When Thomas Wolfe wrote his posthumously published novel You Can’t Go Home Again, he couldn’t have foreseen one Southern California-raised couple’s homeward bound determination—or the design firm that would help them reach the end of their “dream home” journey.
The breakfast nook is one of the family’s favorite places to convene throughout the day. The custom blackened oak table was fabricated by Corey Joseph and is flanked by a custom-designed banquette and modernist Italian oak and straw chairs found on 1stDibs. The wood Totem sconces are from Allied Maker, and the ceramic vessel and glass vase are by artists Vince Palacios and Austin Fields, respectively.
Situated among equally historic properties in an idyllic South Pasadena neighborhood is a Craftsman-style home that bridges its past to the future—and 117 years of history—through a thoughtful redesign. Originally built in 1908, the home had already lived a lot of life by the time architect-designer Cayley Lambur, co-founder of Los Angeles-based Electric Bowery, came along. In fact, it was her friendship with one of the homeowners that stretched years back to time spent on the East Coast that made her client’s forever home a reality. “I was friends with the husband when we both lived in New York and, actually, he invested in a couple of our early development projects when we started,” Lambur explains of the firm she conceived with Lucia Bartholomew in 2013. “He was a fan of our work and always said he hoped we’d design his home one day.”
In the guest bedroom, Benjamin Moore’s Citrine paint color is a sunny base for this welcoming guest bedroom. The bed is dressed in a vintage crochet bedspread and linens from Kneeland Co. Rarities. A rattan weave pendant hangs overhead and a vintage minimalist teak lamp with a rattan shade from 1stDibs sits bedside. On the wall is a work by artist Saxon Quinn.
For the clients, an active, design-savvy couple with three daughters under the age of 14, the idea of home meant digging in close to their roots. “They both grew up in South Pasadena and have deep ties to the community—they were actually living in a Craftsman [nearby] but wanted more space,” shares Lambur. “They’ve always been looking for their dream home, but the one they lived in before this was very traditional. When we started the project, they gave us a really long leash, because he wanted us to have the bandwidth and creativity to design a home we could all be really proud of.”
And, according to Electric Bowery’s design director, Daniella Gohari, what they started with was anything but livable. “When they bought the home, it hadn’t been lived in for several years—think Grey Gardens, but in Pasadena,” she says laughing. “But they’d kept their eye on it for a while; it was historic, and it had really beautiful bones.” So, when it finally hit the market, they pounced. The design team’s ensuing challenge was how to reconcile the original elements of the home while updating it for the way a family would live today. After opening up walls, raising some ceilings, adding onto the existing structure and ultimately reconfiguring the home’s flow, what they ended up with was a two-story, five-bedroom, three-full and two-half-bathroom, 6,188-square-foot urban retreat. “It’s a fresh take on an American Craftsman,” says the firm’s director of interiors, Stephanie Luk. “It’s not super serious and feels very relaxed.”
SEE HOW THIS TEAM OF CRAFTSWOMEN UPDATED AN HISTORIC CRAFTSMAN
“When we first walked into the house it felt like you were on a boat because everything was out of plumb,” says Gohari, referring to the small dark rooms and incomprehensible flow. “To get into the kitchen you had to enter through a powder room—I don’t know anyone who would want to live that way, then or now.” But revitalizing—and reusing—original details was important to the designers. “A lot of the leaded glass windows were damaged and had to be restored,” adds Lambur. “Keeping those details was really important, as was brightening the [interiors] to achieve a certain level of warmth.” And, as most designers would agree, color is key. “We took traditional Craftsman colors—those saturated blues, reds and greens—and applied them intentionally to the more intimate spaces, like the study.”
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