Tracey Gallacher wasn’t always an interior designer. The Scotland native spent 20 years working in the film industry as a production designer and art director, both in the U.K. and Los Angeles. By 2018, she was ready for a change, but her years creating characters in different environments left a lasting impact. “The thing that was frustrating about the film industry was all of these environments were temporary, but you put so much work and so much heart into trying to capture these environments accurately,” says Gallacher. “When I transitioned into interiors, I was relieved because you’re actually helping people. It felt much more worthwhile.”

One of her first clients after establishing her namesake firm happened to be a creative couple in the film industry: Sheila, a screenwriter, and Steve, a composer. The couple purchased a 1951 home in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood around 2010, and only recently were ready to make serious changes. To start, a kitchen large enough to fit a full-size refrigerator would be nice, they thought (it was in the laundry room before), as would an updated color palette and a new stove. “If the house was a set for a production, it would have been great,” says Gallacher. “It felt like you were in a museum. But you don’t want to live in a museum, especially when the appliances don’t work and with all of the modern conveniences that people want nowadays.”

Although the initial scope was a kitchen renovation, it soon expanded. The couple wanted a more open layout, more storage, good natural light, and a different vibe room to room. Save for the fireplace, the home was essentially gutted, including walls, flooring, and cabinetry. Still, the home’s midcentury roots guided updates. In the kitchen, this means new pastel blue and yellow cabinetry inspired by the Eames House, which has blue and mustard paneling. “Charles and Ray were very experimental with color. Most midcentury kitchens are not as bright. It’s usually walnut cabinets,” says Gallacher. “Those designers use color in such a joyful and intentional way. Because of who my clients are—they’re very joyful, quirky, creative people—they were really pushing for this kind experiment in color and texture.”

Gallacher removed walls separating the kitchen from the living area, creating an open-plan living space and setting the stage for one of the biggest design gestures: vaulting the ceilings in the living and dining room to make one expansive, light-filled space. “As soon as you walk in, you see these incredible ceilings, and then your eye gets taken into the colors of the kitchen in the background. The sight line from the front door is just mind blowing by comparison to what it was before,” says Gallacher.

This was one of the biggest expenditures, but it saved the couple money in other ways; because the new vaulted ceilings are illuminated more fully by existing windows, Sheila and Steve didn’t feel the need to splurge on larger ones. Instead, they spent on glazing where they needed it more, like in the refreshed primary bathroom near a new tub.

$17,500 Site Work	$11,000 Foundation	$58,300 Structural
$44,100 Wall Finishes	$128,200 Custom Woodwork	$20,000 Flooring
$16,703.52 Roofing	$4,400 Hardware	$18,200 Electrical
$15,000 Plumbing	$14,000 HVAC Equipment	$74,850 Kitchen & Bath Fixtures
$10,150 Lighting	$15,000 Other
Grand Total: $447,403.52

At first, Sheila and Steve were interested in creating a den-like cabin feel in the living space, but features like wood paneling were out of budget. Instead, Gallacher proposed painting the entire fireplace a particular shade of red from Farrow & Ball that feels both cabinesque and on par with the home’s punchy, playful aesthetic. The hue also shows up in the kitchen baseboard as a subtle but definitive pop of color.

Adding more storage—and replacing the storage they tore out—was another significant part of the budget. Tracey designed custom built-ins for the kitchen, living space, a second living area, laundry space, all three bedrooms, and both bathrooms in a mix of gray and blue finishes.

“The space itself is nicer than we are. It’s very classy, and we’re not very classy,” says Sheila. “It makes it feel like we are fun, civilized people.” And as with designing a space, whether classy, irreverent, for film, or real life, creating a feeling that resonates with her clients is ultimately what Gallacher is after.

More Budget Breakdown stories:

Their $98K Los Angeles Basement Reno Came In at More Than Double What They Planned

He Designed and Built a Bright-Pink Duplex in Los Angeles for Less Than $400K

Project Credits:

Designer: Tracey Gallacher / @tracey_gallacher_interiors

General Contractor: Miguel Flores

Structural Engineer: Mark Acciani

Photographer: Arturo + Lauren / @arturo.and.lauren

Also Appears In

Budget Breakdown: $128K in Eames-Inspired Woodwork Is the Star of This Renovated L.A. Midcentury