INTERIORS : Irreverent Renovation : A Husband-and-Wife Design Team Mixes Styles and Eras : in a Radically Chic Santa Monica Bungalow

HE’S AN attorney, she’s an opera singer. Without a doubt, the style image usually suggested by these two professions is far more conservative than the decidedly hip renovation undertaken recently on this couple’s unpretentious, ‘30s-era stucco bungalow.

When the Santa Monica-based, husband-and-wife design team of Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg was commissioned to remodel the existing interior and add a 400-square-foot den at the rear of the house, they deliberately set out to create an exuberant mismatch of styles. Westside neighbors rested easily, however--from the front, the house remained virtually unchanged. Only a hint of the addition can be seen from the driveway.

Inside, the home has become bright, smart and canny in an irreverent style that has become indigenous to Los Angeles. Design motifs of the ‘20s through the ‘50s are mixed with high-style ‘80s Italian furnishings and purposely lowbrow, low-cost building materials (in this case, vinyl flooring and unpainted tin) to create unusual, sometimes startling juxtapositions.

In the new den, for instance, traditional, lawyerly wainscoting is noticeably absent. Instead, corrugated-tin siding covers the wall behind the television and stereo equipment. This simple exterior building material also lines the walls of the renovated bath, where twin sinks seem to float side by side under inexpensive medicine cabinets.

In renovating the kitchen, Koning and Eizenberg removed walls to create one large, open room with a central, built-in table that is used both for breakfast dining and as additional counter space. A tin vent pipe over the stove was left unfinished; a tin water-heater closet was installed as a pantry. Not even the flooring obeys traditional dictates: Dark tiles are set amid white ones in artistic patches in front of the sink and stove. Similar whimsical tile designs show up in the den and bathroom.

The rest of the house was left to its original design. The dining room, entered through a graceful arch, was merely repainted; for a witty touch, Koning and Eizenberg designed a table to match ‘50s-style dining chairs and buffet.