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Los Feliz Oaks Residence

A mid-century house in the Hollywood Hills was updated to meet the standards of a modern family house while celebrating the qualities of the original.

Nestled in the Hollywood Hills

This mid-century modern house was restored and renovated by Dutton Architects. Our clients loved their home and property, but wanted a better flow for their family life, both within the house itself as well as a better indoor-outdoor connection to the front garden and back yard pool. The house has amazing canyon views, and is filled with lovely afternoon light. The clients have an amazing design sensibility and collect beautiful objects, furniture, books, art, and vinyl LP’s. (all photos by Undine Prohl. Interiors by Lauren Zuckerman)

“Down to the studs”

Completely reconfiguring the house allowed us to create logic and coherence to the rooms and flow. There is now a central hall that connects the entry area to the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. In this view, the full-height custom walnut casework separates the kitchen from the entry area.

A kitchen of light

The new kitchen is modern and utilitarian, modest yet open and spacious. The U-shaped counters face the views on one side, and bookended by a skylit wall of hand-cut blue ceramic tile. The long skylight over the back counter helps balance the light from the windows opposite, and gives a warm wash of light over the work space all day long.

The living room is connected to the rest of the house through the central hall, with views of the fireplace. The kitchen acts as the central area for family life.

“Dutton Architects rose to the occasion and satisfied all of our objectives while also imprinting their own unique style. They presented us with numerous schemes and helped us to iterate until we found the perfect solution. They also came up with numerous subtle–but ingenious solutions, such as reversing the orientation of a staircase to create better flow between levels in the house. John has assembled a wonderful team of professionals who are not only creative and inspired architects but warm and empathic. Every meeting we had was enjoyable and we have all remained friends.”

Entering through a garden pergola

A view of the entry from outside. One enters the house from under a pergola of hanging Petrea (Queens Wreath), and is immediately within a house of light. A large skylight over the wall at the end of the entry serves as both an art wall, and a way of welcoming you with light in a formerly dark area.

Entry hall a composition of wood and glass

A view of the entry from inside. A mid-century palette and simple modern graphic of warm walnut, textured glass, painted door, and stained wood door jambs.

The lower floor converted to a family room

The lower floor, half buried in the hillside and formerly divided up into small rooms, has been turned into a large family room. A long built-in bookcase runs the length of the back wall, containing thousands of vinyl records and books.

The flow of the staircase

A new staircase connects the upstairs to what was formerly more of a recreational basement/ lower floor.  The stair was repositioned to best allow our clients a more direct connection from the upstairs main floor to the back yard and pool area. The new stair location also opened up the lower floor for better usability.

Cascading stairs

The staircase appears to cascade down to the lower floor and be suspended from narrow white steel rods. The treads are solid white oak, stained to match the floor, and are thick enough to allow there to be no risers. A 14′ long skylight over the stair allows light to now come down into the lower floor.

Primary bedroom

The primary bedroom, with a modern Case Study bed, vintage George Nelson night tables,  and an Atollo table lamps.

Bathing in a garden

The primary bathroom opens up to a private garden and ample sunlight. A ‘wet-zone’ is denoted by mosaic marble.

The tub sits sits in the ‘wet zone’ of marble, next to the garden. Open the window and you’re almost bathing outside!

The guest bathroom with it’s full-height window to the garden. The shower/tub is defined by mosaic marble walls, and the vanity is a floating walnut cabinet with a white Caesarstone top.