Houzz Tour: Colorful, Whimsical and Beachy-Casual in Los Angeles
A family’s move to the ocean side of the freeway inspires a coastal-inspired color palette
Becky Harris
April 25, 2019
Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia.
Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe... More
Photos by Mark Lohman
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with one teenage son at home and another in college
Location: Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles
Size: Three bedrooms, five bathrooms, plus guesthouse
Designers: Alison Kandler (interiors) and Joan Swartz (architecture)
This Los Angeles couple had a beautiful home designed by Alison Kandler. But in L.A. traffic-speak, it was east of the freeway and the husband’s job was west of it, and for those of us not from the area, this means his daily two-plus hours of commuting in terrible traffic had become intolerable. Also, they were gearing up for a new phase of life. One of their two teenage sons was starting college and the other was two years away from high school graduation — they were getting close to the time when it would be just the two of them at home together.
So they called Kandler to help them design a new home west of the freeway that was closer to his work. Their new home’s architecture is a California take on Hamptons style: East Coast coastal-inspired architecture with a beachy take-your-shoes-off-and-relax vibe.
Kandler and her frequent collaborator, architect Joan Swartz, planned the house together, with Kandler focusing on the interiors and Swartz focusing on the exteriors. “We have designed over 70 houses together,” Kandler says. “We have a great way of working together on the floor plans and tweaking them. For example, I’ll tell Joan I need a few extra inches for a window seat and she will adjust the plans accordingly,” Kandler says.
Coastal Inspiration
The designer likes to help her clients kick off a project by sending them to the paint store separately. “With a couple, I have each of them pick out their favorite colors and bring them back, and then we determine our palette from there,” she says. This couple’s former house had been more of an autumn — yellows, reds and oranges — and they were ready for a change. Moving to the same side of the highway as the Pacific made them think beach house — the colors they pulled included blues plucked from the water and sky, tans from the sand, dune grass greens and bold corals.
In the family room, throw pillows bring in colors from the palette and a mix of patterns. The designer used durable outdoor fabrics on the furniture and pillows and anchored the room with a a low-maintenance jute rug that has coastal-inspired texture.
Tip: When mixing patterns, Kandler recommends playing with a range of scales and tying them together with the overall color palette.
Find a local interior designer
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with one teenage son at home and another in college
Location: Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles
Size: Three bedrooms, five bathrooms, plus guesthouse
Designers: Alison Kandler (interiors) and Joan Swartz (architecture)
This Los Angeles couple had a beautiful home designed by Alison Kandler. But in L.A. traffic-speak, it was east of the freeway and the husband’s job was west of it, and for those of us not from the area, this means his daily two-plus hours of commuting in terrible traffic had become intolerable. Also, they were gearing up for a new phase of life. One of their two teenage sons was starting college and the other was two years away from high school graduation — they were getting close to the time when it would be just the two of them at home together.
So they called Kandler to help them design a new home west of the freeway that was closer to his work. Their new home’s architecture is a California take on Hamptons style: East Coast coastal-inspired architecture with a beachy take-your-shoes-off-and-relax vibe.
Kandler and her frequent collaborator, architect Joan Swartz, planned the house together, with Kandler focusing on the interiors and Swartz focusing on the exteriors. “We have designed over 70 houses together,” Kandler says. “We have a great way of working together on the floor plans and tweaking them. For example, I’ll tell Joan I need a few extra inches for a window seat and she will adjust the plans accordingly,” Kandler says.
Coastal Inspiration
The designer likes to help her clients kick off a project by sending them to the paint store separately. “With a couple, I have each of them pick out their favorite colors and bring them back, and then we determine our palette from there,” she says. This couple’s former house had been more of an autumn — yellows, reds and oranges — and they were ready for a change. Moving to the same side of the highway as the Pacific made them think beach house — the colors they pulled included blues plucked from the water and sky, tans from the sand, dune grass greens and bold corals.
In the family room, throw pillows bring in colors from the palette and a mix of patterns. The designer used durable outdoor fabrics on the furniture and pillows and anchored the room with a a low-maintenance jute rug that has coastal-inspired texture.
Tip: When mixing patterns, Kandler recommends playing with a range of scales and tying them together with the overall color palette.
