apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

all of the red and then the kitchen made me smile.

I want to see all your hidden features!! Love the living room.

Love the use of your accent color red. It really kicks it up.
p.s. i heart your sweet kitty in the chair

this place is fantastic, I would be really surprised to hear that you guys do not have a design background, this place is just so well put together. Although, I can't believe the orchid in the bathroom is normally positioned on top of the trashcan?! Regardless, I think this is a definite finalist. Congrats!

Wonderful looking place - I think you have really a good eye for detail and it looks very well thought out. I love it that you showed ALL the rooms!

Love it! So nice to see after the last one I looked at, yikes. Very very cool!

I have those pillowcases too:)

oooh.... i think this one just made it to the top of my list!

This is so beautiful. Great touches of red! I really like this alot!

WINNER!

I hope you guys would be one of the finalist so we can see all the details mentioned.

I love the bedroom :-))

Wow, I love it. I just bought a can of beautiful Chinese red paint to update a storage chest. Now I just want to throw it on my walls.

loves.it.

WOW, WOW AND WOW!!! WHAT A BEAUTIFUL APARTMENT!!!

your bedroom is so peaceful! and where did you get the shelves in the hall, under the cloud painting?

Totally not my style. Totally convincing that even is something isnt your style it can be done brilliantly!

Side note: the face vases would FREAK me out!

So beautiful, and I love the stones around the fireplace. I was thinking of doing that somewhere in my place as well.

Exquisite taste! Excellent color & composition! I love it!

I adore it. looks like a real home - not just an architects showpiece.

When browsing through the entries thinking I'll know it when i see it... I stumble onto yours and think... Yes, that's it! IMO Well done. Thanks for sharing!

Very glam.

Your place is lovely.

i love the punches of hot pink in the bedroom. and the vanity in the bathroom is so cute!

not my own personal style at all but it is super cool because you have really created a complete look and style.

This is lovely. So well balanced and curated. I think this should be a finalist.

so fancy! I love it!

Super cool. Brilliantly executed and photographed. The strong red accent colour is used in a pleasing amount and proportion. That red chair is a star! The few recognizable modern(ist) pieces here and there (vase, light fixture, coffee table, bedroom chair) add to, rather than detract from, the sense of individuality because they are mixed in new and interesting ways. The overall effect of the space is somewhat formal and restrained, but livable and definitely not 'show-roomy.'

I especially appreciate the carefully considered finishes and details, such as the tiled tub surround, oval counter, lack of baseboard mouldings (which I've heard is quite difficult to pull off), and kitchen celestory windows. This entry really presents a lot of cool ideas and shows off the work that Loulou and Nico have done to make their small space a functional and appealing place to live.

this is just fantastic. well done.

There is one word that springs to mind when I look at this space, and that is: "evolved". This is stunning. Congratulations.

Well executed.

This is very nice and I voted for it as "super cool", but the parts of it do seem very contrived. I can't believe anyone keeps a bucket of clean towels on top of the toilet tank where they're going to get exposed to microscopic toilet water spray with every flush. Still, this is a beautiful place which uses red very effectively and tastefully.

Red is my favorite color... and I appreciate that it isn't overused here. Really nice space!

Super cool from me. This is one of my favorites. I love the use of red and hot pink. The living room is lovely. Especially that red chair! I particularly like the punch of hot pink in the mostly white bedroom.

Can you provide some detail on the fireplace. It appears to be non-working. Was it included in the home and something you closed up? Or was it added by you?

We get to see a living space, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom! YAY you understood what we're looking for!

Nice job

Your bedroom is hot. Love the pink, white and dark brown. The colors create great contrast.

I agree with what orchid said. I like your bedroom a lot and was surprised to see that even your cat fits the space! I have no idea how people keep orchids alive...

My hats of to ya! Lovely space... Well done, love it! Look for my email!

Your place is so fun! I love the red chair next to the sofa.

