Stairs

“The challenge was updating the house without removing its roots, which was something that Sean was very much keen on,” says Thayná Alves and Taryn Echeverry of the L.A. design studio The Curator. Consequently, Designer Christopher Cahill of CASC Design Inc. made only a few architectural interventions.

Storage is built in wherever possible throughout the home—including in this nook underneath the stairs—allowing the family to optimize the space

Tan built storage into every available corner of the house, including the stairs, each of which contains a drawer.

New white oak stairs connect the upper and lower floors. The homeowner wanted the downstairs apartment for visits from her daughter and young grandchildren, who live in California. La Cantina sliding doors provide easy access to the backyard.

The staircase needed to be rebuilt to meet current building code, but being in basically its original location, is an anchor in the redesign. The wall color is "Hamilton Blue

Just past the upstairs landing, there’s an open space with a tatami mat beneath the lofted office nook where Tsuyoshi, a systems engineer, works from home a few days a week. Both receive lots of light from the central skylight. A hallway below Tsuyoshi’s workspace leads to the family’s shared sleeping area, which has a small window.

Local firm FujiwaraMuro Architects created numerous split levels stacked atop one another to accommodate the unconventional family home on a “flag” lot, a real estate term for an irregularly shaped parcel that resembles a flag on a pole, with a skinny path that gives the rectangular main plot access to the road.

A new stair leads up to the attic level office, with bright blue carpeting and custom painted murals making for a spirited journey upstairs. Artist Adrian Kay Wong painted the mural.