Find a local interior designer
Kandler steered clear of large, flat expanses with the architecture, adding features like tongue-and-groove paneling on the walls and ceilings, ceiling beams, built-ins backed by wallpaper and semiflush-mount drum pendant lights. “Light fixtures can add so much interest to a ceiling. I try to avoid recessed can lights whenever possible,” she says.
Four Tall Customers
A big consideration in the project was that everyone in this family is over 6 feet tall, so the plans included taller volumes, deeper sofas and chairs and higher-than-standard countertops for their comfort. The ceilings in the family room are 9½ feet tall, and the whole family can fit comfortably on the pair of sofas.
Find beige jute, sisal and seagrass rugs in the Houzz Shop
Four Tall Customers
A big consideration in the project was that everyone in this family is over 6 feet tall, so the plans included taller volumes, deeper sofas and chairs and higher-than-standard countertops for their comfort. The ceilings in the family room are 9½ feet tall, and the whole family can fit comfortably on the pair of sofas.
Find beige jute, sisal and seagrass rugs in the Houzz Shop
In the center of the adjacent kitchen, the ceilings soar even higher into a vault that includes skylights. “It was all about the natural light in here,” Kandler says. She packed the room full of functional storage with features like pullout drawers, baking sheet storage and high cabinets to clear space for a trio of windows and transoms over the sink. Clear glass shelves maintain the open feel and give the homeowners a place to display the white china they enjoy collecting.
In order to address her clients’ heights, Kandler pushed the height of the countertops up to 37 inches, an inch higher than the standard 36 inches.
In order to address her clients’ heights, Kandler pushed the height of the countertops up to 37 inches, an inch higher than the standard 36 inches.
Anything but All White
“They were coming from a house that had an all-white kitchen so they wanted to do something different here,” Kandler says. “The bleached oak cabinets have a beachy feeling and were something new and different for them.” A slab of stunning blue marble used on the island inspired the rest of the color palette. Because they needed an island that was longer and wider than the largest available slab, Kandler framed it out with white quartz that matches the perimeter countertops.
Again, Kandler eschewed can lights in the ceiling, instead opting for playful gooseneck lamps custom painted a deep coral. “I like to add some whimsy to every room,” she says.
Shop for gooseneck sconces
“They were coming from a house that had an all-white kitchen so they wanted to do something different here,” Kandler says. “The bleached oak cabinets have a beachy feeling and were something new and different for them.” A slab of stunning blue marble used on the island inspired the rest of the color palette. Because they needed an island that was longer and wider than the largest available slab, Kandler framed it out with white quartz that matches the perimeter countertops.
Again, Kandler eschewed can lights in the ceiling, instead opting for playful gooseneck lamps custom painted a deep coral. “I like to add some whimsy to every room,” she says.
Shop for gooseneck sconces
The couple love to entertain and he loves to cook. A blue Lacanche range with brass accents is a thing of functional beauty. Kandler designed a custom vent hood with brass straps to match and had it fabricated by Modern-Aire.
From a distance it can read like wallpaper, but the backsplash that extends all the way to the ceiling is a patterned cement tile. Cement tile can be tricky in a splash zone like a range wall, so Kandler created a niche behind the range to keep the tile a few inches back from the burners. She also recommended that her clients have the backsplash sealed once a year.
Find a kitchen remodeler in your area
Find a kitchen remodeler in your area
Pattern and Whimsy
Kandler continued the palette of blues, greens and coral-red in the dining room. She designed traditional millwork and built-ins topped with a fun floral wallpaper. And there’s a small-scale patterned wallpaper on the ceiling. Two chandeliers full of whimsical curlicues illuminate the long dining table. Host and hostess chairs mix things up and add more pattern to the space.
Another detail the designer likes to add to a dining room is a china closet. “China closets are a great place to store Grandma’s china,” she says. She used a French door so she could add a patterned fabric curtain behind it, which brought another print and some soft texture into the room.
Kandler continued the palette of blues, greens and coral-red in the dining room. She designed traditional millwork and built-ins topped with a fun floral wallpaper. And there’s a small-scale patterned wallpaper on the ceiling. Two chandeliers full of whimsical curlicues illuminate the long dining table. Host and hostess chairs mix things up and add more pattern to the space.
