This Apartment’s Art Deco Bathroom Color Combo Is Must-See

Name: Carolyn Seuthe
Location: Los Angeles, California
Size: 850 square feet
Years lived in: 1.5 years, renting

My apartment is a one-bedroom in the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Angeles, an area with a lot of incredible, historical properties. When I was looking for this apartment, I had just moved back to my hometown after four years in Washington, D.C., where I lived in one of those really giant, sterile-seeming apartment complexes. I wanted a place with a lot of character and charm, and was delighted when I found this Spanish Art Deco house, constructed in the late 1930s. I was immediately smitten with the tiny and precious kitchen, colorful tiles, arched doorways, high ceilings, and carefully preserved vintage details. The apartment felt authentic to the history of L.A. without being dated.

I’m a writer who mostly works from home so it was important for me to create a space that I would want to spend a lot of time in. That meant filling up the apartment with books and pottery and plants and crystals and overpriced candles that smell like burning protected redwoods as well as silly things I’ve made or collected. I don’t worry too much about things matching or fitting together. I think you can always find a home for something you love.

I also styled the place purposefully with a high-low mix. The blanket is Hermès and some of the blue and white ginger jars were splurges, but then the hot pink acrylic tray is from Party City and I drove to a warehouse in Gardena that sells giant, slightly-damaged clay pots at bargain prices to find something to house my fiddle leaf fig tree (affectionately named Christine Baranski).

What is your favorite room and why? I love every room, but I pretty much decided I was getting this apartment when I saw the bathroom, which is decked out in mint and lilac diamond tile. It’s the exact color scheme of a Polly Pocket set I had when I was little. It also makes me feel like a femme fatale in a Raymond Chandler novel, getting ready to hit the town with her red lipstick and ivory-grip pistol.

If you could magically change something about your home, what would it be? Central air. And I wish all the curtains were about two inches longer. I learned too late that the standard curtain size I was buying was a hair too short.

What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? First edition Renata Adler books from the Iliad, my favorite used bookstore in L.A., and abstract prints made by my friend Bo Hesslegrave of the creative design studio Bad Mood.

Any advice for creating a home you love? Layer your light, make weird choices, and remember that books are cheap art. I look for editions of my favorite books with cool and unique cover designs and display them around the apartment. I don’t think there’s anything prettier than a beautiful, well-loved book.

Thanks, Carolyn!

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