When we stumbled upon this house of ours, it was a mess. We were riding our bikes to breakfast at Portos one July afternoon, had started to maybe think about looking at houses, getting more space. But we were absolutely not prepared to buy something in the near future. But this house, we couldn’t NOT buy this house. Well, I could, but Chris saw such amazing potential in it… the bones were good, the layout was fantastic and it was half-price (it was 2008 and things were crazy!). It was a foreclosure that had been sitting on the market for a while. It was disgusting… dirty didn’t even begin to describe it, renovations had been done over the years that were absolutely terrible and the bathrooms and kitchen needed to be ripped out ASAP. But he saw something incredible and convinced me that I could see something in it too. So we bought it.
This is what my current office looked like in 2008. Also, my photography skills have improved 
This is what it looks like today…
Where there was a window, there is a door. Where there was a door, there is a window. More new windows in the hallway, new hickory floors, new molding, new paint, new doors, new hardware. What was once a weird tiny little tunnel is now bright and open and full of light. Walking down that hallway makes me inordinately happy.
These three panel doors below were one of the hardest projects for this renovation. Should have been simple, right? It went like this…
Me: I’m looking for a three panel door… two of the panels will be French doors, and the third panel, of exactly the same size, will not open.
Door Guy (all of them, we met with many): OK, so a French door with sidelights on either side.
Me: No, three panels, all exactly the same. The left and middle panels are French doors, the right panel doesn’t move. It’s a window.
Door Guy: Great, we do small sidelights on each side to make up the difference on the French doors.
Me: …staring blankly…
Seriously, it was a nightmare. I had originally envisioned three panels that accordioned out so the whole space opened up. But that’s crazy expensive. And Chris wasn’t falling for it. One day in a beach house that overlooks an ocean, maybe… but not for our backyard.
But that! That is exactly what I wanted and FINALLY someone could understand me! The guys at Valley Sash & Door were incredible. The doors are so perfect and I love looking out into the backyard! The room doors we actually were able to repurpose from other parts of the house that didn’t need doors anymore (after stripping, sanding, stepping, sanding and painting). The hardware is so beautiful, from Emtek, purchased at Ricks Hardware in North Hollywood (have you been here!? It’s spectacular).
Window unit air conditioners are terrible. But this part of the house doesn’t have central yet and this guy has been amazing. Keeping it real.
We’d ripped out the original closet here, and replaced it with IKEA cabinets. The metal on the doors was spray painted gold (as is most everything I did in here) and the whole unit was attached to the wall and then included in the molding… instant built-in! The ceiling was scraped of the terrible popcorn and painted Martha Stewart Vintage Gold Metallic from Home Depot.
And then the final product, shot by my dear friend Heather Kincaid for a Glitter Guide feature that went up last year!
