Name: Jeffrey Eyser and Joseph Kuntz
Location: West Hollywood, California
Size: 600 square feet
Years lived in: 2 years
Colourful, playful, eclectic, imaginative: all these superlatives could be used to describe Jeffrey and Joseph's modest sized West Hollywood home, decorated to the brim with thrift store finds balanced with a foundation of midcentury furnishings…a sort of organized clutter which reveals a love of both the beautiful and ordinary, arranged altogether into interesting displays. The total effect is a big impression in a fairly small space, with each room exhibiting its own personality and colour scheme, carefully curated to personify the personalities and interests of its occupants.
AT Survey:
My/Our style: We have an eclectic style of midcentury modern meets garage sale chic. I have a major love for vintage office furniture and love the mixture of kitsch and DIY style.
Inspiration: My house is a constantly evolving space. I can’t leave anything decorated the same way for too long. I’ve just recently maxed out on space for my extensive chair collection so the day to day is a bit of musical chairs. I’m heavily inspired by designers like Adler and Wearstler and love everything Eames. My most recent obsession is mid-century office design, I’m constantly trying to find new ways of repurposing filing cabinets.
Favorite Element: Right now I love my phone booth. For Christmas I actually put the Christmas tree inside the booth. I usually have a favorite chair of the moment.
Biggest Challenge: This house is incredibly small. I tried to find interesting ways of maximizing space. I’ve managed to make the space feel large and cozy. You have to force yourself to be creative when you only have one closet for 2 people.
What Friends Say: My friends are constantly surprised by my redecorating, the most common comment I get is when I take guests to the roof and they say, “Wow, your house feels a lot larger than this”. I’ve gotten numerous house decorating gigs by showcasing my own pad.
Biggest Embarrassment: My kitchen is quite small, almost non-existent. I consider it to be both a blessing and a pain. On one hand I don’t take up valuable square footage with counter space, on the other hand I spend A LOT of money eating out. I just recently invested in a slim space saving refrigerator by GE…sandwiches galore.
Proudest DIY: I have a lot of DIY projects that I love, but probably the proudest would also be my simplest. I purchased the dirtiest oldest filing cabinet I could find, flipped it on its side and put large industrial casters on it. This piece is now serving as my entertainment unit, but it will one day be my coffee table. I want to produce a line on repurposed filing cabinet furniture.
Biggest Indulgence: The biggest indulgence has got to be the phone booth. I’ve always wanted a metal phone booth in my entryway and now I have one. It took four of us an hour to get it inside, but it was so worth it.
Best advice: When decorating houses I always give people the same advice, paint your walls! Also, I tell people before buying a bunch of new furniture to first let me rearrange their existing items. A lot of times they are surprised by finding new uses for old items. Painting is a big one though, new paint can completely change a space.
Dream source: Well, I love splurging at Design Within Reach, but I love getting dressing from CB2. If I could just walk into an Eames show room and pick out anything I wanted I think that would be a dream come true.
Resources:
Appliances: Kitchen appliance are all stainless steel GE. Trashcan is from Simple Human.
Furniture:
Dining room :
- Phone booth, filing cabinets, Barcelona chair, bar stools, office chair – vintage
- Table, wall mirrors – IKEA
- Hanging lights – cords from cost plus, blubs from Light Bulbs Unlimited
- Rothko print – found art
- Aha stool – DWR
Living room :
- Bantam sofa, Nelson bench, Pablo Ventana lamps – DWR
- Side table, filing cabinet entertainment center, faux Eames lounge chair – vintage
- Rug, lamp – CB2
- Mirror wall art – Chiasso
- Wall art – framed Polaroids
- Pillows – Target
Office :
- Shelving – Target
- Bar – Target shelving with found glass top
- Desk, oversized clock – CB2
- Wall lights – fluorescents from Light Bulbs Unlimited
- Desk chair – vintage
Bedroom :
- Bed – West Elm
- Filing cabinet Side tables / lights – Target
- Entertainment center – Target
- Office chair, molded plywood lounge chair, pachinko wall art – vintage
- Couch, coffee table – IKEA
- Pillows – Target / shop SCAD
- Hot dog wall art – home goods
Outside :
- Cabana – Z Gallerie
- Seating – DWR / vintage
- Tables – Target
- Rolling cart – vintage
- Cubitech shelving – DWR
Paint: All my paint colors are Benjamin Moore. I’m not sure of the colors off the top of my head, but the entry/dining room is Citron, Kitchen is Nacho Cheese. Not sure on the rest.
