Name: Zach, Heather and Moxie
Location: Pasadena — California
Size: 1200 square feet
Years lived in: 1 — owned
Heather and Zach moved to Los Angeles about 3 years ago after living in Boston for almost a decade They rented an apartment in Pasadena, and watched while the housing market took a dive - they finally decided it would be a great time to jump in and buy. And jump in they did! They bought a 1940’s traditional fixer-upper in Pasadena last September and proceeded to make it into a dreamy modern California oasis.
With the help of Zach’s dad and a local contractor, the couple moved the entrance of the house, opened up the kitchen, built a gorgeous addition with a master bedroom and bathroom, put in a new wide deck, ripped out the front lawn to put in more water-friendly garden beds and desert landscaping. The results are incredible.
It’s not just the physical transformation that Heather and Zach’s little house has made, it is the detail and care in their decorating that makes their house a cozy yet exciting place to hang out. Zach’s artistic parents have created one of kind art pieces that grace the walls. His father created a stained glass windowpane for Zach for his 30th birthday that hangs in the master bedroom and infuses color on the sunlight that filters into the bright white room. He also made a mosaic piece commemorating a family trip that hangs outside on the deck. Zach’s mother, talented at the craft of rug hooking, made a symbolic rug for their wedding that hangs above the bed in one of the guest rooms.
One of the most exciting parts of living in their house has been the discovery of all the edible goodies growing in the backyard! Over the last year, Heather has discovered her backyard is flush with Oranges, Lemons, Tangerines, Figs and Apricots! Not to mention the vegetables she started growing in her own this season… the two could practically host their own farmer’s market!
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Our Style: Clean lines, lots of wood, natural light, a dash of international flavor. You might call it modern Arts & Crafts? Casual and comfortable, with lots of mementos from our travels. We always seem to use lots of dark reds, blues, greens, and grays.
Inspiration: Pasadena is filled with beautiful Arts & Crafts bungalows – we love walking around the neighborhood and seeing what other people have done with their homes. Zach’s father was our architect for the renovation, and he also brought lots of fabulous ideas, like cathedral ceilings, solatubes, and glass blocks in the bathroom. And Heather spent fair bit of time on interior design sites during the renovation, endlessly bookmarking and sourcing.
Favorite Element: Our kitchen. We’re sort of obsessed with it. We cook, eat, read, work, and relax there. The cutting board for the kitchen island was one of the most expensive things we’ve ever bought, and completely worth it.
Biggest Challenge:The 1940s lemon yellow-tiled guest bathroom. We have not totally solved it yet…
What Friends Say: Hard to believe it’s the same tiny, dark bungalow we bought.
Biggest Embarrassment: Sanding and painting the lemon yellow tile on the bathroom floor before the renovation – and then having it destroyed by all the work. Oops. Better sequencing next time!
Proudest DIY: The huge redwood planters that Zach and his dad built for our vegetable garden.
Biggest Indulgence: Custom ten-foot-long maple cutting board for the kitchen island.
Best Advice: Check in with your contractor every day to make sure you’re on schedule. Buy something you love everywhere you travel. And get a good camera – photos make for wonderful, inexpensive art!
Resources of Note:
LIVING ROOM
- • Donkey bag and traditional coat: Cappadocia and Istanbul, Turkey
• Table: Joe Flikkema Woodworks; Mayville, NY
• Armchair, ottoman, chairs, side table: Barn Furniture Mart; Van Nuys, CA
• Carpets: Kazakhstan and Afghanistan
• Lamp: The Gamble House bookstore; Pasadena, CA
• Curtains: Ballard Designs
KITCHEN
- • Cabinets: Home Depot
• Island: Old World Butcher Block
• Old storage boxes: Antique Tobacco Barn; Asheville, NC
• Carpet: Afghanistan
• Shelves: Room and Board
• Chairs: CB2
• Pendant lights: Barnlight Electric
• Origami light: Tortoise; Venice, CA
MASTER BEDROOM
- • Stars: Bliss; Boulder, CO
• Chairs: Beirut, Lebanon
• Bed: Mattress Discounters
• Shelves: Container Store
HALLWAY
- • Table: Joe Flikkema Woodworks; Mayville, NY
• Bottles: left behind by previous owner
• Wedding cake topper: Zach’s grandparents (and used on our wedding cake)
GUEST BEDROOM
- • Chair: Heather’s grandmother’s chair (reupholstered)
• Bookcase and night table: Family hand-me-downs
OFFICE NOOK
- • Chair: Heather’s grandmother’s chair (reupholstered)
• Desk: Family hand-me-down
• Baskets: Pottery Barn
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I love what they did with their kitchen! Its so light and airy! I'd love to see some before and afters of where the old front door was just for some comparison but great work guys it looks awesome!
