sneak peek: heather taylor

all week heather taylor has been doing a wonderful job as our guest blogger sharing bits of her style and a fresh taste of LA. so as she continues to share a couple more posts this week, we thought it only appropriate to share a sneak peek of her LA home she shares with boyfriend and co-gallery owner, alex de cordoba (he’s also the photographer behind this sneak peek) . i love that she describes her style as “moroccan modern meets an english library by way of a flea market.” and all i know is that as it gets crazy cold (for october) here on the east coast, i’d kill to hang out in her backyard right about now! you can click here for more, full-sized images of their great place. if you find yourself in LA anytime soon, be sure to check out gallery taylor de cordoba and don’t forget to check out LA in bloom, heather’s guide inspiration around LA. [thanks heather and alex!] –anne

[Above: The backyard is a great space to entertain.  The previous owners of the house left the moroccan-style couch, which we decorated with cozy pillows.  They also left this odd yet beautiful carved headboard looking piece, which we hung above the couch, to create a cozy space.  Our good friend and noted landscape designer Tory Polone, helped us create this space. I’m obsessed with succulents so I fill the space with many different varieties.  This is really our outdoor living room. ]

Our house was built in 1924 and is part of a historic preservation district in Hollywood called Spaulding Square, which consists of about 160 houses on four streets right off the Sunset Strip. This is the area where silent movie stars used to live in the 20s and Lucille Ball lived here too.  Most of the houses are craftsmen, but ours looks a bit like an English cottage.

The living room is quite large, so I divided the space into a proper living room on the left and a foyer/library on the right.  This library area houses one of my prized possessions, an original Eames lounger, which I inherited from my grandmother.

Dining Room – We found the “bar” at a flea market and display our vintage bar accessories (an owl bottle opener, an Anri bottle stopper and a black patent leather ice bucket), along with our ever growing collection of grappa and tequila. The bar is presided over by an American painting by Gertrude B. Coffin, circa 1933, which we bought at an Antiques show in Chicago.

My office is where I really get inspired. The wall color relaxes me and I love the chaise lounge, which my parents had tucked away in storage for over a decade until I claimed it.  The chaise is surrounded by really special items: an old knitting bowl inherited from my grandmother, a vintage magazine rack i bought in palm springs, a framed artwork by gallery artist Kyle Field, and an old shadowbox depicting yarn being spun, also from my grandmother. My office is where I keep all my knitting books and cookbooks, too. I store other little priced possessions in the bookcases.

The dining room is an important space since I host a lot of dinner parties and love entertaining. The room has marigold walls, which make everything glow and we painted the interior of the original cabinets a pomegranate color.  The centerpiece of the room is the moroccan chandelier which casts a magical glow. Another standout element of the room is the black cut paper wall piece by the artist Chris Natrop.