reconstruction

After three months of tearing apart the garden at the Alviso house, we’ve finally begun to build it back up again.   Springtime renewal is the name of the game around here.  It is pretty darned exciting.

First item on the reconstruction list was the deck.

We designed a deck that floats off the house and is accessible through the laundry and studio doors.

The redwood is termite resistant and it has a beautiful grain when sealed.

Here's the after photo.  Drew added a step into the laundry door for Ruby.

One of the things we were most committed to was re-purposing the concrete (there is SO MUCH of it) from the old garden into the new one.  So after the deck had a couple of coats of sealant, Drew started placing the recycled concrete pads to create the path around the garden.  We'll fill the gaps in with more soil and grow some mosses and small grasses there so that its green.

Who knew that chunks of old concrete could be so beautiful!

And did I mention that we have kick-ass friends who were willing to spend the day in the dirt, removing a giant patch of the grass in the backyard and helping to construct the redwood boxes for the vegetable garden?  I hope to be able to reward them handsomely when the garden starts to produce.

I've got 3 types of tomatoes, 2 eggplants, strawberries, hot and sweet peppers, squash, green beans, zucchini and cucumbers, carrots and radishes in these 2 5'X5' boxes. 

 

Old wooden flower boxes re-imagined as the salad garden.  I love coming outside to pick leaves just before we eat them.   Faves are the red romaine and the "freckles" spotted lettuce.

 So.

There is still a stack of concrete pads, brick, rocks and rubble to contend with, and a corner of the backyard is made uninhabitable by bamboo, but I am determined to worry about those things later.  I am ready for cocktails and dinner and parties and picnics on the patio all summer long.

in the dirt

It has been a time of destruction in the backyard.

Here's what it looked like the day we got our keys:

The view from inside the side gate to the far back corner of the backyard. 

The house we bought was given a 6 week makeover by a house flipping company. The flippers spent all of their landscaping budget on generic curb appeal and on cleaning and pruning the giant rubber tree in the front yard.  When it came to the back of the house, well, they ran out of steam and that turned out to be okay with us.  The back garden was overgrown,  but large and bright.  We could see that there was some great stuff already there, but knew we'd have to do a LOT of pruning and cutting and digging and cleaning before we could begin to create anything like what we envisioned. 

Drew started the whole process by attacking the giant pink bougainvillea that filled the entire back corner and completely obscured the neighbor's garage wall.  Over the last month he's been removing chunks of flowers and leaves and dead vines and thorns, just enough each week to fill the green waste bin and get the debris out of the garden.   Its now completely gone - cut to the ground and ready to grow back only in the spots that we want it.

Bamboo removal is a trickier endeavor, so Drew spent many hours over the course of several weekends cutting through a wall of plants 3 feet deep and 8 feet tall, leaving giant piles of bamboo waiting to to be cut into chunks and deposited into the green bin.

Our neighbor's garage and our back wall are now visible.

Bamboo - some as tall as 10' - ready for reuse elsewhere in the garden.

The big bottle brush tree was next.  It started out like this:

Another overgrown bouganvillea next to an even more overgrown bottle brush tree.

 Here's what it looks like now:

A lovely canopy and a view of the neighbor's cypress trees.  And I can't wait to paint a mural on the side of the garage.

I had every intention of completely removing the teeny lime tree placed randomly near the middle of the backyard, but it was in bloom when we started demoing and it smelled too good to cut down.  It has been so happy since being pruned that it has started producing tasty little fruit again.  I will be making Margaritas.  And ceviche.

The lime tree is covered with sweet-smelling blooms and the bees who love them so.

The giant aluminum awning.  It had to go.  Luckily it was no match for Drew and Fred.  They unbolted it from the concrete, pulled it down and cut it into pieces.   It took them about 2 hours, beginning to end.   The scrap metal guys took the remnants away and its almost as if it never existed.   Now the back yard is a lot sunnier.

Two men and a Sawz-all.

