Antonio Adriano Puleo didn’t intend to renovate his conventional 1946 bungalow within the Glassell Park neighborhood simply north of Mt. Washington, however after consulting with architectural designer Ben Warwas, who informed him he might remodel the home right into a “eternally house,” the artist modified his plans.
“I initially needed an ADU,” Puleo stated of including an adjunct dwelling unit to increase the artwork studio in his storage. “For me, it was about having a much bigger studio and having the ability to have collectors and curators come to the studio.”
Nonetheless, as Warwas explored the two-bedroom house and nook property — the designer had beforehand designed and constructed a wooden deck in Puleo’s yard — he started to examine a brand new narrative for the areas.
The Glassell Park house earlier than the renovations.
(Ben Warwas)
The outside of the home and ADU is now painted brilliant yellow. There’s additionally quick access to the outside.
“The lounge wasn’t sufficiently big, and it featured an enormous crimson brick hearth that had doorways on both facet of it, resulting in the yard,” stated Warwas, who first met Puleo once they have been undergraduate college students at Massachusetts School of Artwork (now referred to as Massachusetts School of Artwork and Design). “To entry the outside, you needed to stroll down concrete steps to a lined patio.”
Paired with a 3rd door off the kitchen, the house’s entrance to the yard was awkward at finest.
After touring the property, Warwas proposed some refined modifications: including a 250-square-foot ADU to the storage, eradicating the hearth and elevating the ceiling peak in the lounge; including a loft bed room within the attic; and redesigning the outside of the home.
The entrance of the 1946 home stays the identical.
“It was a small undertaking, however there have been a number of points with the home,” Warwas stated. “I assumed, ‘Why don’t I suggest 4 various things and he can select two or three of them?’ He selected all 4.”
Puleo, 49, bought the bungalow in 2010 for $387,500 after seeing an advert for a two-bedroom house “priced nicely for a fast sale” in Glassell Park. Though only one,000 sq. toes in dimension, the home provided a yard for his canine and a indifferent storage.
“The storage was actually the draw,” Puleo stated. “The factor about the home that attracted me is that it had an area that could possibly be a studio.”
The lounge of Puleo’s Glassell Park house earlier than it was redone.
(Ben Warwas)
Puleo, standing, and Warwas in the lounge at the moment. “We each have a love of design,” Puleo stated of his longtime buddy.
Shortly after buying the home, Puleo renovated the kitchen and toilet, opened up the wall between the 2 areas and widened the kitchen door. “There have been so many doorways,” he stated of the compartmentalized flooring plan. “Doorways within the kitchen; doorways within the eating room.”
Nonetheless, it wasn’t straightforward to succeed in the storage, which housed his artwork studio, and the adjoining laundry room. “I used to be at all times annoyed with the home as a result of it was not maximizing house effectively,” Puleo stated. “The studio was indifferent, and we needed to enter by a gate.”
And so the makeover started.
Warwas tore out the hearth and prolonged the lounge by six toes, including a smooth Fleetwood sliding door that offered immediate entry to the yard. Then, he raised the ceiling of the lounge and added a sculptural curve that utterly reworked the dwelling house.
As a result of the house had a posh roof and an accessible attic, Warwas then reworked the attic right into a loft that Puleo makes use of as his important bed room. (The 2 bedrooms on the primary flooring are used as a den and a gallery house/visitor room.) Because of the excessive ceilings and a brand new skylight, the attic now floods the middle of the lounge under with pure mild.
Puleo’s patterned canvases dangle within the ADU.
The ADU, which is connected to the storage, and simply six inches from the primary home, includes a kitchen, toilet and dwelling space. Puleo is utilizing it as a part of his artwork studio.
“Little tweaks completely reworked the home,” Warwas stated.
Within the storage, Warwas designed an ADU that may operate as an artwork studio or rental, that includes a small kitchen, toilet and sufficient room for a mattress. The design of the ADU was rigorously thought of to maximise house and lightweight, with a skylight and excessive window flooding the house with mild.
A stage shift gives a dramatic expertise while you step into the ADU, as the ground drops under to the artwork studio and the ceiling goes up, creating a way of spaciousness.
Puleo selected brilliant blue tiles from Daltile for the bathe of the ADU.
The lounge of the primary home is now open and ethereal, with customized cupboards and millwork by James Melinat that showcase the paintings Puleo made himself and the items he has collected for greater than 30 years, together with ceramic pendants by Torbjörn Vejvi and Courtney Duncan, vessels by Bari Ziperstein and Pilar Wiley, and work by Patricia Fernández and Steven Criqui.
The lounge’s hearth is gone, however the wood mantle stays atop a console behind the couch, graced with a sequence of colourful ceramic planters by Ashley Campbell and Brian Porray of Comfortable Hour Ceramics.
“Ben and I’ve identified one another since we have been in school,” Puleo stated, emphasizing their long-standing relationship and the collaborative nature of their course of. “The enjoyable factor concerning the undertaking is that we did a number of forwards and backwards by way of speaking shapes and varieties. We each have a love of design, and Ben does an important job of utilizing conventional supplies in a approach that ignites them and will increase the dynamics of an area.”
Puleo’s artwork studio, a former storage, rests a couple of steps under the brand new ADU.
On a latest go to, Warwas was nonetheless fine-tuning house enchancment prospects. “You might put a stackable washer and dryer right here,” he steered to Puleo as they stood within the hallway. (Puleo had moved the home equipment from the laundry room within the storage to the basement of the primary home.)
Equally, Warwas appreciates Puelo’s curatorial expertise. “He’s made his house so private,” Warwas stated of his buddy, who, for the final 12 months, has featured the works of native artists in one of many downstairs bedrooms, which served as an artwork gallery.
“It’s an incredible home,” Warwas stated of the interiors, that are enhanced by the artworks and make guests really feel related to the house.
“Individuals usually take notes once they come to go to,” Puleo stated of his artwork assortment.
1. Designer Ben Warwas stands contained in the 250-square foot ADU, which includes a tall window and a skylight. 2. Within the former storage, stairs from the artwork studio lead as much as the ADU and toilet. (Lisa Boone / Los Angeles Instances )
From the sidewalk, the normal stucco bungalow appears like so many others within the neighborhood. However step into the yard, previous the colourful work, textiles, tiles, stained glass and ceramics and the brand new rear exterior — painted a brilliant yellow — and it’s like a totally totally different property.
“The entrance of the home didn’t change, and the again of the home is completely totally different,” Warwas stated of the outside, which reminds him of a chunk of paper that has been reduce up and folded collectively. “It’s a enjoyable second.”
That he was capable of completely remodel the home with out including a lot sq. footage doesn’t escape him. “It creates a panorama the place you possibly can journey forwards and backwards, and the backyard is now rather more part of the home,” Warwas stated. “The yard obtained smaller, nevertheless it feels greater.”
A stained-glass panel by Puleo hangs within the toilet.
Regardless of a $95,000 ADU addition finally rising right into a $320,000 overhaul for the property, Puleo is completely happy to have the flexibleness that comes with dwelling in a house with two separate areas.
“I might add a lofted mattress and dwell within the ADU and make artwork and hire out the home if I needed,” Puleo stated. “It might enable me to trip between the East and West coasts and educate and be with my household in Boston.”
As he sat taking all of it in from his eating room desk overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains, the artist stated, “The home is tremendous environment friendly now. This can be a magical house.”
Puleo additionally selected colourful textiles for his canine Ono’s mattress.
