A 1926 Spanish-Style Los Angeles Home With a Modern Twist

For this makeover, designer Alison Koch shopped only local LA stores.

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Sometimes you don’t know what you want until you find it. Josh Zetumer and Betsy Koch were in the market for a midcentury home when they came across a 1926 Spanish-style property in the Los Feliz hills. Despite it not fitting squarely into their expectations, the family of three fell in love with the home. “The house was in incredible shape for it’s age, the rooms bright, well laid out and proportionate,” says Zetumer, “so no gut renovation was needed.”

Tapping interior designer Alison Koch of Outfit Home, they were able to bring their midcentury aesthetic into the space, removing wrought-iron finishings and softening spaces throughout the home.

The designer let her instincts and the bones of the house dictate the design instead of vice versa. “Instead of going into this process with a preconceived style in mind, we really found eclectic pieces the fit their lifestyle and space,” says Alison.

“With original hardwood floors in a dark stain, we chose soft colorful vintage rugs from Lawrence of La Brea to brighten things up and kept the upholstery and drapery in neutral linens,” she adds.

Zetumer is partial to blue and orange so hints of these colors in rugs, upholstery, and lighting throughout the house. Farrow and Ball Wimborne White with blue-black Railings as the base and trim are the main colors of the common areas.

The dining area features a Petersen Antiques kitchen table, midcentury LA dining room chairs. and a JF Chen orange accent light.

The living room features a modern Nordic aesthetic with Swedish leather chairs from JF Chen and Noho Modern custom linen midcentury sofas.

Since Zetumer is a screenwriter, having a screening room (“so cozy” says Alison) with a fully retractable screen was important; the room boasts Holland and Sherry ocher black out drapes and a Lawson Fenning moroccan rug.

The dining room was transformed into a gentleman’s game room with chalkboard walls, a ping pong table, and antique theater seats from Rehab Vintage. The chalkboard material repeats in an unexpected location: master bedroom bedroom, where it’s featured in a custom chalkboard frame—a nice contrast to the the Farrow and Ball Skylight wall color. The bedroom look is completed with L7 vintage light fixtures and Empiric mismatched metal bedside tables.

In the nursery, they had a little fun with prints. “We used wallpaper to brighten up the nursery, it’s covered in an adorable Abnormals Anonymous blue giraffe wallpaper,” says Alison. “And the nursery bathroom is in Abnormals Anonymous gold monkeys.”

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