Even without stepping inside the cyan-trimmed 1928 Spanish Colonial of Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his husband, activist and social innovator Justin Mikita, one fact is crystal clear: The couple excels at the delicate art of balancing kitsch and class, their cheeky wit fusing with aesthetic prowess. It's a mashup of informal and formal that feels cozy and intimate in a way that betrays the Loz Feliz house's size and the could-be severity of its original Gothic-inflected interior finishes—painted ceilings, stained glass, and ornate wrought iron. Perhaps the most exemplary juxtaposition: A “Homo Sweet Homo” mat welcomes guests through the impressive arched entry vestibule.
A Happy Space
Ferguson and Mikita worked with Will & Grace set decorator–cum–interior designer Peter Gurski to fill the four-bedroom home, which clocks in at nearly 5,000-square-feet. (Ferguson met Gurski on the set of the 2007 show The Class. “I said, ‘Here's my number if you need help buying anything,' and he called me about a chair,” says Gurski.) Still, the design of the home is highly personal; most of the items inside it imbued with meaning.
A Star-Studded Abode
The couple previously lived in a classic midcentury-modern house; now their home consists of a soaring foyer marked by not only a dramatic black birdcage chandelier but portraits of explorers on its domed ceiling and rare plaster “rug” worked into the wall, relics of a far more formal era. The Los Feliz pad and its resort-style dual-level pool that sends water cascading over curvilinear aqua-tiled walls (Ferguson calls it “ostentatious and very perfect for this house”) was previously owned byGwen Stefaniand Gavin Rossdale, and after that Robert Pattinson. In Ferguson's and Mikita's version of the home, the Gothic vibe is far more discerning than ingratiating.
It's impossible, for example, to ignore the George W. Bush portrait hanging waist-high in the living room. It's a surprising if not shocking choice for a couple very public in their activism championing LGBTQ rights, but in keeping with their sense of humor, there's a bit of a gotcha! moment involved. “If you look close enough you realize that the medium . . . it's porn,” laughs Ferguson about the fleshy Jonathan Yeo collage they consider an investment piece (they also have the artist's Onan the Barbarian depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger in their upstairs hallway).