An Eccentric Pop of Blue Accents an Introspective Home in Los Angeles
Architect Barbara Bestor layers surprises throughout the home, which she designed to fit within the partial footprint of an existing cottage.
Architect Barbara Bestor layers surprises throughout the home, which she designed to fit within the partial footprint of an existing cottage.
"The idea of that element of color is to draw your eye up and through the opening," says architect Barbara Bestor, describing the bright blue volume that rises playfully—like a tiny house on top of a house—from the second story of the residence she designed for a mother and son in the Venice neighborhood of L.A.
"I love the houses of Mexico City and the way Luis Barragán uses layering and bold, immersive color. That was a big inspiration." With its otherwise dark gray exterior and simple rectilinear shape, the structure, set back from a high wood fence, has an inward-looking but idiosyncratic demeanor that sets it apart from other new construction in the area.
Along a stretch of bungalows and boxy new developments in Los Angeles’s Venice neighborhood, architect Barbara Bestor inserted a modern villa within the footprint of an old house purchased as a teardown. Preserving two walls of the previous single-story structure, Bestor designed a new, two-story wood-frame house crowned by a large skylit bathroom with its own expressive rooftop.
Photo by Yoshihiro Sergel
"What I like about Barbara is that she’s obviously very modern, but she’s also a little bit quirky," says homeowner Melina Polly, cofounder with Michelle Pfeiffer of the fragrance company Henry Rose. "I wanted a modern aesthetic, but I didn’t want just another stark white box."
The 1,847-square-foot home, which rises where a single-story cottage once stood, takes advantage of the relatively temperate Venice climate, calmed by breezes from the ocean. Bestor preserved the cottage’s front wall, which now encloses a patio around the entry and provides shade and privacy for the glass-walled living area.
Inside the brightly colored home, walls of glass stretch along two sides of the lower level. The dining area features a Gather Table by Jacob Plejdrup for dk3, along with Wishbone dining chairs by Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen & Søn from Design Within Reach.
Photo by Yoshihiro Sergel
In the living area, a sofa from Hay faces a platform sofa from dk3, with a coffee table from Muuto set in between. The floor tiles are from Concrete Collaborative, and the wall paint is Atrium White by Benjamin Moore.
Photo by Yoshihiro Sergel
See the full story on Dwell.com: An Eccentric Pop of Blue Accents an Introspective Home in Los Angeles
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