Beatrice & Ramsey’s Cultured Echo Park Casa

Name: Beatrice Valenzuela (shoe designer and hairdresser) & Ramsey Conder (clay modeler for Tesla Motors)
Location: Echo Park – Los Angeles, California
Size: 800 square feet
Years lived in: 1 year

A good friend, Kathryn Bentley, suggested I tour Beatrice and Ramsey’s unique and well decorated Echo Park home. From the moment I walked through the door I knew their place was very special. There were no barriers between the indoor and outdoor areas. Beatrice welcomed us into her home and continued her hospitality with fresh ice tea and snacks. Our hostess is probably the most warm and hospitable person I have ever met and her home reflects that.

Beatrice can be quite traditional; tending to her home to create a beautiful space to come home to at the end of the day. I miss the days of hanging the clothes on the line, gardening fresh vegetables, and making homemade dishes for your family. She seems to do it all and you can definitely feel the love through her cooking. With such a warm home, it must be hard to get guests to leave.

Apartment Therapy Survey:

Our Style: This is our dream home. We try to make it simple and comfortable and full of beautiful objects and very special treasures we find along the way.

Inspiration: A connection with the outdoors and imagining what it would be like living in a foreign countryside.

Favorite Element: The wonderful breeze that comes through our windows and the beautiful view we enjoy while sitting on the veranda.

Biggest Challenge: Taking our time in making things look exactly how we want them to look. We tend to want to do too much too fast. Sometimes if you wait a little new inspiration can take you in a different unexpected direction.

What Friends Say: Our friends love the feeling of openness throughout our home. The feeling of being indoors and outdoors all at the same time.

Biggest Embarrassment: Our home office “the side room” has become a room to collect anything NOT beautiful. We have just started to design shelves for it and plan out a more functional use for it. We eventually want it to be a place we can sit and work from as well as house our books and other precious things.

Proudest DIY: Installing our windows and hanging our doors successfully.

Biggest Indulgence: We have no regrets about purchasing our dishwasher and refrigerator

Best Advice: Do what you want! IT IS YOUR HOUSE forget about the resale value!!

Dream Source: Architectural salvaged yards all over the city

Resources of Note:

APPLIANCES
We had a terrible experience buying our appliances, but they work great!

• Fisher&Paykel
  
• Miele

HARDWARE

• Silverlake Architectural Salvage
  
• The ReUse People

FURNITURE

• Baltic Crossroads
  
• Danish Teak Classics
  
• Silver Fox Salvage
  
• Ramsey Conder

ACCESSORIES

• Dream Collection
  
• South Willard
  
• Ikoiko Space
  
• Heather Levine
  
• Heath Ceramics

BEDS

• Melrose Trading Post

LIGHTING

• Silverlake Architectural Salvage
  
• Heather Levine
  
• The ReUse People

WINDOW TREATMENTS

• Taylor Brothers
  
• Stained Glass by David Scheid: Contact Kathryn Bentley

PAINT

• PAR Paint Company
  
• KT Color

TILES & STONE

• Casbah Cafe

FLOORING

• Resource Conservation Group

RUGS & CARPET

• Found on a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico

ARTWORK

• Hadley Holliday
  
• Arthur Ou
  
• Cherry and Martin
  
• Anna Sew Hoy
  
• David Korty Ceramics
  
• Rebecca Morris
  
• Eve Fowler
  
• Stan Bitters

Thanks, Beatrice & Ramsey!

Images: Juan Enriquez

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(Re-edited from a post originally published 8/26/2011 – N.M.)