From living rooms to kitchens, our favorite rooms…
As a design author, I really feel fortunate to get to peek inside some of Los Angeles’ most iconic properties.
This 12 months, I visited many locations, from Midcentury Modern landmarks by Edward Fickett and Raphael Soriano to humble flats crammed with Facebook Marketplace finds.
The rooms that stayed with me long after I left weren’t always the most luxurious or expensively furnished. Instead, they had been those that made me smile and left a lasting impression of the individual who lives there.
Here are the 14 rooms that resonated with me this 12 months and the people who live in them who impressed me even more.
A colourful, sun-drenched kitchen in Mount Washington that connects to nature
(Mariah Tauger / For The Times)
Priced out of a lot of Los Angeles, architect Lindsay Sheron and her husband Daniel purchased a vacant hillside lot in Mount Washington and proceeded to design and construct their own home. Working over a three-year period, the couple served as basic contractors and did a lot of the work themselves. The kitchen is a standout, that includes brilliant inexperienced customized kitchen cupboards painted Raw Tomatillo by Farrow & Ball, which add vitality to the single-wall structure. A customized steel hood by Practice Fabrication, powder-coated the colour of a Pixie tangerine, provides a sense of enjoyable.
“I wanted our house to feel really warm and bring nature inside,” says Lindsay, referring to the Western hemlock tongue and groove planks that she and Daniel put in on the partitions and ceilings. “Wood does the heavy lifting in accomplishing that.”
Tour the customized constructed home right here.
In Hollywood, a gorgeous living room that’s crammed with second-hand furnishings
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Caitlin Villarreal felt giddy the first time she stepped inside the Whitley Heights rental, a storied 1926 Mediterranean-style penthouse with towering ceilings, hand-carved picket beams and a pair of arched bookcases alongside an oversize hearth.
“It had good energy,” Villarreal said of the 1,500-square-foot house she rents in a historic neighborhood where Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin and Bette Davis once lived. “It’s iconic just by standing tall year after year. It has floor-to-ceiling Old Hollywood windows that blow open unexpectedly just like in the movies. It doesn’t feel like a rental. It feels like a forever home.”
Tour the Hollywood penthouse right here.
A Midcentury Modern eating room in Studio City that Raphael Soriano would approve of
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Architect Linda Brettler’s listing of issues she loves about her Raphael Soriano-designed home is long, even though the all-aluminum construction, which was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1997, was in determined need of updating when she bought it in 2021. “I like doing projects like this where I get to have my own hand and feel, but I’m still honoring what was here,” Brettler says. “I’m trying to create an idealized version of what the house would look like now.” In the eating room, a copy of a Millard Sheets portray, rendered by Cal Poly Pomona college students on Tyvek, is mounted on a cork-lined wall. Above the portray, she has mounted a projector screen for film nights and video video games.
Tour the historic all-aluminum home right here.
A contemporary West Hollywood living room adorned with pets in thoughts
(Kit Karzen / For The Times)
“My original inspiration was to match the furniture to the kitties so I don’t see their cat hair,” anesthesiologist Jeffrey Hamilton says of the West Hollywood rental he shares with his boyfriend David Poli, his cats Romulus and Remus and Poli’s Husky combine, Janeway. “The cats very much informed the color scheme. I find them so handsome; it felt like having matching furniture was practical.”
In the living room, Hamilton selected a camel-colored Curvo couch in velvet by Goop for CB2, which he discovered on Facebook Marketplace. Similarly, the accompanying swivel chairs from HD Buttercup and the barstool seats in the kitchen are upholstered in Bengal and Husky-durable textiles that camouflage their rescues pet hair.
“Jeffrey likes to say that everything in his apartment is a rescue, including me,” says Poli jokingly.
Tour the West Hollywood rental right here.
A shocking Silver Lake kitchen that doubles as a retro video store
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Chris Rose fondly remembers the times when he labored at the unbiased video store I Luv Video in Austin, Texas.
Now an L.A.-based author, director and producer, Rose, 41, recollects the Austin store’s eclectic assortment of cult oddities and world cinema.
Although he can no longer go to the video store, Rose doesn’t have to go far to rent these days, as he has introduced a comparable yet distinctive assortment to the kitchen of his one-bedroom bungalow in Silver Lake.
