I’ve had a lot of requests to do more decor posts, so consider this the official kick-off to a series where I’m going to share the updates and changes we’ve made, and continue making, to our home since moving in three years ago.

When we bought our 1927 Hollywood Hills home, we fell in love with its charm. It has original details like high-beam hand-painted ceilings, 100-year-old tile, and all the little nooks and crannies that generally apply to Spanish style homes in LA. With all its charm, it also needed quite a bit of work which was something we happened to be looking for. We had seen 90+ homes before walking into this one and after seeing that many homes, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted. One major criteria was a place we could make our own. This Spanish home nestled into the mountains overlooking Hollywood had just that – great bones, all the charm, and a crying need for an update.

The kitchen needed a facelift as did the powder room and master bath, things like the floors needed a little TLC, fresh paint was a must and the list of small projects like light fixtures, closets, etc. goes on and on and on. So, we made a list of priorities and began tackling them project by project. The last project we did, besides updating the nursery, was updating the furniture in our living room, so lets start there because it’s my favorite space in our house.

We have a beautiful view of Los Angeles, from downtown to the ocean, and opposite side the view is a cozy, wood-burning fireplace aka my favorite place all winter long. The first part of the makeover for this room came prior to moving in. The hardwood floors throughout the house were a reddish wood so we stained those to be dark and rich, updated the light fixtures, and added window treatments. Just recently, we finally tackled furniture.

The furniture we moved in with was a hodgepodge of what my husband and I owned prior to living together (we moved in together once we were engaged) and it somehow kind of worked (see the before here), but at the same time didn’t and wasn’t right for the room. The room was calling for a much simpler palette, one that allowed you to fixate on the view or the fireplace, and so was my soul. I wanted this room to feel much more calm than it did with our old furniture, so we swapped out the heavy materials opting for neutrals with texture and special vintage pieces.

We worked with Courtney Applebaum (famous for designing The Row store on Melrose Place) to help us accomplish our goals and she was wonderful. She was able to help us wrap our heads around scale (the room is rather large with 18ft ceilings) and pushed us to buy pieces we may not have considered otherwise. Do we like?

Next up: the kitchen.