Serenity can be found in Los Feliz Oaks
During the three years that architect Michael Mekeel worked on this house in Los Feliz Oaks, he couldn’t help but notice that the noise and traffic of the city seemed a world away.
“Whenever I’d get up here, it was always quiet because the foothills catch the wind,” he said.
Mekeel named the Spanish-style house, completed in 2007, “La Serena.” Perched atop a knoll overlooking the Los Feliz hills, the house is set back from the quiet tree-lined street and has a long winding driveway. Most of the homes in the hilly, upscale neighborhood between Los Feliz and Hollywood are English- or Spanish-style homes built in the 1920s and 1930s.
La Serena was designed to mimic the era’s Colonial Revival estates, complete with thick walls, tall beamed ceilings -- 10 feet in the kitchen and dining room, and 18 feet in the living room -- terra cotta tiling and walnut floors. French doors and large windows flood the interior with natural light.
The kitchen, which Mekeel and architect Frances Offenhauser designed specifically to avoid a typical appearance, has a fireplace, sliding door pantries and custom Douglas fir woodwork that matches that of window frames throughout the house. At first glance, the refrigerator and dishwasher appear to be wooden armoires, but in fact open up for functional use.
The living room doubles as a screening room, and blackout screens can be pulled over all the windows. A large arched window frames a view of the Los Feliz hills.
Upstairs, the master bedroom has views of downtown Los Angeles, and a peek around the corner of the terrace offers a glimpse of Griffith Observatory.
Wrought-iron light fixtures and an old-fashioned bathtub in the master bathroom help create the feeling of an older home.
To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, send high-resolution color photos with caption and credit information on a CD and a detailed description of the house to Lauren Beale, Business, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012. Questions may be sent to homeoftheweek@latimes.com.