Tour the Silver Lake house right here.
Two school pals rework a Glassell Park living room (and storage) into an art-filled escape
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Antonio Adriano Puleo didn’t intend to renovate his conventional 1946 bungalow, but after consulting with architectural designer Ben Warwas, who told him he might rework the home into a “forever home,” the artist modified his plans.
“The living room wasn’t big enough, and it featured a huge red brick fireplace that had doors on either side of it, leading to the backyard,” said Warwas.
The living room of the main home is now open and ethereal, with customized cupboards and millwork by James Melinat that showcase the paintings Puleo made himself and the items he has collected for more than 30 years. The living room’s hearth is gone, but the picket mantle stays atop a console behind the couch, graced with a sequence of colourful ceramic planters by Ashley Campbell and Brian Porray of Happy Hour Ceramics.
“Little tweaks totally transformed the house,” Warwas said.
Tour the home and ADU right here.
A wonderful moist bar in a West Hollywood house that’s excellent for events
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Growing up in a small city outdoors of Cleveland, Tyler Piña was fascinated by Los Angeles and the glamour of Hollywood.
“My dad grew up out here, and it’s where my parents met,” says the 33-year-old screenwriter. “I keep in mind trying at previous Polaroids of them in the ‘80s and seeing how much fun they had.”
His attraction to Los Angeles, however, was more than just nostalgia. “I was mesmerized by the landscapes and architecture,” he says.
Looking back, he can’t imagine he realized his dream of shifting to Los Angeles from San Francisco in 2018 and ultimately renting a Midcentury Modern penthouse by Edward Fickett steps from the Sunset Strip.
“A Midcentury Modern penthouse on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of West Hollywood, with a bar in the living room? I mean, does it get more iconic? I am, in no way, cool enough to live here,” says Piña.
Tour the Midcentury house right here.
A bed room in Beachwood Canyon is reworked into an art-filled workplace (and occasional visitor room)
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
When Natalie Babcock and Samuel Gibson discovered a itemizing for a sunny house in Beachwood Canyon 5 years in the past, they immediately fell for the 2 bed room’s charming built-in bookshelves, fake hearth, hardwood flooring and formal eating room. Practical facilities such as an in-unit laundry and a storage, that are often elusive in Los Angeles leases, didn’t harm.
Today, however, the couple says they’re most impressed by the sense of belonging they’ve discovered in the neighborhood just outdoors their 1928 Spanish fourplex. Here, where vacationers and brides in marriage ceremony robes often pose for pictures in the center of the road in an effort to seize the Hollywood signal in the background, Babcock and Gibson have turn into half of a bigger household. “Everyone knows our dogs’ names,” says Babcock.
The couple’s style is vibrant, and the colourful interiors replicate their sense of enjoyable and love of design. They painted one wall in Gibson’s workplace a dramatic Kelly inexperienced, which makes the white-trimmed home windows and his in depth artwork assortment pop.
“Art is one thing that I am always happy to spend money on,” Gibson says.
Tour the Beachwood Canyon house right here.
A treasures-filled living room in Eagle Rock that’s a colourful showstopper
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Isa Beniston and Scotty Zaletel are romantics. Not just in their love for each other, which they’re as vocal about three years in as budding high faculty crushes, but also in the best way they describe the contents of their 412-square-foot one-bedroom house. They can recall the season they found each treasure — from fruit-shaped throw pillows to more than 30 animal portraits — and the cross streets of the flea markets from which they purchased them. They gush about the time they’ve spent together in cloth shops and flooring provide outlets as if they had been dimly lighted eating places primed for date evening.
“We both just love stuff,” the 2 said in near-unison.
— Lina Abascal
Tour the 412-square foot house right here.
A tricked-out storage/ADU in Venice that serves as an workplace, fitness center and household hub
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
“They’re fun,” architect Aejie Rhyu says of the inventive couple Will Burroughs and Frith Dabkowski, as she walked by the undulating two-story ADU she helped them understand.
