First Look: FER Studio’s La Cañada remodel
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With apologies to Mies van der Rohe, the L.A. at Home crew knows that when it comes to home galleries, more is more. As part of our Web expansion last year, we added a second online photo gallery to our weekly design report. Now, to showcase the work of lesser-known architecture and interior design firms in Southern California — and to answer your call for more house, condo and apartment profiles — we’re launching a blog feature called First Look. We’ll present residential projects completed in the last year or so. Photos will be accompanied by explanations of the design challenges and solutions, written by the designers themselves. You can submit your remodeling and redecorating projects too, or simply post comments and join the conversation about how we live.
First up: FER Studio’s remodel of George and Patty Garfield’s La Cañada Flintridge house. Among its features is a kitchen with a newly raised ceiling, bifold windows opening to the backyard and an extended stainless steel counter that doubles as a bar on the other side. Keep reading for full-size images and FER Studio’s commentary.
Above: Before the renovation.
Above: The new entry courtyard, left, and the reverse view from the dining room.
Designer: FER Studio, Inglewood
The project: The La Cañada Flintridge home of George and Patty Garfield. A 2,700-square-foot ranch home was expanded and remodeled into a modern, 3,500-square-foot residence with a new master suite. Project cost: not stated.
The designer’s description: The approach was to open up the existing house internally as well as to the exterior. The house sits on a beautiful 15,000-square-foot pine-tree covered lot that filters the late-afternoon sunlight into an array of speckled shadows. A new courtyard arrival space was created at the front of the house through the introduction of new smooth plaster privacy walls to match the new house finish. The high roof pitch was left in place and the front wall of the house was removed and replaced with full-height glass.
Next, the wall between the dining room and the living room was partially removed so that there is a visual link from the entry court through the house to the rear yard. The kitchen area was completely opened up to the living room by reorienting it, raising the ceiling to match the sloped roof above, adding a large central skylight and introducing a small breakfast nook. The kitchen also was opened to the rear yard through a stainless steel countertop that extends to an outside dining counter with a bifold window. The living room has a full-height bifold door wall, opening to a new rear patio complete with fire pit and wooden bench seating. This move makes the entire living room almost double in size.
A master bedroom suite was added to the rear of the house and designed around a new small courtyard linked to the larger living room patio.
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-- Craig Nakano
