Press release -
FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER AND DESIGNER CREATE CARIBBEAN-INSPIRED HOME IN LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles – May 27, 2021 – The Rum Punch House, a renovated ranch situated in LA’s Woodland Hills neighborhood, was recently completed, reflecting the owners’ strong Caribbean aesthetic and its vibrant colors.
Owned by fashion photographer Robert Deutschman and his wife, designer/stylist Sybile Kohn-Deutschman, the Rum Punch House is 20 minutes from Hollywood and 30 minutes from Malibu. The couple bought the house in March of 2019. Built in 1953, it is a 5,000 square-foot, ranch-style two story property situated on a half-acre.
In the 1950s, the upstairs housed an illegal gambling club where the Rat Pack was known to hang out. When the Deutschmans moved in, the downstairs still retained the club’s coat check.
The Deutschmans, who designed the home themselves and built it without a general contractor, pushed out one section of the house and moved walls and raised ceilings to reconfigure most of the interior. They also did much of the cabinetry and carpentry work themselves.
“The first thing we did was put a wood shop in the back half of the garage,” Robert Deutshman said. “My wife sourced all the tiles from an amazing company near LA called ARTO, and I personally put every one of the screws in the beautiful Kebony paths and decks.”
Deutschman and Kohn-Deutschman have worked together for more than two decades and have spent most of their careers traveling. “The majority of my wife’s childhood was in St. Barts, the Dominican Republic and Tahiti,” Deutschman said. “When we design and build a property, we draw from all the places we have been and the cultures that most influence our lives.”
The home’s look is eclectic. Most of the art was made by the couple, their family—Sybile Kohn-Deutschman’s father is a painter in Paris—and friends. The landscaping was designed by Kohn-Deutschman, who has a love affair with color and a passion for design.
The couple also added two buildings outside: the smaller colorful building is a prayer and meditation room; Buddhism is a very big part of their lives. The pool house is an amalgamation of all their favorite Caribbean beach bars.
The pool was on the property when they bought it, but it was cracked and a mess. They pushed out one end, added coping, and resurfaced it a dark blue to give it a pond-like feel. The idea for the Kebony paths from the house and around the pool came from the beautifully aged dove-grey boardwalks in the dunes of the East Coast; inspiration for the deck hanging over the pool came from a hotel in Greece.
“We did not want decking that would retain its original color,” Deutschman said. “We were looking for a product that would age beautifully and gracefully to a weathered grey, and Kebony is giving us exactly that.”
Being in the photography and film industry the couple also had the intention to be able to occasionally rent the house as a film location. They realized when we bought the property that it had beautiful light and the right structure to make a great location. Many images of the property can be found at rumpunchhouse.com
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Kebony is a Norwegian company which aims to be the leading wood brand and technology organization. Underpinned by proven timber modification technologies, it produces an enhanced wood of a superior quality that is both environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
The company's headquarters is based in Oslo, with its production facility in Skien, South of Oslo. Currently employing about 60 people, Kebony has subsidiaries in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, sales representatives in Germany, France, UK and the US and a wide distribution network internationally. Shareholders are leading the venture with private equity investors from Germany, France, UK and Norway. The company has received numerous awards for its environmentally friendly technology and innovation, including its naming as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.
The Kebony® technology permanently transforms sustainable wood species such as pine into Kebony wood with features that are comparable, and in some cases superior, to those of precious tropical hardwoods. This unique environmentally friendly process is also a superior alternative to traditional wood treatment based on impregnation with biocides (wood preservatives). The company’s patent-protected production processes yield products that deliver major improvements in durability and dimensional stability, at the same time as being highly attractive. The Kebony products are suitable for a multitude of applications and designs – encompassing both indoor and outdoor applications.
Kebony’s mission is, through active innovation, quality thinking and understanding of commercial possibilities; give the world beautiful, long lasting and environmentally friendly wood products. The company will show social responsibility and contribute to improvements of the environment in a way that builds a better future.
