If you always assumed Diane Keaton's home would resemble Erica Barry's (her character in Nancy Meyers's 2003 film Something's Gotta Give), you aren't alone. "I still have women come up to me and talk about that kitchen," Keaton laughs. But the actress turned author, who recently released her third book, The House That Pinterest Built (Rizzoli), says her taste is a bit more "junky" than her director pal's. "Nancy has incredible taste, but I've always been into old Spanish," Keaton explains. "I did a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright houses, but that's a very different style than Nancy's. I love Nancy, she means a lot to me. But I never did go in that direction. Only because of the houses I bought."
She does owe Meyers something else, though, when it comes to interior design: Meyers turned Keaton on to Pinterest. (Meyers herself has said it was her daughter, Hallie, who introduced her to the photo-sharing app, which she has used to help envision her movies, such as The Intern.) Keaton was so taken with Pinterest that it now holds a place in the title of her new book. "I'm still in love with it; I'm still in love with Pinterest!" she exclaims happily. "To me, it's soothing, because you're also on a hunt. It leads to something else, and that leads to something else, and it just goes on and on. And that's the light you want—the light from the computer. It just makes everything look better."
Prior to discovering Pinterest, Keaton says she was equally compulsive when it came to collecting inspiration for the houses she has bought and sold over the past decade and a half. "I had a library of books and magazines—tons," she says, calling herself a former magazine tear-sheet addict. "World of Interiors, Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, you name it. And from all different countries." But for her current home, an 8,000-square-foot structure in the Sullivan Canyon area, outside of Brentwood, California, it was Pinterest that inspired her vision and eventually her latest tome.
The aptly named The House That Pinterest Built is comprised of 300 photographs of Keaton's new home along with essays, how-tos, and other inspiration. It's the first time the actress has opened up this particular residence, and it offers a peek inside both Keaton's private life and her decorating and renovation. "I follow my impulses just like I did with acting," she says.
With this much interest—and experience—in real estate and decorating (Keaton hired Cynthia Carlson Associates to help sort through her practically countless Pinterest images for her Sullivan Canyon home), one would expect that if Keaton's 47-year career as an actress hadn't panned out, her obvious second choice would have been interior design.
But according to Keaton, that probably wouldn't have been the case. "It evolved later. I bought my first apartment in the San Remo after Annie Hall, so I was already 30," she explains, referencing the Central Park West luxury co-op apartment building. "So once I had the means I could explore more. When I bought that apartment in the San Remo, it was a tower apartment. I had to sell it because they wouldn't let me rent it out, I still really resent that! You could just see out everywhere! That was my first opportunity to just spatially become acquainted with something that was a big square that could break into other big squares, and it was just filled with light."
This, according to Keaton, is something that to this day is very important to her. "For example, I don't like curtains. No, I don't like them. I've never liked them," she insists. "The house I have now, there are commercial windows like in factory buildings, so they are more high up. It just brings astonishing light. And it's always changing. It's very magical to me."
Though that's not Keaton's favorite facet of the home, which she described as "brick and steel and barnyard wood" with a factory industrial feel. "It's the bricks," she says of the 75,000 pieces of clay that make up her home. "I fell in love with the bricks, and I fell in love with the mortar. I wanted to have space between the bricks so they could have a life of their own. It's old brick I bought in Chicago, and I shipped it and I kept coming back for more; they probably thought I was insane. And maybe they are right!" She laughs good-naturedly.
"I initially thought I was going to paint it white, because I love white and black, duh!," she says, sounding exactly how one might expect one of Keaton's lovable on-screen characters to sound. "But I started to really love the brick and the textures of it, and, well, I don't know, how they weren't perfect."
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