“As a costume designer I loved taking on the challenge of creating a moody, fun space out of a plain white box with two windows. This was a far cry from the neutral cottage I owned on the East Coast, with views staring lovingly into a creek and the woods beyond,” Sue explains. “My daughter challenged me to use color; I challenged myself to use pattern. How much pattern does it take to return a room to peace? After closing the door to my East Coast home and all its furnishings I began again using primarily vintage finds. Turns out this space makes me genuinely happy. I love Lemonade.”

“As a 58-year-old woman I feel the winds of change blowing. I have always done the ‘right thing’ and I think this apartment is a little rebellious. That is what I do now: challenge myself to be more rebellious and use the time we have here in exciting ways. Layering so much pattern was new and uncomfortable, but I loved the challenge. When the kids were young the only request they had was no ‘flower pictures.’ Now I indulge my love of little floral oil paintings, including one that was a movie prop from the 1940s. Green, blue, and lilac are my favorite color combinations. It always feels a bit like a rainstorm. So when I designed my sofa and also my bedroom, I remembered that this was really just for me and leaned all the way in.”

Sue says she loves how her living room came together, and that thanks to layout it’s essentially a “great room that includes the kitchen, but the lounge space feels like it beckons you to come sit, have a bourbon, and talk the night away.” The star of the living room is the sofa, which is made up of three pieces of a Milo Baughman pit sofa that she says was in “terrible” shape. So she worked with @hilobrooklyn to recreate the sofa. “The best part of the day was when the latest stack of fabric samples would arrive and I could play. With Laura’s guidance and magic we created this sofa, and I am obsessed!

Other secondhand gems in the home are the 1970s-era teak live-edge coffee table Sue “bartered for in Hudson, NY. I kept texting the vendor at The Antique’s Warehouse that I was busy doing all kinds of crazy things to earn enough to buy the table. Eventually he wrote back that he thought I was so funny I just had to it. He asked what I could pay and we struck a deal.”

She reports that the gentleman’s dresser is a “Kaiyo purchase and I had to drive to New Jersey to pick it up … only to immediately load it into a pod for the move. I guess some of these things could have been done once I got to California, but when you find a piece that moves you then you just go for it and figure the rest out later. The room feels like a collage of things that should not work together, but ultimately they do and they make each other better for it. If only we all did that.”

• Leather Chair — CB2
• Sofa — HiLo Brooklyn
• Area Rug — Etsy
• Little Black Chair — Cedros in San Diego
• Marble-Top Table — My Great-Grandmother
• Black Pendant Light — Amazon
• Gentleman’s Dresser — Kaiyo
• Yellow Woven Blanket — Hudsontricity

• Barstools — Amazon

• Curtain Rod — Amazon
• Linen Duvet — Etsy
• Bed — Wayfair
• Mirror — Target
• Bookshelf — Target (unavailable)
• Reading Light — The World of RH

Thanks, Sue!

This tour’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.

Share your style: House Tour & House Call Submission Form