Before and After: A family affair helps restore a Cliff May midcentury-modern home in Brentwood
By the time Skylar Cozen and her fiance stumbled on the 1956 midcentury-modern home, it was almost too late.
The three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom residence already had 12 offers, and the deadline had passed. Prospective buyers were all attracted to the home’s location.
“It was one of four houses at the end of the cul-de-sac,” Cozen, 27, said. “You feel like you’re in a forest somewhere, but you’re also walking distance to everything in Brentwood Village.”
The home’s architectural details — vaulted ceilings, triangular clerestory windows and exposed post and beams — didn’t hurt, either.
But Cozen and her fiance, Zachary Streit, didn’t give up. The now-married couple, who have a background in real estate and architecture, wrote an offer along with a promise to keep the home’s integrity. It worked.
For $1.825 million, the two got the keys to their dream home. They later found that their new home was part of an intimate, four-home tract designed by famed midcentury architect Cliff May, father of the California ranch house.
Despite its pedigree, the house had serious issues. It was termite-ridden, and water from the pool and around the property persistently formed small ponds around the home because of a raised concrete deck and a falling retaining wall. There had also been several ill-advised remodels that took away from May’s vision.
With the help of Cozen’s family business, Classical Progression Inc., a design-build firm that specializes in fusing past and present, the couple ripped out the additions and made other improvements.
They removed non-structural beams and turned the living room, dining room and kitchen into one open space. Two 8-foot sliding glass panels allow generous light indoors while providing views of the pool, fire pit and barbecue area. Porcelain concrete tiles from Italy replaced the orange-stain flooring throughout.
Classical Progression also carved a den from one of the bedrooms, creating an extra living space away from the main area. “We always want to give people a choice of where to hang out in their house,” said Kevin Cozen, the firm’s founder and lead designer, who is Skylar Cozen’s father. They remodeled the master bath and created a reading nook by opening up a closet.
The firm solved the property’s puddling issue by reconstructing the retaining wall and lowering the outside deck by about 6 inches, leaving the pool to jut out like a “sculptural piece,” the elder Cozen said.
To update the home’s color palette, the firm stained the ceiling a walnut wood color and painted the wood beams and walls white in the living space. Ceasarstone counters, matte-finished white cabinetry and stainless steel Jenn-Air appliances gave the kitchen a sleek look.
With no way to add recessed lighting, track lights were hung on stainless-steel rods perpendicular to the beams. “It makes it feel like an art gallery,” said Cozen, who works at the family’s firm as an assistant designer and project manager.
After about $400,000 and almost eight months, the couple are finally finished with their oasis in the middle of bustling Brentwood.
