the highland park project

uiding our design of a hip Highland Park bungalow was the idea of indoor-outdoor living. The original house was a mere 480 square feet until flipster Matt Manner of Extraordinary Real Estate got ahold of it and worked his signature magic. It’s now 1,300 square feet of beautiful, with tall vaulted ceilings, a fully sliding patio door opening to a deck that’s really more of an outdoor room, and acacia hardwood floors throughout. We staged the place in two days, putting our hearts and souls into it — along with our best Mid Century modern pieces. Now it feels ready for a lucky person or couple to put their own stamp on.

A set of three windows reveal three original B&W photographs by Madison Modern Home’s own Rachel Moore.

The main hallway with a view to the huge sliding glass patio doors and outdoor deck.

On view as you enter the main living area is a small hallway, where we placed an MCM dresser (found on craigslist!). Atop it, a multi-colored vintage hand-blown glass vase display and a starburst mirror.

We found a dollar tree (ficus triangularis) at Mickey Hargitay’s nursery in Hollywood. Yes, he’s Mariska’s dad. Getting the 10-foot high tree into our van was interesting, to say the least. We had to wedge the pot into the space between the front seats and it took two of us to release the emergency brake! While we were staging, a bird flew into the room and took up temporary residence in the tree until he found the open door again.

A dark brown sofa with clean modern lines, a flokati rug and an MCM coffee table. The Plycraft (Eames-style) lounge chair and ottoman cozy up to a glassed-in corner atop a kilim rug and share space with IKEA’s KULLA floor lamp and a log side table.

We brought in IKEA’s MELLTORP table and paired it with red Tolix chairs and an Eames molded plastic dowel-leg chair. Along the wall, we created a banquette with a vintage church pew. Above, a wall of vintage African plateau baskets. We love the industrial lights with Edison bulbs waaaaay up high, from Home Decorator’s Collection.

We love the way the Eames molded chair breaks up the line of Tolix chairs.

We found the baskets at different times and at all types of vintage sources, but they work so well together. We like how their rusticity plays against the slick white and red surfaces of the table and chairs.

The eucalyptus log table was a last-minute find at The Snivling Sibbling, an Eagle Rock vintage shop (and one of our fave sources). As we were leaving the store, we spotted the log in the back. The owner sold it to us for $35! A little conditioning treatment oil was all it took to bring out the luster of the wood. We absolutely love that it’s on casters because it’s that much cuter.

We framed enlargements of some of Rachel’s original B&W San Francisco photos in simple IKEA RIBBA birch frames and put them in the living room. Good ol’ Kinkos (OK, so they want us call them FedEx Office now) will enlarge B&W prints for 75 cents a foot.

A lounge chair’s-eye view of the living room. The chair and ottoman need no more than a RENS sheepskin throw from IKEA for snuggling and a kilim rug underfoot.

A coffee-cup’s eye view toward the glass-wall corner and Plycraft (Eames-style) lounge chair.

A view into the living room from the hallway.

The MCM dresser fit perfectly into this alcove in the main hallway.

The kitchen’s flat front Italian style cabinetry plays off the warm acacia wood floor and butcher block counter tops. A manzanita branch, black accents and simple bar accessories on display.

A vintage lighted Michelob beer sign in the kitchen. Orange plates on a chalkboard tray below. The apron front farm sink features an articulated handle faucet.

The owner of The Snivling Sibbling gave us these vintage matchbooks for free because we shop there so much! A 1950s ashtray holds them neatly atop a stack of books, including The Art of the Bar.

The back deck is plenty large enough for IKEA’s FALSTER outdoor table and a set of four vintage chrome cantilever chairs found at — you guessed it — The Snivling Sibbling. We call the blue accent color on door of the finished garage “Hipster Blue” because of its prevalence in Extraordinary’s Eastside LA flip house remodels. Both the house and garage are painted a dark charcoal-brown that reminds us of 70% cacao chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s.

A view to the deck from the living room, illustrating the outdoors-in and indoors-out design philosophy of the home.

A bedroom is turned into an office/guest room, complete with MCM desk found at Pepe’s vintage furniture in Echo Park, an old desk lamp, a bentwood chair that we covered with flokati and a vintage Heathkit radio. USGS topographic maps are rolled up in an orange wire basket.

We put a frame cluster above a daybed with chenille cover. In the foreground, a graphic book opens to a colorful page.

A rope bundle atop a stack of books in the office.

Another bedroom is treated to a fresh white bed with a bold graphic pillow and black lamp. We painted the Swiss Army cross symbol on a large canvas.

Red, yellow, black and white repeat throughout the room. The tripod table is Mid Century vintage.

We styled a vintage modern table with graphic book covers, a Scandinavian print on canvas and a glove mold.

The powder room gets some needed storage in the form of an IKEA LACK unit filled with folded white towels and African artifacts. The cat photo is from the 1970s.

Even the laundry room got some attention with a wire laundry basket and Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products.

A 1988 David Hockney museum show print at the entrance to the master suite.

The master bedroom is a soft mix of muted and bright reds, black, white and warm yellow. We found the Cayenne Pedestal Side Table at Crate and Barrel, and the kilim rug is a vintage find on craigslist.

The master bedroom is reflected in the mirror.

We put four neat stacks of National Geographics together to form a table in the corner.

The master bath’s chevron rug and woven basket with rolled white towels and one Turkish towel.

Blue glass tiles in a random pattern that resembles a pixelated world map. We accented the room with rolled-up white hotel-style towels in an antique Chinese water bucket and a Picasso print on the wall.