Rugs and Carpets: Carpeting with area rugs, CB2 and Target.
Window Treatments: Not a big fan of fabric, I’m aware of the benefits, but I like seeing the clean lines of the windows. I did do a vinyl frost treatment on the bedroom French doors.
Beds: See above.
Artwork: I love Polaroids. I find something funny about having a framed Polaroid.
(Thanks, Jeffrey and Joseph!)
We've had amazing response to our Apartment Therapy House Tour Submission Form. While we will work with homeowners of our favorite homes to feature full tours, we will also share the best as House Calls — short, quick tours of readers' homes. Submit your home here.
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AAAAH that dog's face! Love it.
What great style! Love the coral and the chocolate wall color in the living is gorgeous.
Mad crazy love for the chocolate wall color and the one filing cabinet with the curved edges. Cracking up at the room of excess chairs.
I love your phone booth!
"Too much stuff"??? Not in MY world!
Kinda kitschy, but not too much. It's awesome!
another chocolate wall fan!
I used to have that same phone in the 70's!!! The dial is on the bottom and there's a huge red button in the middle that makes you hang up when you put the phone down. Gosh, good times! :)
I didn't know it was a phone at first...Oops.
I agree- great design, but it seems very crowded.
I wanted to like this. bit mp
Does anyone know about the bedspread???? I LOVE IT and I WANT IT!
I'm assuming the light in the LR is a standard style paper lamp with a light fixture in a plastic box underneath? Am I seeing right, a DIY? Or did it come that way? Fun space!
OMG, I would love to do something like this. Unfortunately Mr. Clean-lines-modern-minimalism husband would probably have a heart attack. Love the tan sofa against the chocolate wall. I'm guessing someone is a Mad Men fanatic :)
Surprisingly I like the way the colors have been put together and lots of cool things. They are probably as well organized in the small place as they can be, but I still got a claustrophobic feeling. The metal cabinets just felt too heavy to me. I think if at least 1/5 of things were removed, it would be even better.
And the phonebooth is awesome! But once again, it feels over crowded and claustrophobic. I don't like the fact that it's covering up half a window.
Kheila, mine was Mr. Clean-lines-modern-minimalism, too. (Except messy.) But I just kept saying, "Ah! Awesome!" at curly gold stuff until his tastes changed, and now he's all Hollywood Regency. I think it's Pavlovian.
Very nice and cleverly put together. I like picking up stuff from garage sales but somehow my room ends up looking like a junk room rather than anything like this. Thanks for sharing!
There's a lot of industrial, but it's cool. The phone booth is pretty great.
Everyone needs a phone booth and a room of chairs; it is the path to happiness. Also, dog face.
Forgot to mention the outdoor seating space and the atomic TV. Happiness.
And to reiterate: Dog face.
Normally I'm not into this much color and stuff, but this space is a lot of fun. And unique.
totally hate it, this i the first post i dont like from AT! I guess we all have different tastes!
This is a house with lots of personality and I can relate to the vintage vibe even though my own taste is more streamlined... I want to know where the bedspread is from too... Never seen such cool pattern.
Way to bring some super bright modern style into home without many details (i.e. trim, etc.) Though I do love those California curved entryways...
In regards to the room of chairs... is that really a room of chairs? I thought it was a collection of those little designer chair figurines! Ha. There ain't no way you're gonna have a room full of chairs, AND a Bernese Mountain dog in a 600 sq. ft. living space??
Enjoy looking at garage sale finds but your outside area is where I would spend my time. Love your beautiful plants! And so refreshing to see a live, healthy looking animal, thanks for sharing your dog, too.
Is that a GIANT tv at the foot of your bed? How does it not get broken? If I had a dollar for the number of times I've knocked over the glass of water on my nightstand...
i think house is really fun! i love the backyard space, that looks like a retreat when it's feeling crowded inside. i would love to see a floor plan, i was having a hard time envisioning how all these rooms were laid out within the house. the only thing that i think would be hard to live with is the tv so close to the end of the bed. if that were wall mounted, the bedroom would seem a lot bigger. and i'm all for having having tons of stuff, it obviously reflects a lot of personality and wouldn't be there if it wasn't important to you. and i bet you got a good deal on a lot of it, if it's truly garage sale style!
Lovely outside area! I don't get the sideways file cabinets. Do you use them for storage? They seem very large to be empty and mostly useless.
