Oh The Places I Have Been
And How They Shaped My Soul & The Soul of My Home
A Reluctant Nester
Ever since I can remember, I had a connection with Spanish houses and the Mediterranean. I remember being in Mexico as a kid and loving the tiles and the adobe, the simplicity and the elegance. When I got older I spent time on the islands of Rhodes and Malta.
Seamless indoor outdoor freedom and being surrounded with courtyard walls or open air tavernas, patios and private dining areas with a barefoot freedom going from tavernas to our cottage where we would sit outside looking at the water, eating watermelon, pistachios, drinking retsina. In my LA home, I don't have the water close by but we drink California wine, entertain, have bbqs and enjoy the settings I created to contain my wanderlust and transport my guests and myself to different places all at home in LA. The front garden is more Napa or Tuscan and the back Morocco or Mexico. This old house holds it well and lets me experiment without feeling disconnected from the roots of my favorite places.
Front Courtyard Mexico & Spain
A little Tuscany- I walked in a neighborhood in Florence and saw a family dining alfresco in a simple courtyard. I wanted that courtyard in my life. I found it. Not exactly Florence, but I use my imagination.
Influences from Provence, Mexico, Morocco and Italy
Gliding By Towns in Southern Europe On Trains Laundry Lines
Dotted The Village's Life Like Colorful Flags
Reeducating My Kitchen
The After Glow (see before below)
When I finally found a house in the middle of Los Angeles, it looked like a beautiful old house that was ruined by a Courtyard Marriott or Hampton Suites Hotel designer. I wanted to bring it back to a timeless Mediterranean home that would be relevant today, twenty years from now and fifty years ago. See Before Images of kitchen and breakfast room.
Before Pics- Kitchen and breakfast room
I was always in love with Spanish after spending time in Mexico as a girl in San Miguel de Allende and Manzanillo. I would have stayed in Mill Valley or Larkspur and even found my dream house in San Rafael, but it sold immediately before going on caravan. The house I thought I was in love with was not meant for me. I ultimately found this house back in my native LA on a whim. The house was ruined by the previous owner and I had to reeducate it with love. The main reason I bought it was because the name of the street was the same as my beloved Jack Russell Terrier and I saw it as a sign. I wanted a home and hearth where I could nurture a garden, and have simple serenity in the midst of the city. After renting for years and having to move several times, I thought I would import the best of places I love such as Provence, Mexico, Malta, Tuscany and mix it up. Clean, simple and evocative of places that made an imprint on my life from travel. I wanted to live in a hotel in the South of France or Italy and in this climate, I had choices. So over time and on a budget, I let the architecture, slowly evolve the place through its bones and experimenting with interior design.
Tables and Dining
Bar Carts Masculine Meets Feminine My Pink
Dining Room Walls
La Chambre With Hints of San Francisco Days
My Acquisitions From The Bay & Morocco
A Nod to Heath Ceramics of Sausalito
The Moroccan Back yard
Links to places I love On Slow Life's
