Perched on a sloped lot in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, this 1965 home has a striking entryway defined by double-height walls of glass. “It wasn’t designed and built by a notable architect, as far as I know, but it very much has the architecture of a traditional Buff and Hensman home,” says lead designer Patrick Maziarski of the Altadena interiors firm A1000xBetter.

Maziarski worked with the firm’s principal, Kirsten Blazek, on a recent top-to-bottom makeover of the house. “Just seeing the home’s structure from the outside, you can tell it had potential,” he says.

Before: Front Facade

After: Front Facade

At some point an addition had expanded the home’s garage and created an additional staircase, as well as a separate set of rooms upstairs. “There was a lot of square footage, but it was cut up into a lot of small rooms,” says Maziarski. This created a choppy floor plan that stood at odds with the grander elements of the architecture—like the tongue-and-groove ceiling on the second floor, and the soaring cement fireplace column in the living room.

“It was just about streamlining what was happening on the interior,” says Maziarski of the ensuing makeover. “Connecting the spaces in a thoughtful way, and adding back that architectural integrity.”

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

The team sharpened up the exterior with new wood siding, which they painted charcoal near the entryway and kept more natural toward the garage, where the cladding extends upward to provide privacy for a second-floor balcony.

Inside, they peeled back worn finishes to reveal the home’s bones, taking care to preserve the double-height glass walls and fireplace in the living room. They removed the extra staircase off the family room, and ironed out the floor plan so that the dining room, kitchen, and family room all connect in a circular flow around a central utility cluster that holds the primary kitchen storage, a bathroom, and a laundry room.

New flagstone flooring and fluted white oak casework create a repeated motif that knits the home together.

Before: Dining Room

After: Dining Room

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Before: Family Room

After: Family Room

Up the white oak staircase, a new hallway provides access to the bedrooms, which each feature an en suite bathroom. The design team sandblasted the ceilings to reveal the original wood, repaired many of the beams, added windows and skylights to flush the rooms with light, and deployed slatted white oak detailing throughout.

“There was a really deliberate intention to marry some traditional midcentury elements with more contemporary features,” says Maziarski.

Before: Staircase

After: Staircase

Before: Landing

After: Landing

After: Main Bedroom Suite

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All-new exterior landscaping (including a flagstone path at the front, and a pool, hot tub, and deck at the rear) ties the house to the grounds and creates indoor/outdoor connections where there were none before. “It’s really nice to see that connectivity from the exterior elements to the interior—and right through that great room,” says Maziarski.

The end result, adds Blazek, is a house that feels “a little bit sexy.” “It was our intention to make it feel sexy, modern, and up to date—but to also have aspects that tied back to the history of the home” says Blazek.

Before: Bedroom

After: Bedroom

Before: Main Bathroom

After: Bathroom

After: Bathroom

After: Backyard

More Before & After Stories:

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Project Credits:

Builder: Pacifica Ventures Group

Landscape Design Company: Sarita Jaccard Design

Interior Design: A 1000xBetter / @a1000xbetter

Furniture and rugs: Mehraban, Amsterdam Modern, Shapiro Joyal, and Ten10

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