A Classic Uncovered

Production executive Stokely Chaffin doesn’t need a garage door opener. When she returns to her home in the hills above West Hollywood, she drives under the burlap curtain that hangs across the double carport as if she’s driving through a carwash.

Burlap is just one of the touches that makes Chaffin’s residence unique. Built by architect Richard Neutra in the late 1950s, the 2,000-square-foot two-story home sits on the edge of a canyon. A carport and its jutting roof dominate the structure’s facade, and the light-filled interiors are surrounded by broad cantilevered decks that project over the rear garden at the foot of the slope.

“I found it by accident while dating a guy who lived around the corner. I walked in and exclaimed ‘Goodness, this is my house!’ ” Chaffin recalls. “I looked at 40 more and kept coming back to this one, even though it wasn’t so pretty at that time and I couldn’t afford to buy it.” Growing up in Alabama with two sisters in an old house she describes as “always upside down,” she was intrigued by the prospect of living by herself in a crisp, angular space. When the Neutra house dropped out of escrow and the price came down, she jumped at the opportunity.

Chaffin selected architects Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner of Marmol Radziner + Associates to restore her home after seeing pictures of their work at Neutra’s Kaufmann house in Palm Springs. “At one point I wanted concrete floors, illuminated counters and splashes of red,” she says. “Leo smiled and nodded, but was smart enough to realize I didn’t really want to live in a nightclub.” Marmol, who supervised the yearlong upgrade, remembers that “the house was dingy--we had to wake it up. She gave us a 12-page wish list and we had to prioritize that to achieve the greatest impact on a tight budget.”

The team installed white oak floors in the upstairs living area, guest bedroom and downstairs master suite. Next they stained the oak floors and surrounding redwood decks and paneled one of the living room walls in birch to create a sense of unity between indoors and outdoors. Yet the room retains an airiness with its white plaster walls, silver window frames and a narrow chrome support column, which stands in the home’s center.

Neutra’s original design called for floor-to-ceiling glass for two of the carport walls, which afforded passersby a view of the home’s interior. Later owners covered these windows with chip board and wood siding for privacy and to shut out traffic noise. Marmol and Radziner reinstalled the glass but also added a low wall around the staircase opening, which partially obscures the interior from public view. Chaffin’s burlap curtain provides an additional layer of privacy, and when the wall went in, Chaffin said she felt even less exposed.

The architects unblocked a side window in the guest room, rebuilt the kitchen with dark cabinets and installed a geometric fireplace in the downstairs bedroom. These improvements enhanced the basic character of the house as an indoors-outdoors space with its stunning view of the canyon and the distant towers of downtown. The deck, protected from sun and rain by the projecting roof, wraps around two sides of the living room. Exterior steps lead from the deck off of the master bedroom to the garden, and two towering palms provide a visual anchor.

“This is a house that doesn’t need a lot of stuff,” says Chaffin. “Like Michelle Pfeiffer, it looks beautiful without makeup. It gives me a feeling of happiness from the time I get up in the morning, and it improves my attitude toward the world.”