See the Gorgeous Transition That Brought This 1927 LA Tudor Home into 2023

When Joelle Kutner and Jesse Rudolph found this Los Angeles home once owned by burlesque star Lili St. Cyr, they knew it was their next big redesign. Joelle and Jesse co-founded Ome Dezin to renovate homes together, and this project seemed too interesting to pass up. The Tudor-style house was built in 1927 and presented an incredible opportunity to blend its original features with modern upgrades.

When they first bought the house, this room was painted yellow — every room had a dedicated color, Joelle says. To modernize it, she and Jesse painted the walls and wooden beams white, which allows the original hardware on the beams to stand out. The fireplace isn't currently functional because of earthquake damage to the chimney in the '90s, so they tiled over it to make a pretty focal point for the room.

The house has four functioning fireplaces, so instead of fixing or removing this damaged one, Jesse and Joelle turned it into an ornamental feature. "It's a nice focal point of a room," Joelle says. "If it were me, I would put candles on the hearth. I think it's a nice point to draw your eye into the space." They also removed the closets on either side of the fireplace and added open shelving instead. The pendant lights hanging here are from Astep.

Jesse and Joelle completely redid the home's kitchen. Originally, the kitchen was small, with a galley-style configuration, and this laundry closet took up too much space. So, they changed the floor plan slightly to expand the kitchen and moved the laundry unit elsewhere.