In the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, architect Barbara Bestor has transformed an ordinary 1940s house into a deeply personal abode that she loves to call home.
“I would describe it as no-name mid-century architecture,” Ms. Bestor, 59, described the boxy structure. After purchasing it in 2011, she tore down many walls to open up the interior and later added more bedrooms in the basement and in the former garage. She then filled it with paint, vintage furniture, and art and objects collected over many years.
The architect raised two daughters in the house, who eventually grew up and moved out. “But they say, ‘Don’t move. Don’t sell the house. We want the house in our family,'” Ms. Bestor said. “So I’ll just stay here. I really like it and it really works.”
In particular, she noted that she could avoid stairs and live on the main level, where there was an open kitchen, dining and living room, as well as a single bedroom. When her friends and her daughters’ friends come to visit, she still has plenty of space to entertain.
Even after living there for 15 years, she continues to change and adapt the interior design. She recently highlighted some favorite things in her kitchen and dining area.
Easy upgrade
DIY painted bulletin board, about $100 in materials from hardware stores
For one of her plywood-paneled walls, Ms. Bestor made a custom bulletin board to display a rotating collection of personal paper items, from family photos to bumper stickers. “I wanted to have a place to plug in,” she said. “It serves as a record of things I like: postcards, pictures of my kids, better holiday invitations, all sorts of things. I change it out often and there are layers to it.”
Ms. Bestor made the bulletin board out of Homasote, a cellulose fiberboard also known as a soundboard, and a wooden frame, all of which she painted Benjamin Moore Bumble Bee Yellow.
She matched the size of the board and the thickness of the wooden frame to a framed piece of art by Geoff McFetridge that she already owned. She then mounted the two pieces on either side of a door for symmetry.
Now the bulletin board is visible every time she cooks on the kitchen island, reminding her of past experiences.
Treat yourself
Slab dining table, $3,994 at Tom Dixon
Ms. Bestor said she put up with a dining room table for years that didn’t work particularly well. The pink-painted table had a long, narrow rectangular top and a base that always got in the way when she tried to accommodate guests at the ends. So whenever she hosted dinner parties, it was “difficult to accommodate enough people,” she said.
She recently decided to upgrade and chose this oak table by British designer Tom Dixon. “I like the color of the wood,” she said. “It’s a matte oak and goes really well with blue things above it,” including her favorite tableware, the cobalt-colored Valencia series from Finnish company Arabia.
But more importantly, the table top is wider, the legs don’t get in the way, and the rounded corners make it easier to accommodate additional chairs. “I recently did a fundraiser for Nithya Raman,” said Los Angeles mayoral candidate Ms. Bestor, “and there were about 15 people there.” That wouldn’t have been possible with her old table, she noted: “I can kind of crush people in there.”
Unique
Vintage ceramic hippo, $350 at Hedge
While Ms. Bestor was working on a project at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif., she visited the vintage furniture store Hedge in nearby Cathedral City and fell in love with this turquoise ceramic hippopotamus. “I just think it’s so damn cute,” she said.
Although its origins were unclear, she believed it was reminiscent of Italian manufacturer Bitossi’s blue mid-century modern ceramics. The unfortunate thing was that the hippopotamus wasn’t actually for sale.
“It was on her desk” as a decoration, she said. When she asked if she could buy it, “they said, ‘No, we like the hippopotamus,'” she recalls. But she persisted and eventually convinced the owners to sell it to her. Now it is always on display in her kitchen.
“I really love the aesthetic of my youth,” Ms. Bestor said. “I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Design Research era of the 1970s,” she said, noting that the hippopotamus reminds her of the influential store that offered colorful, inspiring furniture and objects for contemporary living.
“It’s cheerful,” Ms. Bestor said, which fits her vision for her home. “My personal aesthetic is optimistic modernism.”