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In 2009 on a quiet Los Angeles corner, Mel Elias found a severely water-damaged, crumbling 5,000-square-foot house hidden behind a tangle of overgrown vegetation. Its former owner, the late Hollywood acting coach Milton Katselas, had filled his property with industrial skylights and enormous, wood-burning fireplaces. The glass-and-concrete construction was framed by high ceilings, rusted steel beams, and varied elevations across the single-story plan. Thanks to an 11-year long, multiphase renovation by designer Carter Bradley, the home—with all of its quirks and character—shines again.

In the couple's guest room, authentic shoji screens have been converted into sliding closet doors. “I have a slight obsession with Japanese precision and culture,” Mel says.

Tucked away under the loft in this otherwise open space, the fireplace anchors a cozy nook.

While the home’s amenities feel wholly residential, different rooms are specific to the couple’s various projects. This space is outfitted as an analogue synthesizer studio, where Mel, who is also a film composer, records and edits music.

Adjacent to the soaring family room is an impressive, although curiously placed, concrete silo shower embedded with glass bricks.

Throughout the house, a few recurring themes emerge: glass walls, steel framing, floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and rolling library ladders. The interiors are furnished with midcentury classics, including a vintage Eames Lounge chair, alongside Japanese works of art.

The guesthouse was the first part of the project to be completed, and Mel lived there while the main house was under construction. From his buying the property in 2009 to Sarah completing a roof garden, the entire renovation took roughly 11 years. Around the pool, the lounge chairs are from Restoration Hardware in a Charcoal fabric, and the trailing vine overhead is a California table grape installed by Sarah’s studio. The competition around the Cornilleau 500M Outdoor Crossover ping pong table can be fierce.

The pond off of the living room was designed by Sarah’s landscape studio and installed by Active Landscapes and Ponds.

In the kitchen, the countertops are Absolute Black wire-brushed granite from Walker Zanger, the cooktop and hoods are from Viking, the dishwashers are Miele, and the serious coffee setup (Mel is the former CEO of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf) includes an espresso machine from La Marzocco and grinders by Mazzer. Bradley designed the cherrywood veneer cabinetry, which was made and installed by Marmol Radziner, with a custom piece by Alaco Ladder Company.

In the dining room, under one of six large industrial skylights, one of the massive hearths is ornamented with a single red tile. Though they don’t know why Katselas placed it there, Mel and designer/project manager Carter Bradley turned it into a motif that pops up unexpectedly elsewhere in the house.

The home’s previous owner, legendary acting coach Milton Katselas, turned a pair of 1940s cottages into a quirky concrete-and-steel pavilion with a guesthouse just behind it. An Electra bicycle from Trek is parked in front.

Sarah Butler and Mel Elias’s Siberian husky, Rooney, reclines in the renovated dining room of their Los Angeles home. The raised floor provides easy access to mechanical systems, something the house lacked as originally built.

The Mario Bellini Cab chairs are from Cassina.