A Homeowner's Risky Design Choices Define This Los Angeles Renovation

Cassandra Richardson had a clear vision in mind for her home and trusted her gut in spite of concerns her design ideas were too risky.

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July 07, 2022

By: Kassondra Cloos

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Photo By: Sam Wadieh

A Lucky Find in the Hills of Mt. Washington, Los Angeles

When Cassandra Richardson and her husband, Dan, found this home in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles in 2017, they stretched the limits of their budget to make it work. Once a remote, mountainous retreat reachable by an incline railway, many of the homes here are built into the hillside and require stilts. But this home is on a flat plot, opening up exciting possibilities for beautiful landscaping. While Cassandra and Dan aren't professional interior designers, they're both deeply creative — Cassandra works in film and television development and Dan is a digital product designer — and decided to design their new home's renovation themselves. Throughout the remodel process, Cassandra heard pushback from friends and contractors about her big, risky design ideas. But ultimately, she trusted her gut — and loved the way the home turned out.

An All-White Kitchen Makes the Most of Available Space

When Cassandra’s family moved in, the house needed a lot of work — the kitchen didn’t have a fridge, or a good space for one, and it had built-in ovens that seemed to be from the '50s or '60s. “We knew we had to do the kitchen right away, because it wasn’t even functional,” she says. But one thing they loved about the original was how light and bright it was. So, for the remodel, they put in all-white cabinets, white quartz countertops, a white sink, a white tile backsplash, white appliances and so on. “It’s a small space, so we really wanted it to feel inobtrusive,” she says.

Taking the Backsplash Up to the Ceiling Makes for a Bold Kitchen Redesign

Cassandra originally wanted to have a corner window joint here, where two panes of glass would meet at the corner and provide an uninterrupted view to the outdoors. But a quick price check revealed that was well out of the question — so instead, they went with two large awning-style windows that open as one piece, rather than two panes of glass that slide open over one another. Like other high-impact areas around the house, Cassandra was also advised against running the backsplash tile all the way up to the ceiling. But she knew what she wanted, pushed forward in spite of others’ concerns, and loved the way it came out. “Our contractor thought we were insane,” she says, and nearly refused to do it. But in the end? Everyone agreed it looked amazing.

Start by Dreaming Big and then Scale Down to What Your Budget Allows

When Cassandra first considered what to do with the fireplace, she wanted to remove it and turn the entire back wall into a giant, telescoping glass wall. Then she looked into it and it would have cost tens of thousands of dollars — way out of the budget. Instead, she kept the fireplace, made it a conversation piece and added a smaller telescoping door just to the left of it.

Painting the Fireplace Black was a Risky but Rewarding Design Choice

When Cassandra first thought of painting this stone fireplace black, people told her she might be making a big mistake. You can’t hit the undo button on painting natural stone, so the stakes were high. “We were a little nervous about it,” she says. “I did a lot of photoshopping to see if it would work.” But ultimately, she’s glad she did it. “I think it really elevates the room,” she says.

Bright, White Walls Make Living Room Feel Much More Spacious

The black fireplace is a stark contrast to the bright, white living room, which gets plenty of natural light thanks to large windows and telescoping doors. It makes the space feel much bigger, Cassandra says, almost as if the outside is coming in.

Bold, Beverly Hills-Inspired Wallpaper Is a Worthy Splurge

Throughout the home, Cassandra pays homage to some of her and Dan's favorite places. Here, the wallpaper is inspired by the Beverly Hills Hotel. “We’re still wowed by everything California and Los Angeles,” Cassandra says. “I never want to be unimpressed by this place.” She and Dan knew they wanted this specific wallpaper, Palm Pacifico, from designer Nathan Turner, long before they covered the walls with it. (You can also find it in green from Anthropologie.)

Principal Bathroom Enlarged by Building Into a Linen Closet

The principal bathroom was the last project to be completed, and it is a dramatic change from the home’s original design. Initially, this bathroom was about 5 feet by 6 feet, with a small corner shower with no door. The only light fixture doubled as a heat lamp, which wasn’t ideal, especially for summers in LA. The redesign involved changing the floor plan of the house to eliminate a linen closet to create more space in the bathroom.

Ceiling Tiles in the Shower Gives the Principal Bathroom a Special Feel

As in the kitchen, Cassandra opted to take shower tile where it normally doesn’t venture. Instead of just tiling the walls, she opted to take the tile in the primary bathroom all the way up to the ceiling, which gives the feeling of “showering in a jewel,” as one of her friends put it.

Rethinking the Principal Bedroom Entryway Changes the Feel of the Space

When they expanded the bathroom into the linen closet, Cassandra and Dan also expanded their bedroom into the hall to create an entryway for themselves. They raised the ceiling in the room to give a different feel from the rest of the house, and Cassandra says it was a massive improvement. “This is such a cool tale of how the way you enter a room, changes it,” she says. “We didn’t change the footprint of anything in the actual bedroom, the space is the exact same, but somehow adding this entryway to it and lifting the ceilings makes it feel twice the size that it was. It makes a real retreat in the home.”

Twin Kids’ Bedrooms Look Out Into the Home’s Greenery

Aside from the principal bedroom suite, the home has two other bedrooms that are identical to one another and serve as Cassandra’s kids’ rooms. Their windows peer into the plantings on the side of the house. Black window frames nod to the home’s exterior color scheme.

