>> what's inside: Karen Kimmel + James Bond

Here's few scouting snaps I took while writing about this rad mid-century gem in Los Feliz. Full story coming soon to the LA Times!

>> what's inside: Alexandra Becket + Greg Steinberg

Yesterday afternoon I sipped iced tea with textile artist Alexandra Becket in her fabulous newly remodeled house in West Hollywood. She and her fiancé Greg spent the better part of last year working on stripping walls, razing the garage, demo-ing the tiled roof and putting in a new kitchen, bathrooms, landscape—and of course scouring estate sales and flea markets for those perfect accents. He loves Tiki Modern and she loves Mid Century, two styles that happily marry in an L.A. home. While hanging out with Alexandra, I felt like I was hanging with Los Angeles history because she is the granddaughter of Welton Becket, the architect who designed The Capitol Records building, LAX, The Beverly Hilton, The Cinerama Dome...is there a major architectural landmark in L.A. that he didn't design? It was really cool to hear her stories. Thanks Alexandra!

Above photo is a shot of her studio office located in their garage. Becket has sold textile designs to Trina Turk and Anthropologie to name just a few clients. She also has had her artwork displayed at DWR.

Alexandra and Greg landscaped with mostly drought-friendly plants.




The fireplace was painted white when Greg moved into the home in the 1990s, they stripped it and found beautiful 1920s tiling by Ernest Batchelder!

Tiki, the cat, prefers Danish Modern.


A LIFE magazine from 1956 sits in their living room. The cover story is a Palm Springs home that Welton Becket designed for a mechanical engineer. What you're looking at is a rotating sun deck apparatus for even tanning. Ah, the 1950s! Check the dog in the middle!

>> what's inside: ashley bruce + griff behncke

Just got back from another delicious weekend in SF. I had to share Griff and Ash's cute-as-sin apartment in The Mission.

Mid-century wicker chairs atop a Madeline Weinrib zig-zag rug.

The Salon.


Obsessed with the Ashley Gray paint on their walls.

Rad save-the-date! Designed by this guy.

Stainless kitchen counter-height table by Ikea. It's a separate base and top, I don't think they sell this as-is. But they should!

Black Tolix stools! Awesome!


Griff's stack of old Gourmet Magazines. The other day they made a flat bread pizza and topped it with creme fraîche, lemon and caviar. Hello, foodies!


Their dining room is still a work-in-progress. But, they've got a slate table (that you can draw on with chalk!) and some Danish Modern chairs going on so far.

Part of Ash's vintage clock collection.

An Ashley Bruce original.

Loved all of the vintage hardware in their place. Hated having to leave.

What's Inside: Kingsley Woolworth + Caleigh Toye

I'm in New York this week (and ironically just started blogging for the L.A. Times Home section—more on that later), staying with my great friend Kingsley and her boyfriend Caleigh in their little Upper East Side sanctuary. It's a very small space, but they've been genius at utilizing the square footage to make it highly functional. They've also been great at combining both of their tastes. It's a great spot, but I'm actively trying to convince them to move to L.A., so I don't want to lay it on too thick. Above a photo of four month old "Bee" Toye.




Caw...cawwwww!


Inside the fireplace, clever storage.





Cale showing off his main decor contribution, a signed photograph of famed hunter Tred Barta.

Priscilla Woolworth house tour

Last Friday I stopped by one of my favorite places in L.A., the home of Priscilla Woolworth. She lives and operates her newly launched eco-friendly general store out of her lush 1920s Spanish compound in The Valley. Over the years she's owned it, Priscilla has added on rooms, re-done garden sheds and back houses to create one of the best live/work properties I've ever seen. First, we'll check out some of the living space, then we'll look into her works spaces.

Priscilla's lunch and dinner invites are a highly coveted commodity among friends and family. She seamlessly fuses her childhood spent in France and her love of organic California cooking in the kitchen. Yum, yum!

The tablescapes at casa Woolworth are always subtle and purposeful.


Birdcage as wall sculpture. I love the use of negative space here.

The avocado green kitchen built-ins were in place when Priscilla moved in, but she couldn't imagine re-doing her kitchen any differently.

Art at Priscilla's has no hierarchy. Work by Jamie Wyeth hangs indiscriminately among modern prints picked up in downtown L.A.





The Priscilla Woolworth store mascot, bad bad LeRoy Brown.


Priscilla's work spaces are full of inspiration boards and bold color. She rigorously tests her products to make sure they're not just packaged well, but also that they are actually green and that they work better than anything else on the market. The Woolworth retail brand has stepped into the 21st century!

Priscilla showing off a new pin board made from recycled magazine pages in her office.




One of the stock rooms, with variations on her signature Golden Rules painting ($120) on wood.

A French all-purpose cleaner being considered for the store.


Priscilla showing off a wasp catcher from her stock room. Just add sugar water to it and place it around your dining table for a peaceful and non-toxic al fresco meal.

Check out Priscilla Woolworth's online store often as it is growing and new products are added frequently. I can't emphasize enough how well her products work and how intensive the testing phase is. Good stuff all around.