Renovating the Swan House: Part 3

In this three-part series, expanding on our July/August 2012 "Designers at Home" theme, Los Angeles–based architect Barbara Bestor tracks her hands-on, ten-month renovation of the Swan House, a 1950s bungalow in Silver Lake. We've featured her work previously in the magazine here. See Part One of the series here, and Part Two here. Part Three: The Finished Product

I bought my house in the Silver Lake hills in December 2010, started renovating it the next month, and we moved in in October 2011. Renovation took ten months. I probably could have done it twice as fast if I had pre-planned it out in advance. Instead I did a "shoot from the hip" renovation. I had a big installation going on in the spring (Silent Disco at Sci-Arc) and was very distracted, so the house was sort of my fun recreational project. Still, it was fun to do it this way—more like a couture process than a typical gig. Lots of trying out new things, and changing direction along the way. Here's a peek at the finished product.