Know Your Strengths — and Hire an Expert for the Rest

Exhausted from the stress of the pandemic and the rest of the renovation work on the house, they decided to call in Sarita Jaccard to professionally design the landscaping for the yard — the first time they hired a designer for the project. Amazingly, Cassandra had been admiring Sarita’s work on walks around her neighborhood without realizing it; Sarita was building a home about a block away from Cassandra’s. “I had been watching it be built and was obsessed with it the whole time,” Cassandra says.

Having Highly Specific Inspiration Can Make the Design Process Much Easier

Cassandra loves the aesthetic of Two Bunch Palms, a hot spring resort outside Los Angeles, and pulled on the hotel for inspiration for her own home’s landscaping. “I literally was just like, ‘make it Two Bunch Palms meets Joshua Tree, but liveable,’ and she [Sarita] was like, ‘Say no more.’” Sarita’s design was imaginative and far beyond what Cassandra would have thought of for the space, she says. “There’s all these different experiences as you enter the house,” Cassandra says, with the front of the house, the courtyard and the backyard all offering something different. “It’s really, really beautiful,” Cassandra says. “You get back there, and you’re transported to a different place. It feels like a destination.”

Hand-Pressed Concrete Makes a Budget-Friendly Alternative to Cobblestone

Cassandra originally had cobblestone in mind for this courtyard area, but then decided on a more affordable alternative: cement hand-pressed to look like stone. A redwood fence surrounds the property and pops against the home’s black exterior. The courtyard also has its own midcentury, wood-burning fireplace, where Cassandra says she and Dan usually spent most of their time once they’d put the kids to bed.

Even Budget Décor From IKEA Can Pack a Big Visual Impact

Throughout the house, Cassandra and Dan worked to stretch their design budget as far as they could, aiming for big visual impact on a more affordable scale. When Cassandra saw these solar pendants from IKEA with orange wiring that matches the orange tones in their landscaping, she knew they were perfect. And being super-affordable was an extra bonus.

Cedar and Redwood in the Backyard Make the Space Feel Warm and Grounded

With a sprawling redwood deck and pathway to the cedar hot tub, Mexican fencepost cactuses, and valley views, it’s hard to beat the feeling this backyard provides, Cassandra says.

Bringing Their Favorite Destinations Into their Home's Design

Cassandra and Dan did much of the redesigning of this home while they were stuck at home during the pandemic, so they tried to bring their favorite places into the design of the home while they weren’t able to visit them. One of those special places is Joshua Tree National Park, so they tried to capture some of those desert vibes in the backyard landscaping. They asked themselves, "If we're going to be here, where is it that we feel our best and most creative?" Cassandra says. "For us, Joshua Tree and the desert is a destination that allows us to really relax, refresh and create, so we want to create that space in our home."

The Home’s Black Exterior is an Excellent Backdrop for Colorful Landscaping

All the natural cedar and redwood in the backyard provide a warm, grounding feeling, and adds nice contrast against the home. “That natural wood color looks so pretty against the black house,” she says. All the different colors in the landscaping pop against one another, too, she says. “It kind of just allows everything this beautiful backdrop to really shine.”

Secondhand Furniture is the Ultimate Budget Buy

After having the yard landscaped, Cassandra says her kids complained it wasn’t kid-friendly enough, that it was a “grown-up yard” and not fun for them. There wasn’t enough room for a traditional swing set, but then Cassandra got lucky. She found this cedar frame through a Los Angeles group where people sell and trade things they’re getting rid of. Even though it’s intended for a porch seat, a single wooden swing fits perfectly — and is exactly what the kids wanted.

Looking for ways to find or get rid of furniture and decor more sustainably? See if your area has a Buy Nothing group, which is an international platform for people to give away or lend things they don't need anymore to others within their own community. Everything on offer is completely free. Olio is another, similar app operating in dozens of countries, but which allows people to search beyond their own neighborhoods and sell items as well as give them away.

Sweeping Sunset Views Make This a Magical Place to Live

With sweeping mountain views right from the backyard, Cassandra's family is lucky to have incredible sunsets that cast the home in a magical glow. “There’s something about the light in LA that’s really special,” Cassandra says. “I’ve lived in a lot of places, and I don’t see light like this anywhere else.” It’s simply magical, she says, and it’s one of the things that originally sold them on the house when they visited before buying.

A Perfectly Placed Cedar Hot Tub Creates a Big Visual Impact

Cassandra dreamed of having a backyard pool with a negative edge, which makes it appear as though the pool doesn’t have an edge at all. Getting one ended up being completely out of the question for their budget, but they landed on an impressive solution — a cedar hot tub that appears perched right on the edge of the hillside.

Redoing the Garage Was a Pandemic Requirement

Cassandra and Dan didn’t use the garage for much before the pandemic. It had unsightly beams and wires hanging everywhere, plus far too many spiders for Cassandra’s liking — it was essentially just the laundry room. But when they started working from home, it became prime real estate, and they got to work making the space much cozier.

Exposing Wooden Beams in the Garage Made the Space Much Cozier

Cassandra had the garage gutted to the studs, and in the process the beams took on a much more aesthetically pleasing quality. Instead of redoing the ceiling, they left the beams exposed and put up a wall of simple IKEA storage cabinets — again maximizing visual impact and utility on a budget. They also upgraded to a shinier new washing machine that doesn’t need to hide behind a closet door.