This Interior Designer Gut-Renovated an Uninspiring House in a 'Storybook' Neighborhood for Her Own Family Home — Testing Her Biggest Ideas in the Process
Don’t let its formal living room fool you, this interior designer’s Los Angeles home speaks to its laidback West Coast location
It wasn’t necessarily the house that drew interior designer Kim Lapin to this Spanish-style home in the Los Angeles suburbs, but rather the storybook neighborhood. Before moving with her young family from the center of the city to Palos Verdes, where she’d grown up, she’d drive this particular street of the coastal Californian suburb simply to take in the area’s natural beauty — and marvel at the diverse styles of property through the car window. Craftsman, ranch, mid-century modern, contemporary: it’s a street that reads like an architecture textbook.
It’s not, however, an area so well-known for exceptional interior design. "While in this town there are beautiful homes, it’s not very common that they are well designed on the inside," Kim admits, "and I wanted to feel like my home was still an inspirational place, even in a suburb."
Creating the modern home she was looking for was a project that called for a gut renovation, and on some scale. With just her husband Chay and a one-year-old in tow at the time, Kim admits that the 3,000 square foot house was "big for them, but not too big" — somewhat fortunately, as the designer found out she was pregnant with twins just a month after moving in.
"Not a lot of spaces made sense for the wood paneling I wanted to use, except in our family room, just off the kitchen," Kim says. "Incorporating it into the TV wall helps it feel a lot more minimalist."
Still, even with her family growing, the home offered space enough — with a family room, which now opens up onto the kitchen for better flow between the two spaces, and a more formal living room for entertaining. "We call this the 'fancy room'," Kim says. "My kids love to be in there with me. We listen to music and have 'special drinks', which usually means sparkling water in fancy cups."
"The long bench that spans from wall to wall was an opportunity to display items and books that I love," Kim says.
Image credit: Jenna Peffley. Stylist: Cate Kalus. Design: Kim Lapin
"How I use stone is always a big part of my projects, and my own house was going to be no exception."
Image credit: Jenna Peffley. Stylist: Cate Kalus. Design: Kim Lapin
It’s one of the rooms that best shows Kim’s philosophy as a designer, even though her business was still in its early days during the renovation, having only just taken on her first clients. "This was my first home that I was getting to design from top to bottom," Kim explains. "The other homes we had lived in always had some renovation component, but I was never able to fully express myself to the degree that I was able to on this project."
"I had fallen in love with this stone when I saw it in Ulla Johnson’s Brooklyn townhouse. It has the most beautiful pink and lavender veining."
"Life is short, so you should paint your dining room whatever color you want to. This was the perfect salmon rose without being too baby pink or too pigmented."
Image credit: Jenna Peffley. Stylist: Cate Kalus. Design: Kim Lapin
"Because the space was so small, I wanted to make it feel more intentional, so we added the curved plaster instead of a wood base. This is where we eat breakfast before school, and the kiddos also do crafts here."
Image credit: Jenna Peffley. Stylist: Cate Kalus. Design: Kim Lapin
Textural plaster walls and low, horizontal fireplace hearths wrapped in interesting marbles, used both in the ‘fancy room’ and primary bedroom, speak to the balancing act of luxurious and laidback, and the designer’s West Coast Cool meets European eclectic design aesthetic.
"To get the color combination I wanted for the entryway floor, I put two types of rectangular tiles together to make a larger checkerboard."
In the entryway, Kim’s take on a welcoming checkerboard floor feels softer, using more tonal natural stone than the classic black-and-white of elegant hotel lobbies. The lighting, while jewelry-like, is often specified in unlacquered brass, so that they "age over time, and don’t look too precious."
"The beautiful brass sconces balance the more rustic materials, but more importantly, they give that backlit glow that truly makes this room’s ambience."
It’s a hard place to aim for, the cool factor, but for Kim, it’s more an incidental outcome than it is intentional. "What I’m aiming for is relaxing, yet delightful," the designer says. "This house is calm, but there is something interesting to see everywhere you look."
