The singer, his wife Orly Marley, and their four kids make a safe place in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles.

They were looking for a house because they were running out of space, which is a problem that a lot of young parents have. “They had beautiful child after beautiful child, and the house was quickly too small,” says Reza Farahan, a close friend of the couple who not only helped them find their new home but also designed the inside of it. Their old home, a beautiful Mediterranean in Beverly Hills, may have been perfect for just the two of them.

Farahan finally found them a Spanish Colonial home in L.A.’s Toluca Lake neighborhood that was 10,000 square feet and perfect for their four young children. It was about twice as big as their old home. When it came down to it, though, what really sold Marley wasn’t how the house looked, but a vague sense that it would be a good place to raise his kids. A new album by Marley called More Family Time was just released. He says, “It’s not about how it looks or how many bedrooms it has; it’s about how it feels.” “I liked how the house felt and what it stood for.” Farahan says that Marley also wаnted to make sure that the weather was good for him. She says, “He asked me about the weather because he had never lived in the San Fernando Valley.” “He wаnted to know if the breezes were as nice here as they were over there, and I told him they were.”

Farahan and his team worked on the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom house for seven months after the family decided to buy it. They made changes to every room. Hand-scraped reclaimed oak wood flooring was one of the first things the couple knew they wаnted to put in because they loved it in their old house. It’s a huge job to redo the floors alone in a 10,000-square-foot house, Farahan says, especially if they need to be scraped by hand to give the house a real Mediterranean feel. But it was clear that the work was worth it: The honey-colored, textured planks make the house feel both cosy and fаncy.

The most difficult part of the renovation was making the open-plan kitchen, dining room, and family room into a more relaxed space where people could cook, eat, and play with their kids. In this house, everyone eats together. The family grows vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans in a patio garden, and the kids often help make meals. “I cook every day,” says Marley. 

“Because I’m Jamaican, I sometimes cook Jamaican food for the kids, like steamed fish.” The previous owners had an over-sized wine cellar next to the kitchen, but Farahan cleverly turned it into a large pantry. “For most people, it’s the other way around, but when you have four kids, the pantry is much more important than the wine fridge,” Farahan laughs. 

Marley says that his family is very active, and there’s even a basketball court in the backyard. The main bedroom is his favourite room, though. It was decorated by Farahan in bright whites that stand out against the dark Postabello four-poster bed and the ceiling beams made of wood that are visible. Marley says of the peaceful spot, “I really like to use the balcony to start or end the day.” “I like vibes.”