One of the most brilliant (among MANY here) elements here is how that red corridor wall peeks in (and says HEY THERE, SAILOR!) through that doorway. That's just wildly luridly gorgeous.

I also love the way you used white to tie some of your accessories together, and I'm quite crazy about those grommeted curtains.

And I love the bedroom lamp shapes and how they semi-echo the shapes of the birds in the bedding. That's so subtle that you might not have realized, yourself, that you meant that, so you might think I'm nuts.

One more thing and I'll shut up -- you still managed to put in some art that was polychromatic and didn't necessarily adhere to the "color scheme" that brilliantly created. But you still made it work really, really well.

very nice. it feels very fresh and i like the use of pink! hope you make it further into the competition so we can see some of the ikea hacks you mentioned.

by the way - may i ask the colour of the walls in your living room/bedroom? it looks like a great creamy white.

Fabulous!
The floorplan of you home is similiar to mine, (though we're fortunate to have two bedrooms and a 1/2 bath upstairs!). We too have a non-working fireplace with the mantle wall that doesn't quite extend the width of the mantle. I'd love to see a full on picture of that, next round.

jealous. me.

Good taste! You really took advantage of the light.

I;m trying to vote but I can't. Would like to vote for Looloo and Nico

Love it!!! Great use of space and color. Loulou and Nico, do you do consultations?

Very cool. Is it hard to live in? I do wish your next project is take some of that BR cool into the bathroom. The sink seems out of scale, more like a urinal. The tomato red hall with the black horizontal lines just sings.

Wow... I think I died and went to Heaven. You mind if I stay here for all eternity? ;-)


ps...I LOVE the Vitruvian Face Vase. I have a white one and a black one.

You've done a really nice job. I love the pottery and the bathroom. I feel like the art placement on the walls is a little off, it doesn't have a focal point... less is more maybe?

WOWEE! Thank you so much--Can you all come over for a party?! It means a lot to me to get the kudos from you ApartmentTherapistas because I know you are discerning critics--I am *tickled pink* :)

OK, I'll try and answer all the questions...it will be long, so hang in there...

Absolutmarie: You outed me. No way Nico would lift an orchid everyday to use the trash. (I however am crazy enough to do just that, but that's another story). It just looked so pretty in the shot--I rotate orchids around the house as they come into bloom, but I'll show you where they live at other times if I make it into the finals.
Oh, and the background: I am an art historian for a non-profit org that supports LA Unified School district, Nico is a classical and studio musician.

Bethanylemony: Good old West Elm for the shelves--we needed something not deep, and not long and they had what fit the bill.

Elizabeth II, The stones around the mantle are covering up icky ugly mottled tile--much less $$ than replacing it. I also have them in the bottom of the vase of pink roses on the table...

amed studio: Nico removed aaaalllllll the molding, and then patched/sanded/patched/sanded/etc. until it looked good enough to paint. Glad HE had the patience.

Orchid64: the towels DO live there, inside my ice bucket! (guest hand towels--I'm a little Howard Hughes-ish about someone wiping their hands on my face towel) We always close the john before the flush, but now that you've said that , I might have to investigate...'cuz the thought of microscopic toilet spray kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies! (sorry to any friends who may have unknowingly used said toilet spray drenched towels.)

4ddh, the mantel was there when we arrived, immovable, immutable, and only a gas outlet to remind of us the Fire That Once Was. So we made the best of it. Painted it the same color as the concrete bar and countertops with a textured Ralph Lauren "RiverRock" paint to make it think it was concrete too, and use candles to give the warmth of a fire at night.

Canandian_ginger, we actually designed the whole place AROUND our cat Sam, so she would continue to let us live here. And orchids are the only plants I don't kill--They thrive on neglect (and nasty microscopic toilet water spray I assume since they mostly live in the bathroom--yikes!)

