Pink Paradise: Inside Baker Amirah Kassem’s Colourful Home In Los Angeles
The baker to the stars’ new home in Los Angeles recalls a vibrant dreamland that is more than ready for its close up
Amirah Kassem’s life seems perfect. The 35-year-old owner and founder of Flour Shop – home of the Instagram famous rainbow cake – left the fashion world to pursue a full-time career as a ‘flourist’, opening up her first flagship location in New York five years ago. Now married, Amirah is the mother of two young children and oversees the growth of her rapidly expanding food business and product empire. Her brand ethos of ‘sprinkles and smiles’ has landed her a wallpaper line at Pottery Barn, collaborations with Williams Sonoma, and recently, Amirah served as a judge on Disney’s Foodtastic. We caught up with her at her new home in Los Angeles, where she and her husband, Ross Harrow, have carved out a small pink paradise in the hills.
The Kuwaiti-Mexican baker left New York in 2020 to bring Flour Shop to the American West Coast, launching her Beverly Hills outpost in August 2020. The move took over a year of planning as Amirah purchased her Nichols Canyon property in early 2019. Back then, the home had a dark navy exterior with a dated layout, but where others may have seen an older home in need of serious renovations, Amirah saw a blank slate.
She enlisted the help of a contractor to strip back the existing property and carve out her grand vision. Today, her unassuming gated entrance reveals a home that is reminiscent of The Beverly Hills Hotel. The exterior sports bright-pink paint with a pool in the front yard that’s adorned by large palm leaves. “I wanted my home to feel like a vacation,” she smiles. “So, I thought of my favourite hotels and what I liked about them for inspiration.” Coincidentally, after painting the home, Amirah discovered images of the original property from the 1950s in a similar shade of pink – a positive omen as she settled in.
Immediately upon entering the home, Amirah’s professional background and mission of spreading joy shines through the design and furniture choices. The front entrance leads directly to the living room which showcases a pair of custom, pink Williams Sonoma chairs that Amirah designed, along with a Restoration Hardware sofa that sits in front of an Ashley Longshore painting of the third U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson, in a Supreme hoodie surrounded by pink roses. These pieces alone make the room bright and full of joy, but it’s Amirah’s love for colours that ties the space together with a rainbow rug by design brand Pieces.
Adjacent to the living room, one can find Amirah’s most prized possession: a custom Shelby and Sandy painting featuring Mickey Mouse holding a Flour Shop cake. The painting was a present from her husband for her 30th birthday and is proudly mounted on the wall of their entirely blue dining room, which features custom built-ins, leading into the largest room of the house: her indoor-outdoor kitchen.
As a professional baker, it makes sense that Amirah’s kitchen would receive extra attention. She remembers the renovation process and laughs. “When I was drawing out the floor plans of what I wanted, everybody was like, ‘this kitchen is gigantic compared to the rest of the house’”. But it didn’t change her design. “It didn’t matter to me. It’s where we spend all of our time when people come over, even if I set a table somewhere or have a designated area, somehow everyone ends up in the kitchen. So, I wanted to design the kitchen in a way that it was the main part of the house.” And it shows – the kitchen features oversized white marble countertops and a bright pink stove by French powerhouse La Cornue, with the entire back wall of the kitchen opening up to an outdoor dining space that seamlessly flows with the rest of the home.
On the surface, Amirah’s bright and colourful home may not seem practical, but her careful attention to detail and function serve to reject this notion. When asked about advice on renovating, she’s grounded in her insight and says, “I would say choose a layout that suits you and don’t choose a layout that suits a house; really think of the flow of how you’re going to be using it.”
Amirah continues, “Visually, rather than starting from zero, I would recommend picking your favourite pieces and working around them in a room; otherwise, it’s overwhelming to see it as just filling a house.” Speaking of overwhelming, Amirah notes that she tries to start each morning with peaceful introspection, relying on her bedroom, which features deep shades of green and pink, reminiscent of the greenery outside and the pink exterior of the home. “I really think that there’s just something peaceful about waking up and having sort of this clean slate.” The room feels calm. The bed is a custom creation by Modshop on top of a Momeni rug with art from her grandfather-in-law, Arthur Harrow, on the wall.
Speaking of clean slates, we ask Amirah how she manages to keep her home in such pristine condition with two young children; she lets me in on a life hack: let your children design their rooms. She points to her own childhood as an example. “My mother was a big believer in creativity; she let us always do whatever we wanted with our room. So, I remember I wanted hot-pink walls, and she was like, ‘okay, if that’s what you want’, and she painted my walls hot pink. I just remember thinking, this is so fun, I can come up with anything and live in it.”
“I wanted my home to feel like a vacation,”
Amirah Kassem
And as for her own children, Amirah laughs and says her daughter tells people that she lives in a pink house with a rainbow room – and she’s not wrong. The children’s room feels like an extension of Amirah: fun, playful, yet practical.
When designing the space, Amirah wanted her children to feel like their rooms were especially made for them. “I feel like it creates this very kid-friendly environment, and I feel like it keeps my house cleaner because that’s where they want their toys versus in the other spaces of the home.”
When we point out to Amirah that her life seems idyllic, she laughs and acknowledges a common misconception. “You know, everybody thinks that I just wake up and bake cakes all day.” But this could not be further from the truth. Outside of developing dessert recipes for her business, Amirah also cooks regular food for her family and spends a significant amount of time working on the business aspect of Flour Shop. “I actually cook a lot of food, including Arabic food like grape leaves and traditional dishes.”
When I inquire about the secret to her relentless optimism, Amirah shares, “I try to live a birthday lifestyle which means that you live every day like it’s your birthday. On your birthday you choose your favourite clothes, music, and food, and it’s your happiest day ever, but when you think about that, you created that environment. So, I wanted to create that for my home, so every day can feel like that.”
Photographer: Roger Davies. Producer: Ashley Aronson. Stylist: Abid Haque. Make-Up: Julie Jules. Hair: Anittria Wicker.