I really like the kitchen, especially the picture/chalkboad wall!
yay for pasadena! hello neighbor. lovely place.
maybe they like their compositions just fine.
i like the house. it's homey and airy. love the curtains and those chairs in the bedroom. the bathroom is fab, esp. the floor tile.
Cozy but not crowded and fun with lots of visual interest in the form of those chairs? I had one silly question? What is the 'blue room' for? It's not a guest room?
Thanks for your comments, guys! Yvette - the blue room is yet unfinished, as you can probably tell. Will be a kids room someday, but with no kids yet, we sort of ran out of momentum :)
So cool to see our little house on the site!
How did you all create the magnetic chalkboard on the kitchen wall? It is awesome, and I totally want to create that in my kitchen (if I can persuade my husband that is...)
Wow! We are semi-neighbors-I live south of you in Alhambra. Not only is it my dream to buy a house in Pasadena, but I'm pretty sure we have the same blue green coasters from Anthropologie-got them at the one on Lakes for $2.00 a pop! Yay, Pasadena!
From the first picture, I was expecting the usual sterile, industrial style. But then picture after picture of rich wood furniture and beautifully embellished item like the Lebanese chairs and boxes of inlaid wood....ahhhhh
beautiful home. Just cluttered enough for me to be comfortable, and also bare enough for me to try to imitate.
someday
Cute curtains!
Your house is lovely. It feels homey and welcoming. Like others, I love your kitchen.
Question: Are there any supports on the bar side of your island? If so, how many? I've been wanting to do something similar but have visions of the butcher block breaking apart. (teens leaning on bar, etc.)
Great great renovation! Can you tell us where you got those bar stools???
Hi guys - A couple answers:
1) the magnetic chalkboard wall is two layers: magnetic paint from the hardware store layered under chalkboard paint bought on amazon.com. Important note: do follow the directions for "smoothing" the chalkboard paint. Also, put on as many layers of magnetic paint as possible - it takes at least 4-5 coats for it to work.
2) No supports under the island overhang, but the butcher block is screwed into the cabinets, which are screwed into the floor, so very stable. And it's not a very deep cantilever. Do it! We absolutely love it.
3) The bar stools are from CB2 - the Phoenix carbon barstools. Really comfy.
4) Many, many bowls of lemons, when you have 3 lemon trees. We don't know what to do with all of them!
5) Shout-out to my neighbors! Yay, Eastsiders!
Sadly, we did not take good "before" photos - I'm kicking myself now. Next time...
You have a beautiful home Heather :)
Your dog is the cutest!
MOXIE! Here in Maine, that's a drink. Great name for your dog, too. Here's our summer 2010 house cocktail: "Moxie Mudslide"--- fill a glass with ice, pour mudslide halfway up and Moxie the other half. Sounds gross but it's divine!
I like the butcher block. We accomplished the same look with the IKEA birch countertops. They have held up well after three years and minimal care.
Some really great pieces! Especially love the hallway table and the side-chair in the guest bedroom. :)
hmm.. i agree with the lack of composition of the wall art/pics... I will say it's a very clean house and put together but it seems to lack continuity. The kitchen and shower are my favorites... and I would kill for that backyard. But to be honest, I accidentally clicked on the link again going through the house tour a second time because I didn't think I saw it before... wasn't very memorable. That being said, I do understand the time and energy it takes for a big project like this and for that, great job.
This is a fantastic house. I love the floors, doors and windows. It comes off much larger than 1200 sq ft in this tour.
I hope there are no plans to replant a big lawn in the backyard. It would waste water and look like a golf course in identity crisis.
And I LOVE that the homeowners went with butcher block on the counter rather than McMansion granite. Looks great and suits the style of the home.
Moxie is adorable.
Cute pug!! I really like the "peace" embroidery :)
I give the owners of this cute house A LOT of credit for going with their VERY ecltctic style. I enjoy homes that actually look lived-in, as opposed to the ones that just look like the owners tried to hard to make their home look like a magazine cover... and no one ever goes in.
On that note, I would recommend maybe finding a few things to try and make the eclecticism make sense. Maybe a color pallette or shapes. The entrance area kind of confused me with a craftsman hangining pendant and front door, but then very modern stainless steel appliances and barstools in the kitchen and more industrial looking looking pendants over the island counter. Then, those pastel-colored "country kitchen" wooden boxes on the side are cute, but maybe in another place.
Overall though, I always enjoy seeing houses where the owners are not afraid to show that they actual have opinions, taste and views of their own, not borrowed.
Congratulations on your cute house.
This might be a dumb question, but is it a good idea to have the oven range right next to the refrigerator?