modern love; David and Elizabeth Netto decorated their Richard Neutra gem in Los Angeles with an eye for family fun and unexpected flourishes.

Byline: Mayer Rus

David Netto met his wife, Elizabeth, for the first time at a party in his parents' apartment on Fifth Avenue. They were fourteen years old. Halfway through the festivities, Elizabeth, something of a free spirit, decided to skip across the street to frolic in the fountains of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was soaking wet when she returned. David took her into his bedroom-she recalls being struck by the green velvet wall upholstery-and gave her a button-down Oxford shirt, which she wore home. She never gave it back.

Despite the promising start, the story of David and Elizabeth Netto did not play out as a fairy tale of high school sweethearts and love at first sight. Their paths diverged sharply as David cultivated his talents as an aesthete and arbiter elegantiarum and established a reputation as the decorator of choice for a new generation of Park Avenue socialites, including Eliza Reed Bolen and Karen Groos. And when his friends and clients began having children of their own (and he had a daughter, Kate, with his former wife, the actress Ione Skye), David launched NettoCollection, a line of stylish, unfussy furniture for infants, snapped up by everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Michelle Williams. Elizabeth took a very different road, circling the globe as a journalist and documentary producer in volatile, war-torn countries like Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua.

They didn't see each other for nearly two decades, until David unexpectedly encountered his bride-to-be at the wedding of a mutual friend. David seized the opportunity to make a better second impression on his high school crush. "Elizabeth's life was obviously much different from mine, so I was a little nervous about asking her out," he recalls. "I was terrified the first time she came to my apartment on Washington Square. After Cambodia, I thought she'd be appalled by the Zuber wallpaper and Hermes aesthetic." The decor didn't stop her from marrying David in 2005. "He brought something new and exciting into my life, and I think I did the same for him," she says.

They spent their first two years together dividing their time between New York and Los Angeles, where David had bought a house in Silver Lake to be close to his daughter. A classic example of mid- century California modernism designed by Richard Neutra in 1961, the house suited both their tastes. Its fine pedigree held obvious appeal for David-good design is his business, after all-and its unpretentious materials and casual indoor-outdoor spaces satisfied his wife's bohemian sensibilities. When Elizabeth became pregnant with their daughter, Madelyn, now one-and-a-half, the couple decided to rethink their bicoastal lifestyle and officially declare California their home. Next came the difficult part-decorating.

"For a couple of years, we were basically camping out in an empty house, with just a futon, a few odd bits of furniture, and piles of Legos for Kate. I didn't have to commit to making a design statement, and there was certainly no pressure from Liz. She doesn't need a 'designed' ...