At last, it was time for the concrete.  I have been dying to remove it from the moment we got our keys.   A jackhammer was rented.  Luckily, there was no rebar inside, so the big pad was was broken into paver-sized pads that we'll use elsewhere in the rebuilding of the patios and paths. 

Two men and a jackhammer.

It looks like a bomb exploded here, but all I can see are the possibilities.

Its been a blur of happy change and it is so exciting to have the garden in a really raw state.  The reconstruction, which we've already begun to plot and plan, is going to be even more fun.

Happy spring.  Enjoy the transformation!

what a difference a month makes

I am my own client these days.

I should mention that Drew and I have been on the hunt for a larger house since July, so much of my focus in the second half of 2012 was finding it.  Like every other buyer, I had my list of the things, necessary and desirable, to make the house work for our lives. 

Well.  Let's just say that I was completely unprepared for how overwhelming and stressful the hunt and the process of buying would be.  

The market here in Los Angeles is absurdly competitive.  Low inventory plus our modest (at least, for L.A.) budget equals a LOT of hustle.  Liza, our  rock star agent, got us in to see houses in many, many neighborhoods the very moment they went on the market.  If we liked a place, she'd often already be writing the offer before we were out the door.

 In total, we toured about 50 homes, made offers on 5 of them.  We were outbid by buyers with cash a few times and we turned down a couple of accepted offers when the places (and the sellers) didn't seem right.  In the end we got our little piece of Los Angeles, and to say that we are lucky is an understatement. 

This is what I see as I come down the hill on La Brea Ave.  Its a whole new view of Los Angeles after a decade at the beach.

We moved in on December 30, 2012 and hit the ground running.  I’ve been working on the layout, the furniture, draperies, and organization since the moment we got our keys, and what a difference a month or so of actually living here makes.  Not only have I been doing my best to make the new stuff work with what we brought from our last house, I've been figuring out this house's quirks, meeting the neighbors and figuring out my new 'hood.  I’m starting to dig in and work out the design for each space inside (We need paint and wallpaper and flooring and tile and SO much more) as well as the back and front gardens (can't wait to get the tomatoes into the ground).  This house has lots of what feels like luxuries to a city dweller used to living in small spaces (like a big backyard and a guest room for all of the out of towners we’ll have visiting).  Both Drew's and my parents have visited from afar and we've hosted two big gatherings for visiting family in this very first month.  Now that I know we can throw a good party here it feels like home. 

I'm loving the open concept and the corner windows in the dining room.

Bay windows in the guest room look out
 at the big tree.

Guest room drapery fabric.

This is the "before" photo, taken the day we got our keys.  Whether the giant rubber tree stays or goes is a matter of great debate right now.

One of of our main search criteria was a space for my studio, and I'm in totally in love with my new spot.  The new MMD HQ is bright and open with a view of the palm trees and bamboo in the backyard.  Its been energizing to start the year doing for myself what I do for clients. 

My desk is still messy, but now with a much better view.

The banana table finds a home in the studio.

The great wall of graphic art has begun.

So.  Now I'm home and I've got a place to do my work.  I am ridiculously excited to get down to it, and watch this place transform in the year to come.

Something else I should mention is the design shop I've been curating on Project Decor.  If you're even a little interested in home design, join the party and you'll have access to great stuff chosen by designers like me.  You can check out my store here: Melissa Mascara's Design Shop


Happy, lucky 2013.

a chair is still a chair

This is post about chairs.  Just chairs.  Is it wrong that I love them so?

When I'm designing for a client, I always make sure that I ask which items from their current design they'd like me to incorporate into the new design.   I've had a couple of clients who happily purged everything and one who would surrender nothing.  Most have just one item that they can't bear to part with, and its almost always a beloved armchair.  So.  My guess, and its somewhat educated, is that everyone else loves chairs, too. 

There are quite a few that I just can't get out of my head.

The Union Jack chair from Voila! Studios here in Los Angeles is so, so beautiful and eco-friendly. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw these chalk sketches on at DWELL on Design.

Chalk sketches on the big wall.

  The finished product is just as much a work of art.

