InStyle Magazine - November 1999

Charmed, She's Sure

Holly Marie Combs may be many things -- attractive, quirky, preternaturally mature -- but hasty she's not. When she began the search for her first home, George Bush was President. By the time she had finished, in 1995, Bill Clinton was firmly entrenched on Pennsylvania Avenue and Combs had staked her own claim to a more playful address in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. "I was one of those people who are constantly looking for a house to buy," says the actress of her four-year pursuit. "I looked and looked. It became a hobby."

Perched on a wooden chair in her sunny, minimally furnished spare room, Combs seems a provocative blend of caution and audacity, a young woman who knows both when to take her time and when to seize the day. The 25-year-old actress now plays Piper Halliwell on the WB's Charmed, the most girl-next-doorsy member of a troika of good witches, but she actually first spotted her fifties ranch house while appearing as the precocious teen Kimberly Brock on the Emmy-winning Picket Fences. And when browsing turned to buying, the backyard was the deciding factor -- not because she fancied the pool or the Jacuzzin, but because it had a huge kennel, perfect for her dogs. "There is all this space for them to run around in," Combs says. An ardent animal lover, she currently has two pooches, Lola, who at 5 months is still a puppy, and Travis, a German shepherd. She also owns two quarter horses, Jesse and Jake (which she keeps at the nearby equestrian center), along with two cats, four lovebirds and two physically challenged hamsters. "One only has three legs, and the other one's really fat," she says with a giggle.

Settling in the Valley -- by L.A. standards, a fairly affordable area -- appealed to Combs's scrupulous side. "When I was growing up, my family didn't have a lot of money, so they instilled in me a belief in saving and saving and not living extravagantly." Still, Combs says, "I was very nervous. I wanted my payments to be normal, nothing toohigh, so that if I never worked again I could maintain them. My house is small, but it's cute."

While she may have shown a conservative streak in buying the two-bedroom house, she has been anything but when it comes to decorating. "With every job I land, I remodel," says Combs, a TV-move veteran. "I redid the pool, front porch and driveway, installed the gate, and did a ton of landscaping." She painted the interiro herself, leaning toward cream, gray and muted shades of green. The actress has also gone through numerous phases of decorating -- and redecorating; she's currently in the midst of an indoor-plant phase, but she has left many other enthusiasms in her wake. "For a long time, I went through this red phase, where I had a deep red couch and red tables. The red armoire in my bedroom is a leftover from that phase. I went through a huge basket phase for a while, so there are probably about 10 baskets in the garage, aside from the ones in the house." At other times, she embraced lanterns, candlesticks -- and angels ("like everybody else").

Combs offers a theory about her habitual yen to redo her décor. "I think that because this is the first house I've lived in for such a long time, and I can't just pick up and move, I [like to] make it look different. I'm constantly rearranging. I come home and start pushing the couch around. And my fiancé is like, 'What are you doing? It looked fine the way it was!'"

Said fiancé is Storm Lydon, a 27-year-old elementary school teacher Combs met in Mexico in 1998 while vacationing with co-star Shannen Doherty; the two are looking to marry next year. "Storm's just now in the process of moving in," says Combs. "He's here most of the time, but not all of his things are here. It's a slow process."

For now, the cozy residence is filled with pictures and memorabilia that chronicle Combs's young but eventful life. Framed photos of Combs and her mother look more like shanpshots of sisters, and, in fact, her mom, a former actress, is only 15 years her senior. Born in San Diego, Combs had a bohemian childhood that included a move to New York at the age of 8, where she grew up in cramped quarters. "We had the typical studio apartments. One was in a basement, which we shared with three other people. At another apartment, I slept above my parents' bed in a little loft, which was about five feet by four feet." And while she's close to her mom, who until recently occupied the guest room, Combs admits she didn't learn a lot from her as far as setting up house goes. "She gypsy-travels," Combs says of her mother, who is currently going to college with an eye toward studying entertainment law. "She'll move and just leave all her stuff behind. She only takes a few things with her. I didn't have a lot of space grwoing up in New York, so now I keep everything. It's why my garage is so cluttered. I'm a pack rat!"

Most days Combs spends more time in her Charmed house )a set made to look like the inside of a San Francisco Victorian) than in her charming real-life one. "We work 12 to 15 a hours a day," she says. "We usually go in around 6 A.M. They're used to seeing me in my flannel pajamas and slippers." The experience of working on two shows has strengthened her faith in her own abilities and in her future -- a future she's not likely to overplan. "I've been pretty lucky. I've done stuff I've enjoyed, and worked with people I've liked, and learned from my experiences. I just kind of take it as it comes."

It's the end of the day, and Combs goes to check the hamsters, which are on summer break from their school-year home in Lydon's classroom. Stealing a moment in the master bedroom, Combs and her fiancé enjoy a private laugh, and one gets the sense that learning to share a home won't prove too daunting for either of them. Together, perhaps, they will continure to fine-tune the place well after Lydon's students are in high school and Charmed has hit Nick at Nite. "After I remodel the kitchen and the guest bathroom, then I'll be done, hopefully," says Combs. "Every time I do something, I'm like, 'OK, I"m done with this house. I'm not spending any more money!' And then I find something else. It's a never-ending project." Combs quickly scans the room; suddenly her eyes light up with enthusiasm. "Soon," she declares, "I'll be doing the doorknobs."

By Robin Sayers