Another detail the designer likes to add to a dining room is a china closet. “China closets are a great place to store Grandma’s china,” she says. She used a French door so she could add a patterned fabric curtain behind it, which brought another print and some soft texture into the room.
In the wife’s home office, Kandler used all the colors and pieces the husband didn’t particularly care for. (Don’t worry about him; he has his own office.) “The rug was a flea market find and he didn’t love the frayed edges,” Kandler says. But the women could see that it added to the room’s charm and brought in pinks, lilac, greens and other vibrant colors. The John Robshaw fabric on the window treatments is the same pattern Kandler used on some of the family room pillows. And the chaise lounge is a lovely lavender.
The built-ins Kandler designed are hardworking and hide unsightly office equipment like the printer. “I’m not a fan of seeing wires, so I designed double doors beneath her desk to hide cords and the power strip,” she says.
The built-ins Kandler designed are hardworking and hide unsightly office equipment like the printer. “I’m not a fan of seeing wires, so I designed double doors beneath her desk to hide cords and the power strip,” she says.
At the top of the stairs, Kandler designed bookshelves backed with wallpaper in the same pattern as the office drapes. “I love this trick because it makes it possible for my clients to get a taste of expensive wallpaper without spending thousands of dollars — they only have to buy one roll,” she says.
Serenity in the Master Suite
“This bedroom is the most serene room I’ve ever hung out in, with the blue on the floor, blue on the walls and beadboard on the ceiling,” Kandler says. A light bamboo four-poster bed continues the casual beachy vibe.
“This bedroom is the most serene room I’ve ever hung out in, with the blue on the floor, blue on the walls and beadboard on the ceiling,” Kandler says. A light bamboo four-poster bed continues the casual beachy vibe.
The nightstands offer up extra storage and their bone inlay design adds the biggest dollop of pattern to the calm room. The reading lamps inject some coral into the mostly blue palette.
“We needed to fill this large 10-foot-by-9-foot wall between their closets with something,” Kandler says. When she came across this large-scale mural wallpaper she knew she had just the thing. “She loves birds. The more you look around this house, the more birds you notice,” Kandler says of the wife. The couple were easy to please without much conflict. “He gets excited over things like his hidden shredder,” Kandler says.
In the master bathroom, a large window over the bathtub lets in light while a translucent Roman shade adorned with blue ribbons blocks an unattractive view and provides privacy. A transom over the medicine cabinets functions in a similar way.
“There’s a little bit of nostalgia for Grandma’s bathroom in this mix of modern and traditional,” Kandler says. The faucets, louvered cabinet doors and blush color on the tub bring in the old. But the tub’s silhouette, the sconces and the ovesize blue marble subway tiles are updated touches. And the counters in here are 36 inches high, which is considered comfort height for this tall crew.
Blue marble subway tile: Walker Zanger
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“There’s a little bit of nostalgia for Grandma’s bathroom in this mix of modern and traditional,” Kandler says. The faucets, louvered cabinet doors and blush color on the tub bring in the old. But the tub’s silhouette, the sconces and the ovesize blue marble subway tiles are updated touches. And the counters in here are 36 inches high, which is considered comfort height for this tall crew.
Blue marble subway tile: Walker Zanger
More on Houzz
See more Houzz Tours
Find an interior designer near you
Shop for home products
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What a beautiful variation on the coastal theme! I never get tired of looking at beach homes and an infinite number of ways to decorate them!
Ocean and beach have been a constant source of inspiration for our artwork ever since we moved to Southern California, I'd say a good third of all the subjects we painted or photographed depict beach, ocean, seascapes, seashells, etc. We do enjoy creating floral, figurative and abstract art, of course, but we often end up using beach-inspired color palette in these images as well ;-)) ... Raisa
Alison Kandler is my favorite interior designer! Her colorful, whimsical projects make my heart happy. In addition to being incredibly talented, she is generous with her responses.
Alison Kandler is awesome. I look forward to any new projects she does. I love color, whimsy, and happy rooms. She delivers every time.