Rhyu’s evaluation helps to clarify the enjoyment that permeates the household compound, from the pink Los Angeles Toile wallpaper in the bed room (humorously adorned with illustrations of L.A.’s beloved mountain lion P-22, the La Brea Tar Pits and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre) to the tricked-out storage on the first flooring, which incorporates overhead bike storage, an espresso maker, a mini-fridge and a large flat-screen TV that permits Sydney-born Burroughs to watch Formula One car races and cricket video games at 4 a.m. when his household is asleep.
Burroughs even put in a subwoofer speaker beneath the couch to give the storage the texture of a movie show during household film nights. “Jack went flying off the couch when we watched ‘Top Gun,’ ” he said of their son, laughing.
Tour the two-story ADU with a rooftop deck right here.
A serene visitor room in Mid-Wilshire that’s a light-filled studio for a textile artist
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
After living in her two-bedroom house in Los Feliz for more than a decade, Debra Weiss encountered a drawback skilled by many renters in Los Angeles: She was evicted.
When her son-in-law noticed a charming two-bedroom house close to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Zillow, her initial response was, “I want this,” Weiss said of the fourplex.
The rental had high ceilings, oak flooring, ample daylight, an interesting hearth, a storage and a washer and dryer.
In the visitor room, a wall hanging composed of three separate weavings in a gingham test sample is embroidered with a sequence of characters she based on her 5-year-old granddaughter’s drawings. “It’s about people coming together in chaos and supporting each other,” Weiss said.
Even though the method of having to transfer was irritating, Weiss is completely satisfied with her new home and neighborhood. “I take the Metro bus everywhere and hardly ever drive,” she said. “Everything worked out perfectly.”
Tour the sunny Mid-Wilshire fourplex right here.
A ’70s-inspired speakeasy/lounge in Highland Park that’s hidden behind a bookcase
(Carianne Older / For The Times)
Standing beneath a glittering tiered chandelier in her pink “cloffice,” designer Dani Dazey shares the essence of her colourful type: “From the wallpaper to the artwork, my home is a reflection of me right now,” she explains. “It’s a personal and hip twist on traditional design.”
Rather than embrace rustic farmhouse type or minimalist Midcentury Modern design as is often the case in Los Angeles, Dazey has taken the Highland Park home she shares with husband Phillip Butler and given it an over-the-top maximalist spin.
The speakeasy lounge, accessible through a hidden door sliding bookcase, is a ‘70s-inspired sanctuary with a modular sofa, curtains and wallpaper in the same floral pattern.
Their home is proof, that our homes should make us happy by reflecting who we are. In Dazey’s case, that interprets to daring coloration, lush textures and retro vibes.
Tour the Highland Park home right here.
A memento-filled living room in Long Beach is an ode to ‘the people we love’
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A way of enjoyable permeates the rooms of Cecilia and Abraham Beltran’s colourful one-bedroom Midcentury house in Long Beach.
“We both have a deep passion for Midcentury design and color,” Cecilia shares.
The Beltrans’ house encapsulates their design sensibility and “above all, the people we love,” Cecilia says. There’s daring, Midcentury Modern-inspired furnishings the couple discovered on Craigslist, tongue-in-cheek smiling pillows and the “Hole to Another Universe” wall decal by Blik, which might be eliminated when they transfer. Peppered throughout the space are mementos from their travels, such as the limited-edition artwork print “La Famille” bought on a journey to London in 2023.
Ultimately, Cecilia says, she needs the house “to feel like us. I think we pulled it off.”
Tour the Long Beach house right here.
In Reseda, an house where every vintage tells a story
(Stephen Ross Goldstein / For The Times)
When Evelyn Bauer, 97, downsized from her four-bedroom home in Sherman Oaks to an house in Reseda in 2014, the longtime collector and antiques seller was pressured to relinquish many of her personal belongings.
“Collecting is my passion, my addiction, and I’m so happy to be afflicted with it,” says Bauer, whose two-bedroom, two-bathroom house at an unbiased living facility for seniors is crammed with furnishings and ornamental arts from her 65 years as a collector.
Step inside her living room, and the huge assortment of antiques appears like coming into the previous Encino Antique Center, where she was once the proprietor during the Nineties. Each merchandise has a story, a reminiscence and a distinctive appeal that she cherishes.
“There’s always room for one more gem,” she says.
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