Caitlin Villarreal felt dizzy the first time she entered the rental of Whitley Heights, a Mediterranean style penthouse from 1926 with imposing ceilings, hand carved wooden beams and a pair of arched libraries along an oversized chimney.
“He had good energy,” said Villarreal about the 1,500 square feet apartment that she rents for $ 5,300 per month in a historic district where Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin and Bette Davis formerly lived. “It is emblematic just while standing up year after year. He has windows of” old Hollywood “which open unexpectedly to the set on the board.
Even after three days spent cleaning the ashes and sooted after devastating fires in Los Angeles in January, Villarreal said she was the happiest she had been for years. “It is the magic of this house,” she said while her 2-year-old British cat, Zuse, wrapped himself with elegance on a velvet chair that she bought at Gramercy Park Hotel liquidation sale.
“I want my house to be a sanctuary,” said Caitlin Villarreal, with Zuse, his Penthouse Whitley Heights overlooking Hollywood.
Villarreal, co-founder of Lola & Veranda, a luxury organic bedding subscription service, works in her home office illuminated by a crystal chandelier that she bought on the invaluable application.
After 20 years in New York and five in Weston, Connecticut, Villarreal, who grew up in Granada Hills and frequented the Crossroads school in Santa Monica, is delighted to be at home in what she calls the oasis of her divorce. “The last three tenants, including me, have all divorced,” she said.
And despite the difficult changes in her personal life, she feels effervescent joy to find the ideal place to land. “This district is all I did not know that could be,” she said about Whitley Heights, which is in the national register of historic places. “Foot processor, warm, social, moving like a crow to tolerate the crows, decadent and shocking green and succulents.” It is also from a distance from one of the most emblematic monuments of Los Angeles. “I just bought seasonal tickets for Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl,” she said with excitation.
Everything in the living room is “pre-loved”, including Zuse the cat.
Not only is the Stately Penthouse the home of the 42 -year -old entrepreneur, but he is also the headquarters of his fourth startup, Lola and VerandaA luxury organic bedding subscription service that she has co -founded.
Supported by a new mantra – “I want to live” – she reshaped the apartment with reused goods from friends, sales of succession, flea markets and the Invaluable Online auction application. “I don't do new shopping,” she said about the habit she developed in Connecticut during the COVVI-19 pandemic. “I'm never going to look back.”
Her new apartment, she said, could not be more different from her six-bedroom house in Connecticut, which she and her husband of the time bought during the pandemic. “My house in Weston was a modern and minimalist box in the woods,” she said.
The 1926 penthouse kitchen cuisine retains its period charm.
His house in Los Angeles always feels modern but with a touch of eclecticism. Colorful textured carpets in a purple, blue, orange, pink and red mixture with low hand tables, artisanal pottery and art and glass top. Shag mats are placed in baths and on the ghost chairs of Philippe Starck Plexiglas, and in the dining room, Villarreal has combined a dining table in emerald green marble in Los Angeles Decorjois With vintage black leather stretch chairs and a zoiled skin carpet on the flea market on the merchant market.
In Connecticut, Villarreal's kitchen was fully equipped with Black Matte “like a Moleskine notebook”. Its modest kitchen kitchen in Los Angeles retains its charming period tile and its high height cabinets which reach the 14 feet ceiling. A simple white wardrobe and birch of Ikea serves as an island. There is no dishwasher, no washer and dryer. “I don't care,” said Villarreal. “I don't cook.”
The Chamber of Villarreal offers more art, Modern Carl Springer furniture in the middle of the century that she inherited from a friend and Lola & Veranda bedding (of course).
With a talented eye for lighting, Villarreal has installed declaration parts throughout the apartment that add heat and drama, including a 40 -inch sparkling disco ball that lights up the living room as a nightclub. A delicate pendant in green glass in her room which she found on invaluable reminds her of Morocco, creating a feeling of intimacy and connection with its space. A crystal chandelier with coral towers in his office is suspended, more attracting attention to a room that could otherwise be ignored. She also discovered the beauty of cheap and chic lighting. “You can transform any room and make it look like a gallery for less than $ 20,” she said. Considerable improvement in the appearance of interiors, Villarreal has installed wireless LED projectors on his works of art and a rechargeable battery Motion sensor lights Under the kitchen cabinets that light up when she enters inside. The key to adding heat, she said, is the addition of Selens dark orange gel filters. “This is what photographers use.”
There is no television, but if she wants to watch a movie or watch a series, she can delete her portable film projector Nebula Mars Pro from the copper pan where it is stored on the hearth and see – the living room is transformed into a projection room.
Villarreal does not cook, but it can order pizza.
Shortly after returning to Los Angeles, Villarreal became a regular at Mickey Hargitay plants A few kilometers away and filled the apartment with huge trees in ceramic jars, giving rooms a bohemian feeling. This mood is particularly pronounced in the living room, where a Ficus tree in the center of the room overlooks a sectional Roche Bobois Missoni Missoni, pillows and Ottomans. “I'm all about lounging,” she said. “This space will only slide over time over time.”
The lush motif is transported outside on the kitchen deck, where the palm trees of the hill, the Bougainvillea and the citrus are providing a shade for the table and the chairs.
Regarding art, Villarreal said that it “drops pieces without rhyme or reason on the ground and finally hang them. Art should not fight its space to be seen or shouting as a framework next to peace and tranquility, “she said. “When it works, it works. I am not a collector; I am a drug addict in the field, which makes him much less serious. ”
The chimney is flanked by targeted libraries.
The Villarreal flea market finds.
What is most amazing in Villarreal's apartment is that you would never know that she recently moved. Carpets, lighting and indoor plants can be new, but the penthouse feels lived and familiar, as comforting as its beloved Zuse, who made the trek in Los Angeles with her. “I had a lot of Taskrabbit help,” she said, laughing.
In addition to being a paradise for divorced them, the apartment has CRED celebrities: “There is a good chance that Stevie Nicks lived here in 1971,” said Villarreal about the glamorous history of the apartment. (It was also presented in the New York Times' Home and Garden Section In 2011.) The last tenant, an artist, lived in the apartment for six years. “People tend to stay here,” she said. She plans to do the same. “They will have to get me from here.”
The original bathroom tile has been preserved.
The 1926 bathroom feels frozen in time.
How she made her historic Hollywood rental like her at home forever
- “First install your large anchor factories and the furniture in second position.”
- “Do not be afraid of the shiny painting; he changes the game in small striking spaces such as staircase balustrades and bathroom ceilings.”
- “Buy art you like, then hang it respectfully.”
- “Jump the target for” little things “to fill a space and go to fleas, or spend an hour on a priceless.”
- “Shit and bathroom rental kitchen?” Get unexpected cool equipment, and that's it! A two-week post-bootox boost. ”
- “Textures: the more crazy there is.”
- “Players and mountains of subcontractors: more texture, more shapes and less matching. It becomes chaotic here, but it works.”
- “Prélate: this whole house is pre-loved on the finds of the sale of succession, gifts and auction discoveries.”
- “Bas on the ground: the lowest, the better. The ceilings of the cathedral double like art, and the massive Tree Dead Center occupies a lot of space.”
Zuse capitalizes on a photo session in Villarreal's room.
Views of Hollywood to twilight.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
