Located on California’s famed Mulholland Drive, this Bel-Air residence sits atop a mountain overlooking twinkling city lights with another mountain range in the far distance. Once you step from the car, venture through the rose covered arch and down the rich red paved steps to the front door, it feels like you’ve entered a jewel box of a home.
This house was built in the early 1960s with small sliding windows and dark hallways. It had a small master bedroom and den with a fireplace, two tiny bathrooms, kitchen and one guestroom. My concerns were twofold: to make this under 2000 square foot house appear larger, and then update it so it became stylish. To do this, we eliminated the den and hallways, added a veranda on two sides of the house to frame and borrow the view from below. Some windows were added and existing ones enlarged to entice one’s vision outside onto the climbing vines around the posts of the veranda.
Pavers were used throughout the entire home (except the master bedroom). The interior ones were in a diamond shape to make the rooms appear longer and wider while the exterior pavers were used to take the eye out, past the point of the end of the room in order to borrow the space outside. Area rugs were sculpted in a diamond shape to add warmth but not confuse the eye with another dimension. This house now appears spacious and quite beautiful with an air of sophistication about it. Large and overstuffed down chairs in the living room make it welcome and inviting.
The kitchen counter and splash are out of stormy pattern granite with maple cabinets. It has a Dutch door to match the front with a view of the lush gardens and a window that overlooks the veranda with its climbing vines.
The entire house has been remodeled
and redecorated with some necessary minor construction
necessary to turn it into a lovely, gracious home.
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