The Union Jack Chair

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to see "The House that Sam Built" exhibit at the Huntington Library.  I didn't know much about Sam Maloof before I saw the show, but I was happy to discover the extraordinary number of beautiful things he made and the wonderful home he built with his wife.  Now I can't help but see his influence in the work of many of my favorite designers. 

A Sam Maloof chair.

When I saw this chair I couldn't help but see the homage to Sam.  I love it all, from the tone and sheen of the wood, to the neo-retro upholstery.  This is a piece that immediately becomes an heirloom.

Modern Sam

A super-luxe chair designed by a student designer at Otis College of Art and Design.  Lovely.

A fabulous student design.

Extra points for these outdoor chairs designed by Damian Velasquez. They're metal, but they don't heat up when they sit in the sun.  The seat has lots of flex, so its super comfortable.  They stand up to rain and snow and cold, too.  Perfect no matter where you live.

metal mesh club chair

metal mesh slipper chair

 The Tyson chair from Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams is my go to.  Its the right scale for any room and has a soft shape.  I've recently used pairs of these chairs in a house in Las Vegas upholstered with Greek key fabric and in a home in Philadelphia upholstered in stone colored suede.  So different, so perfect for each space, so epically comfortable.

The Tyson chair in smoky suede.

A pair of Tyson chairs designed for a client's Las Vegas living room.

Do you have a favorite chair?  I'd love to hear all about it. 

This is Why

Most of the time I love where I live.   Everyone is curious about Los Angeles, especially if they’ve never been here, but the curiosity is usually tempered with a little bit of distaste.  “Why do you live there?”  is something I get asked quite often. “Isn’t L.A. crowded?  Expensive?  Dangerous?  Don’t you get sick of the pace, the competitive energy, the plastic people?  Isn’t the artifice and excess of the entertainment industry too much?”

Yes.

Sometimes this city is completely exhausting.  I get sick of driving everywhere.  I wait in line almost everywhere I go.  There is crime and violence here.  The very rich live perilously close to the very poor and nobody blinks an eye.  A numbing barrage of advertising and imagery and noise and smells dominate the everyday.  Everyone is hustling for their little bit, and people can be pretty mean.

I often need a reminder.

It is overwhelming. The bigness, messiness, craziness of L.A. begins to take over, and suddenly I find myself thinking that anywhere is better than here.  Why do I live here?

I used to think that I felt this way because I am an introvert or a misanthrope, but now I don’t think that’s why.  I think that what really happens is that I stop seeing what’s all around me.  It is exactly that – all around me -- and I begin to take this place for granted because I DO live here. 

Hope she finds a good home when the building is finished. 

 Nearly a decade has gone by since I first began my life as an Angelino, and some days I forget that not everyone has almost endless sunshine.  I forget that there are places where there are little or no opportunities to do and be whatever or whomever.   I forget that the diversity here, the seemingly infinite combination of cultures, is a challenge (in the best way) and a comfort every day.  I forget how beautiful this place is - the murals and architecture and palm trees and flowers that are endlessly stimulating.  I forget that the  Pacific ocean is a quick bike ride from where I live and work.  I forget that there are people here who live and love and create the way that I do.  I forget.

Then I take a walk around my neighborhood, and I am reminded.  I am inspired.  

I ride my bicycle past this one several times a week.  Its hard not to smile when I see it.

Yes please.

In the alley outside Glencrest Bar-B-Que.  What artists manage to create with spray paint is astonishing.

This is why I live here.  This is why.

The Catalyst

 

I am a sucker for a well designed room.  Its absolutely true.  I immediately begin mentally moving myself in, getting a buzz from the color, light and flow of the space.  All of the pretty stuff aside, good design also comes with a disorienting, wonderful rush of change.  I am a big fan of letting go of old stuff and ideas just to shake things up from time to time.  I'm a bigger fan of investing (some consideration as well as the cash) in a space to make it the best it can be.  I'd like to think that I design from exactly this place.  Let's shake things up.  Let's get inspired by something new.  Plus, its Spring, the season of cleaning and organizing and rebirth. This time of the year always gets me primed for change.  I love it even more when I can be the catalyst for someone else.

