Academy Award-winning director Guillermo Del Toro was taken with this period adobe 3,555 square-footer in Santa Monica this summer, quickly closing on it in the first week of this month.

Del Toro — whose gift for magic realist narrative and painterly eye for color helped him create the critically acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006 and win both Best Picture and Best Director Oscar statuettes for The Shape of Water in 2017 — paid $4.2 million for the five-bedroom home. The 1924-built house is choc-a-bloc with character; its unusual layout includes an interior courtyard, and a shared indoor space connected to it that features arched interior double doors, French doors with sidelights, a tile floor, and a tropical ceiling fan.

Additional details helping define the romantic living style of this house include gorgeous period-style sconces, stained glass, an iron staircase, wall niches, and a lovely arched living room fireplace. The galley kitchen concludes on one end with a breakfast booth; the newer tile backsplash behind the stove is the only recent addition that seems entirely out of place in this house.

The step-down master bedroom is a positive stunner, with soft stucco framing the sleeping area and bench seats beneath the picture windows; the bath is as arresting, with a shower that’s a complete surprise: a turret-style, with what appears to be a leaded glass door.

Del Toro’s upcoming projects include Pinocchio, with Ewan McGregor, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton.