Laurie's Thrifty Elegance House Tour

AT Survey:

My/Our style: Mid-century, thrift-store furniture and art accented by new art and natural elements such as tree branches. Though there are a lot of books and decorative objects ontop most surfaces, the place is somewhat spare (thanks to 6—count ‘em—6 closets).

Inspiration: French artist Raoul Dufy. His sense of color, relative spareness, visual optimism.

Favorite Element: Branches from hikes that I position in high places lift the eye and offer a counterpart to colors like lime green, blue and yellow.

Biggest Challenge: My own unwillingness to hire people to lug things here, so furniture pieces have to be lightweight enough for me to move myself.

What Friends Say: “Is that you?” referring to an oil painting of the New York drag queen Fay Runway.

Biggest Embarrassment: I have never painted, nor cleaned the window exteriors.

Proudest DIY: My only DIY projects have been screwing in a loose door handle and replacing drawer pulls in the kitchen—well, half of them. I ran out.

Biggest Indulgence: The Fay Runway painting cost $900. I bought it with waitress tips in 1987 and have since never paid that amount for any single object for the house.

Best advice: “Place things high for precious verticality!”

Dream source: Rubbish, the Silver Lake furniture shop. Its particular take on mid-century modern educated me a lot.

Enter House Tour

Resources:

Appliances: Nespresso espresso maker – Sur la Table; fridge, blender, microwave, stove – all pretty much the cheapest I could find or bought used from a friend.

Hardware: Everything came with the house except for Bakelite drawer pulls in the kitchen, from eBay.

Furniture:
Living room

Couch: Ikea
Coffee table, upholstered floral chairs, silver wood lamps: Kohnmann Quinn vintage shop on Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake
Chinese-influence cabinet: 26th Street flea market in NYC
Wrought iron table with marble top, wall mirror, black utility table, Fornasetti-esque lamp, double-decker wood table, low wood credenza: bought from or given to me by a friend who dabbled in interior design
Brown fabric chairs: H.D. Buttercup, in Culver City
Small wood table with drawers: found outside on trash heap (with two checks made out to “cash” inside, which were, regrettably, too old to do just that)
Large baroque wood frame: prop house sale in the San Fernando Valley
Two large figurative paintings: bought from the artist, Stephen Tashjian
The abstract, predominantly orange painting: bought from Ojala Gallery, which used to be on Echo Park Avenue in Echo Park
Vintage architectural rendering of the Lakewood, CA post office; ashtray with magazine rack; ceramics and decorative items: thrift store
Small framed sketch of myself: gift from the artist, Laurie Rosenwald

Dining room

Dining room table and chairs, file cabinet, large portrait of woman, smaller portrait of a guy, bookshelves, flower painting, ceramics, framed sketches of a woman’s face, wood frame with photo (from the New Yorker magazine) of Romanian immigrants: thrift shop
Dog photograph, cat lamp, vintage etching of Cincinnati, rack of glasses: gifts
Blue he-man painting: gift from the artist, Robert Loughlin)
Low metal cabinet: Ikea
Cement cat sculpture: From the Pasadena shop Gold Bug

Kitchen
Four portraits of women and vintage metal desk lamp both thrift shop finds.

Bedroom

Bed, mirror, green nightstand, green lamp: Ikea
Large table: found on trash heap outside the house
Low table with cushions, Hollywood Bowl illustration, vintage Paris map, crystal lamp, non-functioning but fabulous metal lamp (in blue, white, red and black), Panasonic clock radio: gifts from friends
Andy Warhol photograph: gift from the photographer, Mark Hanauer
He-man collage painting: It’s Robert Laughlin, bought from an NYC gallery on Lafayette Street (undoubtedly there’s a cupcake shop or childcare center there now).
Collages of Mann’s Chinese Theater and New York’s East River looking towards Brooklyn: bought from the artist, John Morse
Raffia 3-D art piece: bought from L.A. artist Joseph Shuldiner
Vintage nightstand, empty wood frame, wood chair: thrift shop

Hall

“Specimen” boxed sculpture by Joseph Shuldiner (this stops everyone in their tracks in my house)
Framed painting by L.A. artist Maja, bought from the late, great Ojala gallery as a gift from a friend
Unframed cityscape and ceramics: thrift score

Lighting: All overhead glass fixtures came with the apartment.

