That Pink Door

Villa Sierra started life in 1968 as a 5,300-square-foot midcentury ranch designed by James H. McNaughton, television’s first official art director. The door was originally chocolate brown until New York interior designer Moises Esquenazi arrived in the mid-2000s; his then-partner’s mother loved pink, so she got pink.

In late spring 2014, before “millennial pink” was even whispered, it earned its own hashtag: #thatpinkdoor. Not quite four years later, Brit+Co ranked it among the “most Instagrammable destinations” alongside the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, and Machu Picchu. Tour buses started arriving unannounced. Strangers wandered into the backyard. The owners posted “Private Residence” signs in three languages. It made the 11 o’clock news. People kept coming anyway. By 2019, the house had been photographed more times than some small European nations.