Architecture Wednesday: Topanga Canyon Craftsman

This home sits in the heart of Topanga Canyon, a stunning craftsman-style home on over half an acre.

The home is a combination of warm redwood and walls of glass showcasing the best of canyon living. From the front door, you enter the living room, a space flooded with natural light and framed by elegant beamed ceilings and a classic brick fireplace.

A large dining room and open kitchen, with spacious outside entertainment spaces just steps away, make it perfect for hosting, while off the dining room is a sunroom with built-in reading nook. The second floor is the primary retreat with a spacious bath, vaulted ceilings, a stone fireplace, and French doors overlooking the lush backyard with pool, an outdoor kitchenette, and a spacious dining area.

You can’t beat the views and the sense of privacy!

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Architecture Wednesday: Altadena Craftsman Compound

First off, while this house is located in Altadena, a check through local websites doesn’t show that it was lost in the recent wildfires in California …

This  Craftsman compound—a main, original home, and two ADU’s on the back of the property—presents a multitude of possibilities to live, work, create, invest, and host. Framed by two majestic California live oaks on a rare 75-foot-wide, 12,000 square foot lot it offers three unique homes, each one reimagined with the utmost attention to detail, including white oak floors, custom red oak cabinetry, custom millwork details throughout, and a cohesive color story inspired by the main residence’s distinct Arts & Crafts motif wallpaper from Bradbury & Bradbury.

The primary residence employs an atmospheric color palette, rich materials, and a variety of unexpected textures ranging from the original red brick to breccia antica marble. There is original woodwork throughout, a fireplace in the living room, a rustic, though modernized, kitchen, along with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Out back there are two guest cottages that feature vaulted ceilings, an open plan living room and kitchen area, one bathroom, and a large bedroom with office space; these cottages can be used as rental income for tenants, guests, office space, art space, studio space, or whatever one my fantasize; and out behind each guest house is a covered patio and firepit area.

It’s perfect to live in and rent out the back houses to help with the mortgage  … or, in light of what’s happened in Altadena, offer the spaces up to those who did lose their homes.

As always, click to emBIGGERate ...

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Architecture Wednesday: The Maly-Smith Residence

I had never heard of such a thing: a Swiss-Chalet style Craftsman. But this one, built by Naldo Francis Stokes in 1908, offers gracious, living in a three-level home. Stokes' work incorporated finishes "of a very high order with handsome mantelpieces, beamed ceilings, built-in buffets, and all the accessories of a comfortable, modern house." In the early 20th century, Stokes made his name by creating stately homes in Normandie-Adams, and thanks to a thoughtful Historic Preservation Plan, this Central Los Angeles neighborhood remains a nearly unmatched repository of exceptional Craftsman architecture.

Wait, Swiss-Chalet-Japanese-Craftsman?

Charming period details include an expansive covered porch, a formal dining room, a library with a ceramic fireplace surround, large living room with fireplace, and expansive kitchen that, in my mind, doesn’t fit the style of the house and should be redone. Upstairs are four bedrooms and three baths upstairs, with two sleeping porches, and one bedroom—for the houseboys?—and two baths downstairs. There is also a California basement—a small, unfinished storage space excavated below the ground floor—and a sunlit attic suitable for use as a studio or office.

Alongside upgraded electrical and plumbing and a fresh California Native and drought-tolerant landscape, this historic property presents a unique opportunity for a new owner to apply for property-tax saving Mills Act designation for the front house and to utilize the advantageous LARD2 zoning to create a multi-family property using the garage structure out back.

I love this house … the history and design … and while it’s way to big for us, I could live in it if I had the $1.2 million—seriously a bargain—and it wasn’t already sold! 

As always, click to emBIGGERate ...

Unique California Property