This article originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of Architectural Digest.
It's a sunny Labor Day weekend in Southern California, and the daily agenda of Earvin “Magic” Johnson looks something like this. Friday: Lunch at beach club with Cookie and kids. Saturday: NCAA football season openers on outdoor TV. Sunday: Brunch with Cookie at the resort. . .
At age 50, 13 years into his retirement from professional basketball, the Hall of Famer and former point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers knows what it means to chill. Which is not to suggest that the man doesn't keep busy. During the week Johnson oversees the myriad commercial and charitable ventures administered by Magic Johnson Enterprises and the Magic Johnson Foundation. But when weekends and holidays roll around, he, his wife, Cookie, and their children, EJ and Elisa, close up the house in Beverly Hills and head south to their house at the beach, a three-story, Tuscan-style villa perched high on a cliff above the aquamarine Pacific.
Fresh from morning workouts, relaxing in their airy kitchen overlooking the ocean, the Johnsons describe how their coastal retreat came to be. “We used to own a second home in Napili, Hawaii, but we just said, ‘Man, it's too far to get to,’” says Magic Johnson, “especially with young kids. Cookie and I always used to come south for little getaways. So we were down for our anniversary in September a couple of years ago, staying at a hotel at the time, and we had his-and-her massages. That was the moment right there. She turned and looked at me and said, ‘Why don't we just get a home here?’”
So resolved, they quickly found a property that met all their major criteria: steps from the sand, Mediterranean architecture, good indoor-outdoor flow. Eager to bring a laid-back, beachy vibe to its 17 rooms, the couple began interviewing interior designers. “Then we were driving around L.A. one Saturday, and I said, ‘There's Kreiss; let's see what they can do for us,’” recalls Johnson, referring to one of the far-flung furniture outlets run by the Kreiss family. Michael Kreiss, the firm's president, had overseen the decoration of the Johnsons's house in town 19 years earlier. “I tell you what, it was amazing. I'm going to have to admit something. When they came in with all these swatches and things—I don't know what a swatch should look like for a sofa and this and that. So I had to just back up and say, ‘Cookie, all I want is a movie theater.’ But she and the Kreisses did a wonderful job.”
“Our other house is also Mediterranean,” inserts Cookie Johnson, “so I wanted the decorating to be a little different here, a little more on the contemporary side. The one thing I said is that I really wanted to bring the colors of the water and the beach inside.” To complement the house's light walls and dark wood, she and the Kreiss team selected sturdy pieces of ebony-colored woven leather and softened them with sandy-white cushions and ocean-blue accent pillows. Magic Johnson's measurements were taken—he tops six-foot-nine—to ensure that the chairs were made deep enough and the sofas high enough to accommodate him. “The whole point of the house,” stresses his wife, “was to be fun and comfortable and inviting.”
“The Johnsons wanted areas where they could relax, and plenty of them,” recalls Kreiss. “My thought was that we make it look almost like a cabana of sorts and blur the line between indoors and outdoors.” The family room, a primary hangout with its billiard table, spills out onto a pool-flanked patio appointed with a large flat-screen TV and the same furniture (in the same configuration) as inside. Another popular spot is the living room, which, unlike most living rooms, is the domain of the kids: Chenille-covered sectionals take the place of formal furniture, and another flat-screen is usually flashing video games. Of course, Magic Johnson got his theater—a 14-seat media room on the first floor boasting padded suede walls, a 133-inch screen, and a state-of-the-art control system.
At night the family can be found downstairs screening action films, comedies, and old basketball tapes that Magic Johnson had transferred from VHS to DVD. Otherwise, they're outdoors. (There's another cozy patio off the master bedroom and a rooftop terrace that offers spectacular sunset views.) “Especially with the weather like it is right now, it's unbelievable, you can be outside all day,” the athlete exults.
“I fall asleep out there if I'm not careful.” Presumably, he'll only have to be taking more such precautions in the future. “I've got to get one more house,” he confides. “I'm trying to decide whether I want to be in Sardinia or Portofino, so I'm going to take next summer to figure it out. It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it.”
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