Name: Matt Sams
Location: HelMel (Heliotrope/Melrose) Los Angeles, CA
Size: 900 sq/ft
Years lived in: 1 year
Matt's sunfilled apartment with its mix of hollywood regency formality and boho accents had us at Hello. We love how he went bold with the dining room, using one of our favorite Ferm Living wallpapers but that he wasn't afraid to mix up styles in the rest of the house opting for a simple zen bathroom, a soothing bedroom with refined accessories and an eclectic living room perfect for entertaining.
When Matt first contacted us (he's friends with Wendi and her Pioneer Modern place) we asked for some sample images to see if he was house tour candidate worthy and when he sent along a shot of the dining room, we were sold. Wallpaper has hit its stride and Matt's choice is right on the money: bright and bold and classic. And because the dining room opens onto the living room, we love that you can see bits of it peeking out from different spots around the house. Its presence makes the more neutral colors in the rest of the house feel just right.
We also couldn't help but notice that he's only lived in the place for a year. We have enough trouble getting a place functional, let alone amazing in a year. His use of antiques and thrift store finds mixed with shiny glass and chrome keeps the place feeling modern and luxurious.
AT Survey:
My style: Confused. I love so many things so I buy them all and through them together. Maybe my style is Rainbow Coalition?
Inspiration: I look at magazines, go to auctions and showrooms, and have talented friends. Basically, I rip any and everybody off.
Favorite Room: The dining room. I love the wallpaper. It changes color as the light changes.
Favorite Element: The Mao statue on the sideboard. He was a gift from a vendor. Demented and beautiful.
Biggest Embarrassment: The kitchen countertops. Super cheesy granite. I want zinc ASAP.
Proudest DIY: Not really a DIY kind of guy. Look, the economy is terrible, This is no time to stop employing tradesmen. Is that simply justification for being lazy?
Favorite Store: Ebay. I love finding amazing pieces for cheap, then spending some dough on having ‘em fixed up.
Best advice: Don’t watch HGTV. It’s like a design vortex.
Dream source: I have a new piece of dream furniture everyday. Buying things fills the aching hole in my soul. Is it too early for a cocktail? Love going to Lawson Fenning, Blackman Cruz, Orange, Twentieth. But above all else, I love ebay. Cant get enough.
Best Organizing Tip: Hire a housekeeper. I’m lost without mine. Lupe! I love you!
Oldest Item You Own: Cane desk in the foyer is ancient.
Resources:
Accessories: Nickey Kehoe on Highland
Lighting: L7 on Melrose
Tiles and Stone: Ann Sachs, of course
Window Treatments: Find a fabric you like and have them made by your local tailor.
Artwork: For reasonably priced photography check out photographersgallery.com. my ex owns it. He’s the devil but there is some good stuff.
Paint: Benjamin Moore. always
(Thanks, Matt!)
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What a great home - Looks like the kind of place I'd have if I lived in LA...
LOVE you home! Ditto on bepsf comment...
Where did you get that blue sofa and chair?
Please let us know!
love your bust of pink mao - where did you get it? did you paint it yourself?
Great job. Love all the quirky details. Question: Do you know the provenance of the chrome and suede chairs in your dining room? I have the same chairs in burnt siena suede and would like to know more about them.
LOVE this home! Great job combining your eclectic pieces. Those chrome chairs are gorgeous!
Are you a professional decorator? If not, you should be.
Beuatiful. Love the magic trash can.
matt - what kind of searches do you do on ebay and are there specific vendors I should look at? I promise not to bid against you on anything ;)
this is fabulous! another great house tour filled with colour, pattern, and texture. love it.
I love that bed! I've never seen a four poster look so light and contemporary.
marry me.
You know, Mao is thought to be responsible for anywhere from 20 million to over 70 million deaths.
Hitler is credited with 16-32 million.
The dining room looks cool and everything, but...really?
Love that dining room!!!
but doesn't that make for some kind of justice? to have him painted hot pink & used as a color accent in an LA home?
I don't get the connection.
Perhaps you can explain it to me.
Simply fabulous!
At least Matt is the first to say his style is confused.
There are vignettes I like but way too many styles with nothing to bind them but busy-ness.
Could do with a ruthless edit.
stunning! i hope you go to scoops often.
henrietta, there's nothing that would make mao twist in his grave, uh, under his plexiglass cover more than being a hot pink accent in a california home!
LUV IT!
I was totally happy with my own house until I saw this one. :-(
come do mine??
love what you have done with your home! you have a great sense of style. thanks for sharing.
Love all these sculptural shapes--gorgeous furniture (especially that curvy blue chair and the two chrome/hide chairs in the living room). You're one talented guy, Matt--everything feels so luxurious and sexy and yet so comfortable. Balanced, but just quirky enough to be fun and unique. Ditto re: what Lisa Hunter said. Lovely! Thanks for sharing your place with us. Now, if I can just talk my guy into wallpapering the dining room...
Ha, TAmom! Maybe so. Or, Mao might be amused by a bunch of capitalist running dogs brandishing his statue in their houses.
Meanwhile, am I going blind, or is that statue NOT painted hot pink! Because that might redeem it a bit.
I brought this up in the first place because I thought it was not merely a matter of taste, but now I'm not so sure. It's interesting how this tradition of kitsch has arisen around Chariman Mao to the point where his image is so innocuous that no self-respecting hipster would hesitate to display it, not only in the privacy of his home, but on the internet, confident that the Amen choir would trot out and sing hallelujah to his stylish sense of irony. (By the way, this is no slam on Matt personally; it's the culture.)
