Soon after arriving in Los Angeles from Australia in 2019, architect Richard Stampton set out on foot to take in the landscape and the pink and gold Southern California light.

Mostly searching for a fixer-upper, he and his wife found a wreck of a house on a hillside site in Silver Lake. Sizing up the 1920s structure and the orange, fig, and lemon trees, he saw what it could be. “Underneath the extraneous structures was a beautiful L.A. cottage,” he says.

After purchasing the property, he set about restoring the home’s original footprint while connecting it to the garden with windows that stretch from the floor nearly to the ceiling. He replaced the deteriorating exterior siding with redwood, and the material’s honied hues are complemented by copper-wrapped Douglas fir doors and anodized aluminum sunshades that keep things cool in summer.

Natural light suffuses the reinvented interior, bouncing off the vaulted ceilings painted three shades of yellow, and pink marble in the bathrooms and kitchen.

Richard’s workshop occupies a detached shed on the property, while his wife works in a space on the lower level with a picture window overlooking a wild, mostly native garden by Terremoto.

“That window is one of my favorite moments,” Richard says. “It’s like a Monet painting—but instead of lilies, it’s a desert garden.”

More Open House: Los Angeles tours:

You’d Never Guess This Revamped Midcentury Cabin Is in the Middle of L.A.

A 1954 Los Angeles Home Moves Into the Future With a Collection of Pavilions in the Landscape

The Hollyhock House: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ode to California

Project Credits:

Architect: Richard Stampton, Architect / @richardstamptonarchitect

Builder & Cabinetry: Reeve Schley, Seed L.A. Design & Build

Furniture & Objects: Paul Valentine, Shin Okuda, and Kristin Dickson-Okuda

Structural Engineer: Craig Phillips Engineering & Design

Landscape Architecture: David Godshall and Dawn Wang, Terremoto / @terremoto_landscape

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This Australian Architect’s Silver Lake House Is a Love Letter to Los Angeles