“I must have looked at 20 places that day,” says Mark Ronson—the music world’s modern-day Merlin, not to mention 2019’s highest-paid musician-producer—of his search for his first legitimate Los Angeles crash pad. It was the winter of 2016, post the release of the money-printing megahit "Uptown Funk" but long before anyone had heard the awards-sweeping power-ballad "Shallow" that he would cowrite with Lady Gaga. “I had been spending so much time in L.A. working, going back and forth between London and L.A., it was just time to bite the bullet.”

“Of course, the one house that was far and away the nicest was the one I saw in the beginning of the day,” recalls Ronson. “I couldn’t get it out of my head. It was a little bigger and a little more than what I had planned—but isn’t that always the case?” Yes, especially when the place in question is a spacious and secluded Spanish Revival four-bedroom, five-bathroom 1930s hideaway that comes with a bonus two-story guesthouse, Edenic gardens, and a pool area that is the definition of Hollywood glam.

Ronson was particularly enthralled by the property’s lush landscaping, layers of greenery that envelop the home. He looks out on a portion of his greener pastures from his bed. “I’m not a gardener, no,” says Ronson. “This is pretty much a three-man, twice-a-week job anyway.” He found the bright and patterned pillows in an Italian design catalog, opting to use contrasting patterns to create a bit of an installation out of his bed. On the nightstand sits a framed photo of Ronson, around age 10, playing guitar with his stepfather, Mick Jones of legendary '70s rock band Foreigner.

“The place was already so amazing,” says Ronson, who was excited enough to take a pause and soak up the bright, light, and airy spaces—a sharp contrast to his New York and London homes. “At first, I didn’t even think about decorating because the place itself had so much wow factor.” Eventually, a piece of art would go up here and a piece of furniture would make its way over there, and Ronson soon realized it was time to make this place “feel like my own.”

“When I am working on music"—Ronson has produced hit records with Adele, Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, SZA, and scads more—"I can describe exactly what I want out of a sound, because I can be like, ‘Can you take the bass down here or whatever, and we’ll put some compression on the drums,’” explains the impresario. “But when it came to design, for me it’s just easiest for me to show a picture to someone and be like, I like that!” Ronson soon curated his own mini library of vintage design books: David Hicks, Horst, Tony Duquette—even something called Styles of Living: The Best of Casa Vogue. He also began to scour design sites and Instagram accounts (@idea.ltd is a favorite) in between endless professional projects.