A Record Label Cofounder Cues Up a Second Take for a Hollywood Hills Midcentury
Local design studio The Curator used earth tones and handmade finishes to compose a wabi-sabi revamp for Sean Famoso and his tiny goldendoodle, Hellcat.
Local design studio The Curator used earth tones and handmade finishes to compose a wabi-sabi revamp for Sean Famoso and his tiny goldendoodle, Hellcat.
When Sean Famoso, cofounder of LVRN Records, started searching for a second home in Los Angeles, he knew exactly what he was—and wasn’t—looking for. Having grown up in a Craftsman house in Atlanta, he was set on finding a midcentury with warmth and character rather than a minimalist white box. "I wanted a house with a soul of its own," he says.
While transforming a 1950 Hollywood Hills home into his ideal bachelor pad, Sean Famoso wanted to create an open plan without sacrificing warmth or character.
Photo: Emanuel Hahn
When he put in a bid for a 2,022-square-foot Hollywood Hills home built in 1950 by architects Armet & Davis, he initially lost out to another buyer. But as luck would have it, the two-bedroom, three-bathroom house went back on the market almost immediately—albeit for an additional $200,000. Charmed by its floor-to-ceiling views of the city and the ample surrounding parking, Sean swooped in to close the deal.
"The challenge was updating the house without removing its roots, which was something that Sean was very much keen on," says Thayná Alves and Taryn Echeverry of the L.A. design studio The Curator. Consequently, designer Christopher Cahill of CASC Design Inc. made only a few architectural interventions. The art hanging in the stairway is by Milo Matthieu.
Photo: Emanuel Hahn
Sean envisioned the house—which he calls "Before Brentwood"—as his final bachelor pad before he ultimately settles down in a tony L.A. neighborhood a bit farther west. He commissioned Christopher Cahill of CASC Design Inc. to knock out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, but he left the original layout largely intact. "My biggest pet peeve is when people find the most beautiful home and modernize it beyond belief," Sean explains.
Cahill opened the kitchen to the dining area, while Alves and Echeverry took a wabi-sabi approach to the interiors with textured tile and plaster. The palette mixes earth tones with splashes of color, as seen in the kitchen’s custom, handmade cobalt-blue pendants. The hue was inspired by the vessel in the corner by Toronto ceramist Tamara "Solem" Alissa. Pierre Jeanneret chairs surround a handmade plaster dining table.
Photo: Emanuel Hahn
See the full story on Dwell.com: A Record Label Cofounder Cues Up a Second Take for a Hollywood Hills Midcentury
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