Some addresses in Los Angeles carry a particular kind of quiet. Not the quiet of emptiness, but the quiet of intention, the kind you choose, and protect, and return to. Mandeville Canyon is one of those addresses. Winding up into the Santa Monica Mountains between Brentwood and Encino, it has long been where people go when they want to actually live their life rather than perform it. Over the years it has drawn in Gwyneth Paltrow, Harrison Ford, Dr. Dre, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kendrick Lamar. Listings here are rare. When one comes to market, it means something.
This one means quite a lot. 2435 Mandeville Canyon Road is the home where Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. raised their family — daughter Charlotte Grace, now 15, and son Rocky James, now 12 — through the particular, irreplaceable years of childhood. You know these two: Gellar as Buffy Summers, the role that made her iconic, and in Cruel Intentions; Prinze Jr. as the romantic lead of a generation in She's All That, and alongside Gellar in the Scooby-Doo films they made together after meeting on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997. They have been together ever since. This was the house where that life happened.
For two people who have spent decades in the public eye, the canyon offers something genuinely precious: the sense that home can remain private. The rolling lawn, the tree canopy, the space for children to actually run around, it is the kind of place that shapes a childhood in the best way. Now listed at $10.5 million by Cindy Ambuehl of Compass, one of the canyon's most trusted voices in real estate, and a collaborator we loved working with on this project, the home is ready for its next story. Vesta was there to set the stage.
The Design Approach
Vesta approached this home with a brief that felt both clear and demanding: honor what is already here. This is a 7,318-square-foot property on one-third of an acre, five bedrooms, six bathrooms, rooms of genuine grandeur, and it has the soul of a home that has been deeply loved. The job was not to erase that. It was to draw it forward.
We brought in designer Ryan Worthington, whose talent for transitional interiors, that specific, difficult register between traditional warmth and contemporary ease, made him the natural fit. Ryan has a particular gift for the kind of staging that never looks like staging: rooms that feel gathered over time, layered with found objects and vintage pieces alongside considered contemporary furniture, so that a buyer walks in and feels the life of a place rather than the performance of one.
"What I loved about the house was how large and grand all the rooms were. I made a point to create multiple seating areas in the living room to emphasize the space. Overall, what I enjoyed most was incorporating found pieces with our more contemporary pieces to make a more lived-in look."
That philosophy ran through every decision Ryan made here, room by room.
Layering with Intention
The living room is where the home makes its first impression, and Ryan’s instinct was to avoid turning it into a formal showpiece. Instead, he created a series of inviting seating areas that make the expansive space feel warm and approachable. Curved accent chairs were intentionally placed to create an intimate conversation area, while a generous sectional anchors the main gathering space with comfort in mind. A moss-green rug ties everything together, adding depth and a sense of homey warmth. The result is a room that can welcome a crowd while still feeling personal—just as it always has.
The dining space sits between the living room and the garden, framed by a fireplace on one side and French doors on the other, a room designed to feel welcoming from morning coffee to evening gatherings. Ryan centered the space around a round natural oak table, a choice that encourages connection and easy conversation. Surrounding it are Vesta's Alta Dining Chairs, whose sculptural silhouette brings a sense of artistry to the room. Their curved backs and warm wood tones soften the architecture, while their light, open profile keeps the space feeling airy and effortless. Together, the table and chairs create a setting that feels intimate yet adaptable, balancing thoughtful design with everyday comfort.
A Room Made for Childhood
This was, by Ryan's own admission, one of his favourite rooms in the house — and the photographs make clear why. The architecture gives you the head start: a built-in sleeping nook with an arched surround, painted in soft sage grey, with open shelving flanking both sides and a deep daybed below. The kind of feature a child grows up around and never forgets. Ryan kept the styling inside it tactile and inviting, cream linen pillows, a loose throw, a few quietly chosen objects on the shelves, so that the nook reads as cosy rather than designed.
At the desk, Vesta's Charlene Dining Chair brings a playful softness to the room. Its sculptural silhouette and rounded form introduce a sense of ease, balancing the more tailored architectural details throughout the space. Upholstered in a textured fabric that echoes the room’s warm, neutral palette, the chair feels both refined and inviting—equally suited to homework, reading, or quiet moments of creativity.
The finishing note is Vesta's Knitted Giraffe Stool from our Zoo Crew Collection, positioned near the centre of the room. In cream knitted yarn, it brings a softness that the harder surfaces around it can't, and it makes the room feel, unmistakably, like somewhere a child would actually want to be. “It was so darling,” says Ryan. It really is.
The Primary Suite
The primary bedroom is a room that stops you. Vaulted ceilings rise overhead; a skylight sits directly above the bed so that the first light you see each morning is sky. French doors open onto a private balcony wrapped in greenery. The room already had great bones, which meant the design challenge was one of restraint and amplification rather than addition.
Ryan built the space in warm tonal layers: soft taupes, creamy linens, natural oak furniture that feels considered rather than matched. Near the French doors, a curved upholstered sofa creates a distinct sitting area, a reading corner, a morning-coffee spot, so that the room has two distinct registers: the sleeping space and the living space, each with its own quiet purpose. The palette is kept deliberately close in value so that the room feels expansive and unified, the eye moving easily across it without snagging.
Above the bed, Vesta's Los Feliz Mirror in Antique Copper Iron is working harder than it might appear. Its large round form catches the light from the skylight and the garden beyond and bounces it across the walls and ceiling in a way that shifts subtly through the day, warmer and more diffuse in the morning, golden and directional in the late afternoon. The antique copper finish adds depth without weight, richness without heaviness. In a room already full of natural light, a mirror above the bed becomes less a decorative choice and more a structural one: it makes the room feel in constant, gentle conversation with the world outside, alive to every change in the light.
Working alongside Cindy Ambuehl throughout this project was a genuine pleasure. She knows this canyon, knows what it offers and what it asks for, and her instincts for how a home like this should present itself were perfectly aligned with ours. The best projects happen when that trust is mutual — and this was one of those projects.
What we’re left with, walking through the finished home, is the feeling that the staging did what it was always supposed to do: it didn’t change what the house is. It revealed it. The grandeur is still there. The warmth is still there. The sense of a family life, lived fully and well — that’s still there too. Whoever walks through next is going to feel it the moment they step inside.
2435 Mandeville Canyon Road is listed at $10.5 million by Cindy Ambuehl of Compass. Staging by Vesta Home, designed by Ryan Worthington.