Paint: The off-white paint was fresh when I moved in. It has held up well considering the earthquakes and natural building movement over the years. I am inspired by one of the House Tours to paint in colors—pale yellow and blue-grey.

Flooring: Linoleum in kitchen is boring, white, and needless to say, not original.

Rugs and Carpets: The apartment came with white Berber carpeting. It would not have been my choice but it has held up surprisingly well and makes for a “Doris Day” feel (circa “Que Sera Sera”).

Tiles and Stone: Original yellow tile in bathroom, original white tile in the kitchen.

Window Treatments: The metal venetian shades and thick cream-colored curtains came with the apartment. There’s a large bay window in the living room with those same cream curtains as well as sheers.

Other: This apartment has soul. There are so many little joys to the architecture and design, since the place was never “ruinovated.” I only share one wall with the next apartment, so with 11 windows, three freestanding walls, and a back door as well as a front door, it feels more like a little house. The mail slot is built into the wall and has a beautifully designed grate. The central heating grates are also very pretty, with levers that allow you to regulate the temperature in each room. There’s molding on the lower walls as well as where the walls meet the ceilings. One of the bedroom closets has a built-in tie rack. There are built-in bookshelves in the living room and dining room; a built-in two-tiered shelf in the hall; and a built-in spice rack in the kitchen.

(Thanks, Laurie for inviting us over and also for the sandwich!)

Enter House Tour

Photos by Gregory Han

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Love this space!

::clap::clap::::clap::clap::

posted by I Love Upstate on February 3rd 2010 at 4:48pm
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There is too much stuff here for me, and the furnishings don't have a sense of cohesiveness throughout. I feel like having a base of several really nice pieces would help elevate this, but as is it just looks a bit too thrown together for my taste. I definitely did not get "sparse" from the space - I dunno what is in the 6 closets, but I would remove 1/2 or more of all the stuff on top of the surfaces and on the walls, including the branches. The drag queen painting is really, really not to my liking, either.

However, it was nice to see an LA apartment that wasn't in Silverlake or West Hollywood! I live by Koreatown, so it was nice to see a representation of that. :)

posted by livc on February 3rd 2010 at 5:39pm
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This actually reminds me of the kitschy shops in and around Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus, Ohio. We Ohio natives seem to have a penchant for the strange, thrifty, and "found". I love it. So quirky and livable. Such personality.

posted by cdanojohnson on February 3rd 2010 at 5:55pm
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I really like this place overall - tho I think I'd make a couple adjustments here and there, such as bringing the B&W pillows off the bed into the LR and placing them on the sofa since they're of the same fabric as those lovely armchairs...
...and getting rid of the tablecloth and the branches everywhere.

Did I mention that I love the collection of ceramic birds and those B&W armchairs?
Oh Yes Indeed...

posted by bepsf on February 3rd 2010 at 5:59pm
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That is one funky dining set.

posted by rexrayfan on February 3rd 2010 at 6:08pm
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I love the little details. The place seems a lot bigger than 800sqft - hard to believe it's only 65sqft bigger than our place!

I gotta say though, that carpet would drive me crazy, no matter how nice I made everything else.

posted by sagekitten85 on February 3rd 2010 at 6:10pm
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This definitely feels like a collector's home and I too am glad to see a different address than Silver Lake. I think I would appreciate it more with different flooring, though. Like sagekitten, I just can't stand wall-to-wall carpeting.

posted by sally305 on February 3rd 2010 at 6:21pm
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Love Laurie's sense of style and hi/lo (well actually with her thrift/street finds more low) mix of objects and lusting after the two club chairs.

posted by Lynda from Delight.com on February 3rd 2010 at 6:22pm
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Wow! Love that dining room set! Totally funky! Also digging all the kitschy items throughout. Not crazy about wall to wall carpeting though...but you work with what you got. Nice job!

