Pro Portfolio: 1960s family home updated to blend cool with comfortable

 
Every Monday, we post a new home whose design is presented in the designer's or the builder's own words. This week:

Designer: Curated, Santa Monica, (310) 828-6417. Principal designer: Delta Wright. General contractor: Stephen Apelian, (323) 804-3400.

Location: Beverly Hills Post Office area, Los Angeles

Designer's description: In the renovation of this Beverly Hills-area home, we transformed a dated and awkward structure into a func­tional, modern home for a young family with two children. By eradicating kitschy ele­ments from the existing '60s building and '80s addition, and by revising the facade and demolishing and editing the interior architecture, we created a home that exudes modern warmth and style. 

We use color for strategic effect, exploring spatial progressions with complex neutrals. In this case, we used warm whites and cool grays to subtly underscore these shifts. A large-scale canvas adds vivid color to gallery-like spaces in the dining area. Wood finishes throughout received a palette of rich stain from espresso to ebony. We expressed the walls of the kitchen in shades of gray and black to separate it from the adjacent living room.

In the photo at top, a cream-colored chair from Nickey Kehoe complements the bentwood and leather coffee table from Thomas Hayes Gallery. It was important to temper the new concrete floors with wool and silk rugs. We selected this one from the Rug Company for softness and sheen.

To see more of the house, keep reading ...

The entry has a new concrete floor and glossy black doors with chrome hardware. (Black and bronze are used elsewhere.) A vintage metal light from Rewire hangs above.

 

The living area has a spare column fireplace and modular silver leather seating designed by Vladimir Kagan and bought from Thomas Hayes Gallery.

 

The island's Calcutta marble slab contrasts the semi-reflective Heath Ceramics tile backsplash in gunmetal.

 

A mix of natural materials adds warmth to cooler elements. This vintage chair and rattan stool are from Orange.

 

Materials and finishes were selected based on the client's desire to integrate coolness with comfort.

 

An overscaled Dirk De Bruycker canvas invigorates the dining area. The Marison dining table is from  Environment Furniture.

 

Curated positioned the master bedroom and bath for optimal flow and selected rich gray-laven­der tones to create a sense of serenity. A Bernd Haussmann canvas floats on the wall.

 

The bathroom uses porcelain tile from Walk on Tile and silver cut travertine from Ann Sacks Tile & Stone. 

 

We stripped the stair of detail and stained it ebony for a crisp, modern effect.

 

The white facade of the exterior provides a crisp contrast to the canyon hillside.

-- Compiled by Lisa Boone

Photos:  Joshua McHugh

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Comments

[Simone Earnhardt]

An incredible use of Heath tiles. The backsplash is fantastic, as is the entire home. Good work all around. Simone (from Heath :)

[Michael]

Great job by Delta/Curated!

(and no, I don't work there...)

[Benjamin Novida]

Photos are kinda useless without BEFORE photos.

[dan bryant]

meh— i like the shapes, but a few bad choices were made. first, the complete lack of colour and omnipresence of dark neutral colours. brown, black, grey and more grey? get with the times! secondly, the silver vinyl sofa— whose idea was that? it looks like something off of the ship in "lost in space".

however, there were a lot of cool styles here. the backsplash tiles and tiles in the shower are very nice. i still don't understand the practicality of the whole 'clear shower door' trend where you can see anyone's junk when they're taking a shower, but it looks nice (when not in use). i love how the bathroom counter/shelf ensemble doesn't make contact with the floor, and i'm not being sarcastic. it adds a nice open touch and doesn't follow the campy tradition of the last 30 or so years. the dining table is very nice— it's beautiful, it won't make a difference if you scratch the heck out of it, and it's going to last a long time. the dining cabinet behind the sofa is nice also— and thank goodness furniture with legs is back! i'm tired of seeing frumpy cabinets that look like they grew out of the floor.
overall, very nice, but definitely could use more colour... the whole smoke grey/purple/brown thing is on the way out, thank goodness. and after the repetition of the whole earth tones versus tuscan versus other drab puke colours... we need our bright colours back. and thankfully they're coming back.

[Dan]

That first picture of the kitchen looks like the brady's....great job matching headline to story!

[Bill]

The kitchen, bath and stairway are attractively done. The rest is too industrial and cold. The sofa in particular seems very much like the spaceship the "balloon boy" allegedly floated away on last year. Most of the furniture is to my taste. However, the owners are probably very happy and are enjoying the place.

[planetnymph]

The retaining wall in that last photo looks weak about against the hill above it. Who builds a home at the bottom of a potential mud pit?

[Linda Leonard]

WOW!

[save the deserts!]

i like a lot of it but the art selections were cowardly at best. art is not fashion, and is about more than matching swatches. next time use a knowledgeable artist or consultant rather than an interior designer...