An Updated Mid-Century Look for a Modern Californian Home

Photos by Davies Imaging

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Leyla Jaworski of Design Shop Interiors, husband Scott and their 5-year-old son, Jake
Location: Sacramento, California, USA
Size: 111 square metres; 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

The Jaworskis renovated in stages, first making the house more liveable with cosmetic changes like fresh paint and new carpeting. Three years later, they ripped up the backyard and installed a pool. Finally, they tackled the big stuff: a whole-house renovation, including a major overhaul of the kitchen and bathrooms. “I tell people who are renovating, ‘We don’t always get to do it all at once. So take your time,’” Leyla says. “I renovated and spent all the money; then a couple years later, I could buy new furniture.”

She opened up the living room by replacing a wall with an 2.4 x 1.5-metre window and by installing glass doors on both sides of the fireplace. “The house is so small, we wanted to make it bright,” she says. That included employing a soft palette of neutral colours – “nothing overwhelming,” she says.

The furniture is an eclectic mix of new and scavenged pieces. She purchased the coffee table for US$60 ($78) online and had her benchtop fabricator cut a leftover piece of white quartz to put on top. “My style leans very mid-century, but I don’t want it to be a kitschy time capsule, so I try to bring in other elements,” she says.

Leather armchair and credenza: West Elm; sectional: Four Hands

The designer removed the old brick from the fireplace and the hearth, and installed hexagonal tile. She then ran the concrete floor right up to the fireplace, avoiding the need for a space-eating hearth. The doors on both sides of the fireplace swing out, “so they don’t swing into my tiny little house,” Leyla says.

A big window (now 1.5 metres wide instead of the original 90 centimetres) and a vaulted ceiling make the kitchen feel roomy and airy. Leyla raised the dropped ceiling over the kitchen to match the vaulted ceiling of the adjoining living room. She describes the kitchen as “modern farmhouse with mid-century furniture.”

Open shelves enlarge the space even more. Leyla’s benchtop fabricator installed white quartz on top of Ikea cabinets, and made the island top and shelves out of pine.

Professional series appliances: Frigidaire; light fixtures: Rejuvenation

The couple’s son, Jake, wanted a Batman theme for his room. The bed alcove was originally the wardrobe for the room on the other side of the wall. She reconfigured the space and installed tongue-and-groove panelling on the alcove walls; her husband built the loft bed with materials that cost about US$60. An Ikea children’s bed underneath the loft is great for sleepovers. Though the walls are painted black, the room “doesn’t feel dark at all,” Leyla says, thanks to the light-coloured floor, ceiling and trim, and the semi-sheer curtains.

Wall painted in ‘Carbon Black’: Kelly-Moore

A washi-tape mural of Gotham City covers the sliding glass doors to the wardrobe. The couple built the wall unit out of plumbing pipe and inexpensive shelving from Lowe’s. “We wanted a spot where our son could have a friend over to sit down and play and draw,” she says.

The playroom was formerly a third bedroom with large double doors that swung into the room. Leyla replaced the two doors with one 1.2-metre pocket door on the left to free up space. The couple also changed the French doors to the right from 1.2 to 1.5 metres and made sure they swung out to open. The storage unit is a combination of Ikea media cabinet installed above three Ikea toy boxes.

Rug: Jaipur

Leyla added architectural detail throughout the house, including cased windows, moulding, tongue-and-groove ceilings and wainscoting in the master bedroom. “Our house on the East Coast was 150 years old, so I craved all that detail,” she says.

The bedside table is vintage. Leyla asked her painter to paint it and change the hardware.

Inside, the guest room features graphic wallpaper and a kantha quilt.

Wallpaper: Spoonflower

The outdoor patio sits under a 12.8-metre-long steel cover that runs the length of the house. The Ikea sectional is “not a typical outdoor sofa, but it’s covered in heavy canvas that wears well with people getting out of the pool wet,” Leyla says.

She bought the coffee table on clearance and used leftover quartz from her kitchen benchtops for the top. The dining table is two prefab picnic tables that her husband rebuilt. “He took the benches off and spaced them 1.5 metres apart, then put 4.5-metre planks down for across the top and for the bench seats,” she says. The couple can seat 15 to 20 for dinner here and hosted this past Thanksgiving, with the help of outdoor heaters spaced around the table.