Dog face, indeed. :) I weep that you have beige carpet everywhere but I really like the rug in the living room. The photo inside the phone booth is fab!
I love some of the ideas in this post.....I would like to paint a filing cabinet I have in the same color....PLEASE ADVISE....what color and paint? Thanks so much!
Kerri@TresChiclifestyle
this house reminds me of my office at school--lots of stuff stacked all over because we might use it again someday.
If either of you are having a bad day, do you go into the phone booth as Clark Kent, emerging soon thereafter as Superman?
Seriously, though, fellas, thanks for the tour. I love seeing places that break the monotony of those places of the sparse, cold, stilted modernist ilk. I am certain that you all have a wonderful symbiotic relationship with the place. You give it live, and it returns the favor.
LOVE IT. You have serious design cojones and genius color sense. (I am also betting that you guys throw legendary parties, am I right?) Your paint choices are perfect.
The room of chairs made me laugh out loud. Don't ever get rid of them. Or the phone booth. Amazing!
I want to be cool enough to hang out with y'all when I grow up.
Love your aesthetic, but would really like to see it pared down. Just too much stuff, looks like a shop, not somewhere I'd choose to relax. And the TV at the foot of the bed. Weird. Does anyone love TV that much? I'd be afraid of knocking it over in the middle of the night.
There are some amazing pieces, that I wish could breathe without all the competition. The phone booth piece is amazing! And the chair collection is kinda cool, but a bit much.
The London phone box poster inside the US booth is genius. Think that's the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Like the color choices throughout but I would be afraid something would fall on me just walking through the rooms. I for one would spend all my time there on the patio, which is very nice. Overall I am not a big fan of this decor, though. It seems to disregard the house entirely in an effort to cram it full of found objects that make various statements.
The big heavy office furniture is beautiful. I literally started salivating at the piece with 6 to 8 inch tall drawers.
You have a lot of stuff in 600 sq ft, but it looks like you have a lot of fun with it, AND that's the point.
Great house tour, thanks!
Is that a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog?
Can somebody please explain the room of chairs? That wouldn't make sense even in a bigger space, but in a 600sf house...??
Wow - what a cool place! Not only do you have a phone booth (!) but I agree with the person who said the poster inside the phone booth is coolest thing ever. And is that pinball art? Amazing. I would totally buy from your filing cabinet furniture line! I am so inspired by your cool aesthetic... love the colors and the unique pieces... thank you for sharing.
oh my gosh, i have the same stuff as you. the pachinko game, the eames chair, televisions, it's all here too. neat.
@francophile Those are miniature chairs. I believe the ones that you can get from funky Japanese stores (they're made in China). I have them myself.
Thanks everyone for the comments! It's really truly exciting to have your house showcased...
Here's a few answers:
- The bedspread was purchased at Target it is made by dwell studio.
- The living room lamps were purchased from dwr "pablo" ventana lamps. Unfortunately not a DIY.
- Yes that is a greater swiss mountain dog. She's about 75 pounds and loves the outdoor space.
- The tv at the foot of the bed has been there for years and we've never kicked it off. Everyone seems to ask that...and yes, we love tv that much...
- all the file cabinets are utilized for storage. That's one way I have maximized our small space. They house books, dvds, random stuff, remotes, etc.
- and most importantly that is actually a tray of small designer chairs in our bedroom, not a room full of chairs (although that would be awesome). I've been collecting them for years and actually handed them out at my wedding as wedding favors.
Thanks again!!
I don't know that I could live with all that stuff, but the thought I kept having (and I think this a lot during many AT house tours) is "boy, would I love to know these people!" They look like fun to me.
OMG, I soooo had those Technics speakers. Now I just need an old Journey album to play on them!
Wow, just... wow!
Phone booth dog miniature chairs = love.
Also, I adore the genius idea of storing the DVDs in the filing cabinets. Now, if only I could get that type of cabinet where I live... Thanks for the inspiration! :)
love the brown walls on the livingroom! if you be so kind to provide me the code or the name of the color THANK YOU!
I love the blue stripe on the wall.
The phone booth is awesome but does seem like a big indulgence in a small space.
Once I saw a house where they had a phone booth ouside as the entrance to their house. That is an idea for you but you would have to take out the glass on the back side of the phone booth.
I think you have to put alot of stuff in a small space or it makes it seem too small otherwise.
Eating out alot sux.
(... none of those are superlatives....)