Hollywood Beach shack: A funky bit of fun
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When Szu and Dusty Wakeman purchased a neglected 1926 Hollywood Beach house in Oxnard a few years ago, it was advertised as a tear-down set on a prime stretch where Clark Gable and Rudolph Valentino once owned homes.
Szu Wakeman, however, a former set decorator, saw beyond the dark nicotine-stained walls. “I thought it was quirky and charming,” she says of the home’s “Knott’s Berry Farm” look, complete with a water wheel out front.
Inspired by Mark and Sally Bailey’s book “Restoration Home,” the Wakemans chose to salvage as much as they could. Instead of demolishing the home, they chose to work with the house’s ramshackle charm. “Why throw something in a landfill?” she says of her decorating style.
Today, the three-bedroom weekend retreat is furnished with thrift store finds, bargain buys from the sold-as-is section of IKEA and pieces plucked from the street. “I’m always rescuing old and broken things,” Szu Wakeman says.
Article: Beach house as funky retreat
-- Lisa Boone
Top photo: The house exterior, complete with claw-foot tub as planter by the front door.
Credits: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
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