Reader's home of the month
This month's £150 Habitat giftcard goes to lindsaydglasgow's 'terrace on a teeny budget'...
Eco new-build
An eco-dream home in a leafy area of Los Angeles...
Flashing neon lights, sleek convertibles, starlets and shopping: Los Angeles is loud, proud and brash. Yet Allison Wright's restful retreat is, surprisingly, slap-bang in the middle of the fray. Not that you'd know it – the view from the house is of rich-green hedges and leafy sycamore trees and, if you stop to listen, you can sometimes hear the sound of horses' hooves on quiet roads. 'Although we're only a few blocks from Sunset Boulevard, we're in an equestrian pocket with horses everywhere,' says Allison, who lives with her husband, Andy Kaplan, and their three children, Lucas, 11, Levi, seven, and Willa, three.
Finding a house in this sought-after area is no easy task, so when the couple discovered a site with a derelict ranch ripe for demolition on sale, they snapped it up and moved in. Then, with the help of their friend, Susan Minter (a London-based designer), and specialist eco builder George Minardos, they started planning their dream home. 'I find a lot of Californian architecture chunky and boxy,' says Allison. 'I wanted an environmentally friendly space with a lighter, more European feel.'
The planning and building took 18 months – not so long in the scheme of things, but it felt like a lifetime to the couple, who moved out with two children and returned with three. The resulting space, though, was worth the wait. Take a room-by-room tour around Allison and Andy's eco new-build
Contact Susan Minter on 020 7242 1770 sue@susanminter.com.
Photography: Richard Powers
Finding a house in this sought-after area is no easy task, so when the couple discovered a site with a derelict ranch ripe for demolition on sale, they snapped it up and moved in. Then, with the help of their friend, Susan Minter (a London-based designer), and specialist eco builder George Minardos, they started planning their dream home. 'I find a lot of Californian architecture chunky and boxy,' says Allison. 'I wanted an environmentally friendly space with a lighter, more European feel.'
The planning and building took 18 months – not so long in the scheme of things, but it felt like a lifetime to the couple, who moved out with two children and returned with three. The resulting space, though, was worth the wait. Take a room-by-room tour around Allison and Andy's eco new-build
Contact Susan Minter on 020 7242 1770 sue@susanminter.com.
Photography: Richard Powers