I've been crazy busy, and although I spend a good chunk of my time in my studio sending emails, taking meetings, or making endless phone calls,  I’m also out in the world meeting people who make stuff and witnessing the transformation at all of the homes I'm designing.  Three projects are happening -- all at different stages of the design process.  Each home is as different as the cities they're in and the people who inhabit them.  All of them, houses and people, are ready for change.

The living room in Los Angeles is in the final stages, with only paint and art left to happen there. 

This grey suede sectional tucks right into an odd corner of the living room  Its also super-comfy and great for the family that lives on it because it is easy to clean.  My client has a great eye and found a beautiful vintage coffee table (not pictured) on Ebay.  A few more pillows in some cool fabrics are on their way, too.

HUDSON BAY

The paint on both walls will be Benjamin Moore’s Hudson Bay.  It’s a deep lagoony blue that will cool down this really sunny corner.

@ Stansbury Collection in Venice

  

When I'm designing a house near the beach (this one has a view), I like to include some art work about the ocean.  I'm in love with these beautiful large scale surf photos that I found here in Venice.  2 or 3 of these in a couple of different sizes will look great on the big blue walls.  

The home I'm working on in Las Vegas has just begun its transformation.  Paint is on the walls, rooms have been defined and new furniture, lighting and art are on the way.  We've begun to fill the house with the client's personal things, re frame his family photos and hang some of his art.

The Library as it looked before.

The Library as it looks with velvety chocolate brown paint and some of the client's exiting furniture and art.  Soon it will have draperies, lighting and floating shelving on both sides of the fire place to turn it into a proper library. 

A couple of the client's beautiful pieces of art in a red niche opposite the formal dining room.  We've had one of the walls in the dining room painted this same yummy color.

In 2010, I designed a guest apartment just outside Philadelphia.  It has a slick and efficient little kitchen that is filled with beautiful surfaces.

Pretty and functional apartment kitchen.

Quartz counter tops and recycled glass tile back splash.

 

Wide bamboo floors and glossy smoke-colored cabinets with brushed metal hardware.

I'm happy to say I've just begun doing a little work on the big house attached to the cute little apartment.  First task is choosing the same sort of surfaces for some other spots in the house.  I love the beginning of this process almost as much as the final result.  So looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.  

Embrace the change.  Happy Spring!


Melissa

Yes, We Have Christmas Here

A couple of years ago, I was visiting family in Pennsylvania and the subject of the weather here in  Los Angeles came up.  My five year-old nephew was shocked to find out that it doesn't snow here.
His first question was: "Do you have Christmas?"
"Of course we do", I said, "It just looks a little different."

Despite the lack of snow, there are no shortage of giant, inflatable lawn Santas, icicle lights, blinky stars and mechanical reindeer all over my neighborhood. Its also absolutely true that the norm around here is a little more offbeat.  Here are the 2011 highlights:

This year, as with many years past, my favorite Christmas tree is at the entrance to the parking lot at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica.  The tree is made entirely from shopping carts and is super fab, especially at night when it is all lit up. Every time I drive, ride or walk by this tree it makes me happy.  Turns out that it is the scaled-down version of an installation created by artist Anthony Schmitt a few years ago.  You can see some photos of the big tree here http://shoppingcarttree.com/. 

Runner up goes to the giant orange wreath that hangs on the Venice Canals home of architect Whitney Sander and designer Catherine Holiss.   From a distance (say, across the canal) it is a great size and lovely modern color and it looks really soft.  Not until I was close did I notice that the wreath is made entirely of plastic construction site fencing.  It is perfect on the glass and steel house and such an unexpected material.  I love it when people manage to surprise me!

There is nothing groundbreaking about the little tree in the row boat, but I absolutely had to include it.  To me, it embodies the spirit of living in Venice as well as the sense of humor that most of us have to have to live here.  I hope it makes you smile, too.

Happy Christmas.