A Former Carriage House (Next to a Castle) Is an Amazing Bohemian Rental Home

Name: Anna Healy (I’m alone in the guest house, but four friends live in the adjacent castle.)
Location: Laurel Canyon neighborhood of the Hollywood Hills — Los Angeles, California
Type of home: Guest house
Size: 950 square feet
Years lived in: 13 years, renting

Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: 125 years ago Hollywood’s elite parked their horses in my house. At the time, the corner lot where I live in Laurel Canyon was a sprawling estate owned by Bela Lugosi (Hollywood’s first Dracula) and Clara Bow (the Lindsay Lohan of the silent film era). My two-story, A-frame bungalow was the carriage house for their party guests. Today, the estate has been sectioned off into four homes, and the barn has been converted into a narrow cabin. Adjacent to my bungalow is a dilapidated castle (complete with a spire, serious plumbing issues, and a soaring 25-foot ceiling), where Clara Bow and Bela Lugosi were known for having ménage à trois (according to tabloid books from Hollywood’s golden age).

At 950 square feet, my space is small and unique, filled with antiques, refurbished items and artwork. By day I work as a curator but by night I get down with spray paint and circular saws. Complete with a vintage oven from the ’50s, a steel tub from the ’20s, cacti, and artwork I bought while living in Indonesia, my space is a collage of cultures and styles.

I tried to honor the Victorian farmhouse vibes, while bringing my own Caribbean color palette. The A-frame bedroom looks out onto a jungle of trees and vines. Lying there feels like being in my old place in Indonesia, or my childhood home in the backwoods of Maine. I feel very lucky to have found a small corner of Los Angeles with an old house in the woods. The moment I walked through the doors of the castle for a Craigslist interview 13 years ago, I knew that I’d come home. Four of my close friends live in the castle next door. We’ve shared the “joys and tribulations of living in a historical space” (as my landlord puts it) for almost a decade.

What is your favorite room and why? The kitchen has my heart. My favorite thing about it are the notes on the wall: recipe cards from my grandmother and her friends, in the 1950s in Eastport, Maine. One of them is even by my father’s high school principal. Judging from these handwritten recipes for chicken cordon bleu, baklava, and beef stroganoff, Eastern Maine must have been a culinary hot spot in 1950. Of the six recipe cards, two are for seafood casserole. Someday I’m going to make both versions of the seafood casserole for a party and see which wins.

Like the recipe cards, my stove is also a relic from days gone by. I’ve actually found it listed on an antiques website. This blue O’Keefe & Merritt stove from the ’50s comes complete with a baking chart, notating temperature and baking time for staples like soufflés (225° for 45-60 minutes), meringue pies (300 ° for 20-25 minutes), and angel food cake (375° for 35-45 minutes). If I ever leave this rental, the stove will be coming with me.

The base of the kitchen table I found in a junk yard. It’s antique and steel. I carried it out to my car then took it home and refinished it. The kitchen is quite small, so I needed something I could fit in the corner, or pull outside if I was having a summer dinner party.

Any advice for creating a home you love? My bungalow has nooks and crannies, a very narrow living room, sloped A-frame ceilings, and not a single level surface. Decorating the space meant sawing down the legs on my bed and dresser, learning how to use a sander, and memorizing the dimensions that I was trying to fit furniture into. I love bringing out the vibe of my space and going on a decor-adventure with it. Fit your stuff to the space, not the other way around.

Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: DIY Bohemia, Pastel Carriage House, Jungalow swag