posted by suzy8track on February 3rd 2010 at 7:00pm
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I saw one (just one) of those green dining chairs on Craigslist a while back and thought it was sad that there wasn't a complete set. Glad to see there is and that it works so well.

posted by kjb on February 3rd 2010 at 7:09pm
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You have some really great art. I really like the shadowbox sculpture. It's fantastic.

posted by heymomo on February 3rd 2010 at 7:12pm
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Fabulousity, top to bottom. Cue applause.

posted by rosenatti on February 3rd 2010 at 7:18pm
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While I don't really love any of the individual pieces (and in fact could never even bear to be in the same room with those dining chairs!), I really appreciate the deliberateness and confidence with which this home appears to have been put together. And I too like seeing an apartment that is in a neighborhood that isn't often featured here.

BUT - I've said this ad nauseum but I'll say it again - I found it impossible to get a sense for the layout and flow of this apartment without a floorplan. It would take two minutes to draw one freehand - please, AT!

posted by Emily the Cat on February 3rd 2010 at 7:20pm
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i could never live in a space like this. it's a bit schizophrenic to me. i do like that it has personality though. she does have some great art in there, it's just hard to see through all the chaos. although it's not me, i enjoyed this type of house tour better than the ones that look like ikea or west elm catalogs.

posted by lschor on February 3rd 2010 at 9:40pm
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I really like your space. Very different and it shows that you have a personality, not just another mid century modern space... which is becoming a bit boring to look at. I love and admire artistic creativity.

posted by sunrise on February 3rd 2010 at 10:25pm
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My absolute favorite house tour so far! Love the dining room- excellent pops of green throughout. Love the fabric on the living room chairs. Excellent! Thank you for sharing- difinitely bookmarking this one!

posted by pbzoe on February 4th 2010 at 12:12am
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Thanks IT for looking outside the box and visiting more and more interesting, stylish and varied styles of apartments. This apartment has a great collection of art and furniture that is presented in a refreshingly modest way. I enjoyed this one!

posted by EAM on February 4th 2010 at 5:48am
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I thought the furniture placement was interesting and like the black and white chairs as well as the blue couch.

I don't quite understand what is in the specimen shadow box. Pins with paper/labels?

I got a feel for the layout a bit of observation.

The art is not my taste, but the world would indeed be boring if we all liked the same things.

I was very amused that the tuxedo cat managed to get into so many photos. I've owned a few tuxedo cats in my time and they have all found me, I've never gone looking for them.

posted by Cally on February 4th 2010 at 9:04am
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It has charm, I'll grant you that.

I had a hard time getting past the two chairs in the first picture. The one on the far side is sticking out a good three inches. I want to scoot it back a bit.

posted by Fire Wife Katie on February 4th 2010 at 9:29am
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I really love those green dining chairs!

posted by alllebasii on February 4th 2010 at 10:21am
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loooooooooooooove it! I really like how you've found your pieces, from thrift stores and the like.

posted by laurennoel33 on February 4th 2010 at 10:36am
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Love it! Very comfortable and inviting - and unique.

That little kittie! If you can't find him, it's because I 'borrowed' him :)

posted by Lizzy360 on February 4th 2010 at 12:58pm
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How could you not have called this post "Pike's Peek"?

posted by FantasticMrFaux on February 4th 2010 at 2:01pm
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ELEVEN WINDOWS???? *drool*

posted by veronicainla on February 4th 2010 at 2:49pm
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Love, love LOVE!!!! First, those two black and white chairs in the first photo-I NEED them; they're great! The orange kitchen chairs-I might steal them! It feels welcoming & homey but yet very stylish &cute!

posted by LabelMeAL on February 4th 2010 at 11:35pm
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The painting in picture 36 on the left is too DIE for! Is this a painting one can buy? Or did someone paint this for you? Either way I love it could stare at it for hours!

posted by Joline on February 5th 2010 at 1:13pm
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Cheerful, comfy and quirky. Well done!

