big challenge that from the day he was born 'it' just isn’t about me anymore. To have that center and purpose is major. I’m a momma, I’m a working momma, and together we are making choices that will shape our lives together as a family."
- Margaret: "Maybe I was a little late to the party, so to speak, but I have never felt more motivated than right after he was born to build something that he could be proud of. It was this overwhelming feeling, like I could work and try to balance and be a champion for this kid."
- Brett: “It's amazing. I can't remember life before baby J. We try really hard to keep him a part of everything we do and submerge him in our world rather than change everything to be 'kid friendly.' We definitely go to bed earlier, wake up earlier, pack significantly more when we go away—the days of living out of a backpack are long gone, but other than that he's just cruising along with us."
- Brett: "It's really conflicting. On one hand it feels more than ever that my job is to work hard to provide for him and on the other hand I have this pull towards home, away from the office. It's strange to have to put up boundaries and find a balance. It used to be so second nature to live, eat, and breathe my job, that's all you know growing up working in New York. All the travel used to be so normal and now it's like someone implanted a homing device in me. I don't want to leave him. We try to wait till I get home from work for bedtime, but sometimes I miss it and I see him the next day and it feels like he grew up overnight. It's all happening so fast that I'm doing everything possible to be as much a part of it as I can. We have these grand plans of going as a family when I have to go to Europe or New York, but obviously traveling with a little one isn't as easy as our head makes it."
- Margaret: "We are still very much in the thick of it. Many things have been counterintuitive, too, like the idea of 'not going to bed angry.' At this point, we are like…sleep first, then talk. We are trying to address things as they come up, it is really all coming down to compassion, making each other feel heard—the basics."
- Brett: "How fast the time flies and how in an instant your entire sense of purpose in life changes. You spend your whole life hyper-focused on you, you, you and in an instant your world shifts automatically to putting someone else before yourself. It's amazing." Julian wears a shirt from Greece, bandana from J.Crew, and sweatpants his moms made him from Current/Elliott fabric.
- Margaret: "Follow your instincts. You'll know what your child needs. You made him/her, you have everything you need to meet their needs as a baby. When Julian was born I so strongly felt I already knew him, his movements, patterns. It's all about being in observation of your kid and really taking the time to know him/her."
- Margaret: "Weekends are sacred. We leave the house early and get coffee at the Canyon Country Store. He gets crazy love from everyone there. We head to Malibu and even the car ride together is magic. We play music, he loves it. He loves being outside, just observing and feeling the breeze. We can set up on the beach and stay for hours. The drive home always feel sad, like the end of something."
- Brett: "Everything. He is definitely a happy baby. He smiles 99% of his day and when he looks at you with that grin you know everything is right with the world."
- Margaret: “I have learned so much from moms I know, our good friend Mara Scalise and my sister Katherine Kleveland have been my mom spirit guides."
- Margaret: “It is hugely important for me that we can build a life that will give Julian the freedom to explore what he wants to do, take the time, have some internships, and not feel pressured to pick a path. My biggest hope is that we can support him to find his 'thing.' As long as he has that, the sky is the limit."
- Brett: "Definitely. We talk about potentially using my egg and the same donor for the second baby so each of our kids has some of our DNA and are still related through the donor. We do want a little separation age-wise, however, so we are really able to spend time with Julian."
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