Exterior/Architecture

In the sun room dining extension, the exposed brick that was formerly on the exterior was left in place. The light fixture is custom. The Marianne Tablecloth is by Autumn Sonata and the Juniper Chair is by Sun at Six.

The new side entrance includes a new door through the brick wall, with the glass-enclosed entry hallway extending outward to contain it.

A black bent steel plate stair leads up three steps to a notched entry paneled in clear-stained cypress.

“It’s the essence of midcentury design to take an economical approach to making something like the open-truss ceiling striking and beautiful,” says designer Brett Halsey.

Designers Valerie Levitt Halsey and Brett Halsey brought cohesion to a 1949 house in suburban Los Angeles that had been expanded in the early 1960s by its original designer, Donald E. Pedersen. The slanted windows at the front “provide the first hint that there’s something interesting inside,” says Halsey.

With no major structural work to do, the design team focused on things like color, and on the exterior they paired Benjamin Moore’s Cabbage Patch green with a front door painted in the company’s Tawny Day Lily. “Kim had a lot of really great people on the project,” Bestor explains, “and that made it possible to go super fast and still be design-y and not just do a white box.”

Lawler says that his parents enjoy tending to the landscape and going on long walks in the area.

The 3,200-square-foot home is connected to a shed out back, which has an office and storage space.