Curtis, you are soooo not crazy...Well, maybe you are, but so am I...For me, putting together a room is like putting together a painting...a touch here, echoed there...(Only for you Curtis, since we share the same insanity, the four glass containers on the kitchen counter are meant to echo the four central cabinets and the four glass clerestory windows above)
The BDR lamps actually have a crackle glaze finish so they look very asian...to go with the "Chinoiserie" duvet cover. Lamps were a great find--scored the pair for $19.99 at Ross (shades I found later). Grommet drapes in the BDR are also in the living room for continuity (just can't see the tops in this photo)..

Kiwi, the livingroom is painted coconut and bittersweet chocolate (I think it's Behr brand), the red-orange is called "party place" (love that!) bedroom is Ralph Lauren Studio White and the hallway is...oh this is so embarrassing...but it WAS the right color, it really was...

Disney for Behr paints "Invitation To A Princess" pink. Yep, that was originally a hard sell to the husband.

Quiltmaster, could you explain a little more? If you mean hard to live in because we're two people, and one bathroom...then YES...but we put in a tankless H2o heater and that made cold showers and harsh words a thing of the past...
If you mean does it stay this neat all the time, hmmmm...yes and no. I have some "stash baskets" around the house for mags and mail, and hooks in the bedroom and bath for clothes that just came off, but yes, occasionally stuff piles up, and I have to spend a day putting it back in order. I do find that having a space that I really like to be in helps me to WANT to keep it neat.

Sailor Jerry, we would be thrilled to do a little consulting for you...Hopefully you live in some fantastic place I've been dying to visit!!

for rhismith: I didn't realize until the photos were posted, that none of them actually show my favorite painting, the large "focal point" that I think you are looking for...You only see a tiny corner of it in the first photo (all the paintings are by local California artists, BTW--Support the home town team!)
I hope I get a chance to show you the rest!


I feel like a Rock Star right now...Thanks everyone :)

love, loulou

i love your apt. where is the duplex?
I got confused

i love it.

I really hope this is a finalist because I want to see all the hidden features!

Bravo! This is just gorgeous! I love knowing that you have all these secret hidey places. Hopefully we'll see more in finals.

That luscious ..red?...fuschia? wall was enough for me to vote super cool! I love the accent color use. That Louis the XV style chair in orange is AMAZING!

*sighs*. I want your apartment!

had to vote super cool based on the bedroom alone (it's beautiful!). and for all the red. love the red!

I think we have a winner....

Wonderful color scheme! It made the whole place look very put together. Definitely a great place.

Where'd you get that fascinating light fixture in the kitchen? What is it made of?

Light fixture is made of coconut fiber...We hacked it from one we found at ZGallery... :)

generally, i'm as in love with this space as i am with the location. venice is hard to beat, the light, the sea air, abbott kinney, diversity....one criticism, your bedroom lampshades are way too small (but the color is perfect).

Hot Damn, my favorite thus far!!!

Beautiful place! Good luck.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE AND I CAN SEE MYSELF HAVING FRIENDS AND WINE IN THIS SPACE SO EASILY.

This would be a very neat place to come home to after a trip,l compact and easy to manage. A condo feel but with yard and neighbourhood feel. Great ideas.

sooo cute! i love it!

Love it!!!

Where did you get that amazing red chair in the living room? I'm looking for something similar in hot pink and maybe black. If you refurbished it . . . bravo, very nice.

I keep coming back to this entry. So much to take in, in each photo.

Thankyou *blush*
Refurbished--It was a shabby chic yellow and white. Just thought the old girl needed some new life :)

Woah, I don't know about that bathroom sink.
Like the red theme, though it feels a bit hotel-ish.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. Super Cool without a doubt. When do we get to see more of it?

So ummm, I'm in love with your bedding (sheets/pillowcases especially).

May I ask where they're from?

My fiance would looooooove your place--he's all about red. :)

My favorite photography detail is how the decorating-required shot with shoes isn't kicked aside high heels in the bedroom, it's slippers in the kitchen.

Ohh-la-la. Love the crimson paired with brown. Perfect room to flick off your heels and sip some champers. Absolute winner!!!