On the other hand, there is no way you could display a statue of Hitler, no matter how laden with irony, in your dining room and not be roundly condemned for it. It's just not done.
On the third hand, my reservations about this break down pretty quickly. What if someone gave me an exquisitely rendered statue of Mao of no interest to a museum but that was nonetheless a beautiful artifact? Hmm.
What if somebody gave me Warhol's portrait of Chairman Mao, framed and ready to go? Hmm.
Love it all except the dead animals lying about and that dining room wall paper would make me dizzy
Hey TAmom,
Now I see what you're saying. There is what looks to be a hot pink Mao on the desk. But there's also a "demented and beautiful" Mao on the sideboard in the dining room.
Your house is beautiful! I love the use of plants throughout your home. I especially love your dining room. I do have to agree with Henrietta the Terrible, though, about the statuettes of Mao. I just don't understand how anyone could live with that monster's likeness grinning at them every day.
Obviously Matt is an insensitive clod with all those Maos and dead animals in his home! While still being extremely talented and aesthetically astute in his design sense! (So now I'm confused!)
I like sculpture. I have a pantheon of deities from various cultures, some kitsch, some museum replicas or home shrine items -- including a cheesy plastic pieta (Mary and Jesus) and R2D2. I am an equal opportunity disser of religion. Something to offend everyone. Gotta keep an eye out for Mao, now! ;^)
Remembered the episode of the Simpsons when they went to China and Homer visits Mao's Mausoleum and said.....
Ohhoh, look at him sleeping. he's like a little angel that killed 50 million people.
I think its funny they came up with HelMel for that area and who knew it would become a hip spot to live. I do miss this sort of house, relatively large living room and dining room actual space for furniture.
Matt can you tell me what paints you used?
This house is very well pulled together and love the colors.
Wow, it's a bit much for me, but it works together. But HelMel?!?
WOW! Beautiful job....you have obviously put a lot of thought and consideration into every furnishing. Wonderful presentation! Thanks for some inspiration.
what a great eye. very well put together and so many beauteous things. i get the "confused" comment but i think you're being hard on yourself; how about "beyond eclectic"?
i could never do or live in a glam regency room or surround myself with taxidermy, antlers, or wall decals, but it's nice to see them all done and working so well.
i could easily live in your living and bedroom which are so fresh and trendless and honest...not a single screaming thing just a great song.
thanks for the tour.
I really like this a lot. I'm going to look at this a lot of times and try to figure out what I love most about it, but that wallpaper is a good start. But wallpaper patterns are tricky and it's almost a dare that one makes with oneself to see if you step up and make it sing. This sings. Beautifully.
gorgeous styling--wish i had your talent for vignettes/tableaus.
wondering if the DR chandelier came with that lovely shade or if you added it and if the latter, where did you find it??
This house is totally yummy. It's spare, yet daring. I want to housesit here and then gain squatter's rights.
I love the branch decals - where can I get those?
great dinning room area. What is the size of the table base vs. the glass size, is it attached?
Gorgeous! Just gorgeous!
because of this lovely dining room, i'm finally gonna prioritize getting my foyer wallpapered... working up a budget right now :) thanks for re-starting the fire!
I LOVE your home, Matt. What a fantastic mix of styles! And, your dining room is breathtaking. If your personality is reflected in your design (which I'm sure it is...), you must be the coolest guy in HelMel :) Thanks for the tour!
Who makes that incredible lighting fixture in the foyer? It's beautiful!
I love this so much that knowing that the person who decorated these rooms chose the same sconce as I did makes me feel better about my own choice. (Matt has one in the bedroom, I have three in my living room.)
The only thing that makes this seem less than truly lived in are the pair of large vases on the dining table. I can't help but wonder where they go when Matt has a full table of friends. With a house like this, it must be a favorite destination for his friends, no?
If you read this Matt, any advice on search terms that cut through all the chaff on eBay would be greatly appreciated.
Where did you get the handles on the kitchen cabinets? They look very sturdy and easy to grasp. Where did you find those?
Wow, this is one of my favorite AT homes, if not the favorite. And it's not even a style I would have in my home. The design is obviously great, but one of my favorite things about it is that it actually looks lived in. Can't tell you how many homes I see on here and it looks like the owner just threw all the busy junky stuff into the closet. They look fake. But this one looks cleaned up and real. Thanks for not trying to be too minimal. =)
Matt, Matt, Matt,
A black bin liner please! Regardless, this home tour never gets old. It is in my top 20!
Matt, your home is lucsious. How do you achieve glam and comfy all at the same time?? Def one of my favorite House Tours of all-time.
First of all, Matt, um .. no. It is not now, and personally, I cannot think of a time that it ever has been, too early for a cocktail. I mean it's 5 o'clock somewhere, right? Okay, we got that out of the way ... on to the house (where, by the by, I wish I was sitting right now in those hide chairs HAVING a cocktail).
This house is inspired. I LOVE it. My only question, why do you live there instead of me? How's that fair? And as an aside ... I've enjoyed the debate about Mao. I get the irony and I also get the symbolism. But the fact that it has garnered this much debate is proof in itself that your home is dynamic and engaging. Which, in my opinion, a well designed and personalized home should be! So again .... I LOVE IT! Thanks for sharing!