Jeff Goldblum and Emilie Goldblum have turned the guesthouse behind their West Hollywood home into a polished, multipurpose pavilion that now works as a gym, home office, performance space and guest cottage. The redesign also gave Emilie a place to show off her aerial skills on a new rig set behind the building.
The project matters because it changes the feel of a property that has been in Goldblum’s hands for more than four decades. He lives there with Emilie and their two sons, Charlie Ocean and River Joe, in the hills above West Hollywood, where the main house dates to the 1930s and the guesthouse had become the odd one out.
Barbara Bestor was brought in to reimagine that outbuilding, and she did it by raising the ceilings, upgrading the building systems and giving the pavilion a cleaner, more playful character. New arched doorways and colorful tile work pull the space back into the wider look of the property, while a pyramidal ceiling above Goldblum’s office and snooze-atorium adds a touch that feels more deliberate than decorative.
Goldblum called the old guesthouse “1983 janky,” a reminder that the building had plenty of personality but little polish before the overhaul. He said the whole project started with an upgrade to the laundry room, which is a neat way of saying the biggest transformation began with the least glamorous corner of the house.
That mix of utility and performance suits the family. Bestor said Goldblum and Emilie have playful personalities and that the children had to be factored in, too, so the finished space would feel fun and relaxed rather than formal. The gym reflects that idea with pink equipment, a maroon rubber floor and a pink mirror wall.
Emilie Goldblum’s aerial work helps explain why the new setup had to be more than just another room in the backyard. She met Goldblum in 2011 at an Equinox gym in Los Angeles after a night when he saw her perform acrobatics and contortions, then she caught his jazz act at another Los Angeles venue days later. They married in 2014, and the renovated guesthouse now sits at the center of a household built around movement, music and use. The open question is not what the pavilion can do — it already does a lot — but whether the rest of the property will ever be asked to keep up.