posted by wabijsabi on February 5th 2010 at 1:22pm
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too much clutter. all the knick knacks make me want to run from the apartment screaming!

great green dining room chairs though. but I hate it when people but a lot of stuff in the dining room other than the table & chairs.

posted by Coletta on February 5th 2010 at 1:24pm
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Lovely place. 800 sq. ft. is large for a Manhattanite, so I appreciate the light touches, the choices made by an artistic sensibility which does not advertise glitz, price, importance. The so-called mis-matching reveals a unique personalty. A great example of great taste.

posted by ShirleyZB on February 5th 2010 at 2:00pm
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nice, the color accents are great.

posted by stresso on February 5th 2010 at 2:45pm
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The extraordinary quality of LA sunlight is half the charm of this quirky place; not to mention the quality of the photography. Makes for a great presentation online.

posted by aychihuahua on February 5th 2010 at 2:45pm
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I love it! Not my fave colors but I really like them here.The lighting is warm and what a great collection of vintage asian cabinents and paintings,even the scary ones.Very cool.

posted by polychrome1 on February 5th 2010 at 3:30pm
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I just found one...so sad only one of the green dining room chairs and just had to have it. Paid 2.50 at the thrift store, I put it on my deck, it's perfect there, you can see it through the window and every time I look at it makes me smile!

posted by redlotus on February 5th 2010 at 3:32pm
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Overall, I really love the charm of the space. I love color, so the decor was eye catching. And, I adore the green dinette! The pink book entitled, "20th Century Fashion" on the coffee table caught my attention. I found it on Amazon & bought it, so thank you for sharing.

http://girlwhimsy.blogspot.com

posted by dykelly625 on February 5th 2010 at 9:17pm
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While this space isn't my personal style, I absolutely love the personality that it displays. And I too am a bit over the excessive MCM theme with no genuine vibe. I like Atomic Ranch as much as the next person, but a piece here or there is different than nothing but MCM with a dash of Ikea.

This space shows quirks, vitality and originality. I love it just for that.

posted by urbanathlete on February 5th 2010 at 9:26pm
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I can't believe someone would put paintings above a stove.
That is so tacky as well as being an absolute fire hazard.

posted by rasterfreeart on February 6th 2010 at 6:21am
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Love this place, really stylish but homey at the same time. The dining chairs are wonderful as are the paintings.

I second Emily the Cat's request for a simple floor plan; I too was having a very hard time trying to get my coordinates here.

posted by AnastasiaBeaverhausen on February 7th 2010 at 5:42pm
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Is the shadowbox collection things found on walks? I really liked it.This is a real home and doesn't seem as "staged" as many.

posted by sarawelder on February 9th 2010 at 8:13am
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This home tells me she has personality and this would be a fun place to visit even if I don't just love everything about it. I love her spirit and maybe she never cooks, which means the paintings are not a fire hazard.

posted by LoveThisSite on February 11th 2010 at 7:30pm
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We use to have that very same dinning set!

posted by 4dpneedles on February 14th 2010 at 8:32pm
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Not my taste but kudos on the living and dining room - so well done. You've got a great eye!

posted by thorndale on February 15th 2010 at 3:04am
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Kinda weird, and funky, and "I'm going to furnish my house as I please." It's what I feel AT is all about, and while I wouldn't do it this way, I appreciate, and admire, what you've done. Thanks for sharing!

posted by RedSharkInteriors on February 15th 2010 at 8:57am
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lovely, lovely space! love the art and you've got some great furniture pieces. only thing is the rug but everything else is just sublime. can't believe it's only 800 sq. feet--shows you what a great sense of style can do!

posted by timmy jr. on February 15th 2010 at 1:31pm
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love the tuxedo kitty.

posted by go4baroque on February 25th 2010 at 1:33am
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I love the green dining set - I love the furniture you have chosen, very unique and beautiful!

posted by hcamp on March 13th 2010 at 3:07pm
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That women in the painting freaks me out! But I love the couches.

posted by newyorklady1 on April 21st 2010 at 3:52pm
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