Each Room In This Family Apartment Transports You to Another Country
A soft slant of light warms the room, bougainvillea outside the window casting bouncy shadows on the sofa. You can even hear a little trickle from a nearby fountain. This is what it’s like to be inside interior designer Dee Murphy’s apartment.
Located in a 100-year-old building on a dead-end street in central Los Angeles, the home is secluded enough that Murphy’s kids (ages nine and six) can run outside to play, a rarity in this busy city. Inside the apartment, rooms are snug but bright with sunlight, the California dream. It’s a lot like being in a house—which is what Murphy’s family of four was originally seeking.
When she got a call from her Realtor about a “Paris-like apartment” with a center courtyard and casement windows, Murphy abandoned her former goal of finding a single-family bungalow. “I called my husband and said, ‘This is our home,’ ” she recalls. “I felt it immediately.” Even then, she knew it would be a labor of love, given its former life (“our neighbors across the street came over and said it was like an episode of Hoarders” when the previous owner sold it).
“I want my kids to see color and art and texture and warmth,” says designer Dee Murphy, so she flooded their Los Angeles apartment in memorabilia from favorite family trips. Now, each and every room is transportive. Wrapped in lush wallpaper and adorned with a driftwood surfboard, the entry staircase is an ode to the woods and fog of Northern California, while bunk beds in the guest room are reminiscent of a retro sleeper train. The kitchen is a portal to an idyllic English countryside cottage. Murphy’s inspiration was the family’s trips: There’s Brazilian pottery, even a collection of matchbooks from across the globe. “Every designer will say this, but travel really gets the juices flowing,” she says.
This sense of design as a layered, ongoing process was central to Murphy’s vision. The designer took her time, spending two years on the redesign—she wanted to wait and see how their family would actually live in the apartment first, so each room’s function would accommodate their lifestyle. When her parents visit, they stay in the bunk room: “They absolutely love it. They shut this door and it’s like their private little studio.”
Living Room
“This is the room we hang out in most as a family,” Murphy says. With two children under 10 running around, nothing in the apartment could be precious (except for a few pieces, it’s all vintage). Sofa: custom, Clad Home. Table: vintage, 45 Three Modern Vintage Home. Curtains: Decorview. Stool: antique, Galerie Half. Ottoman: vintage (similar through Chairish). Light: Andrew Neyer. Chair: vintage Bruno Mathsson. Rug: vintage, Frances Loom. Art: Al Watt. Throw pillows: Nickey Kehoe (cream) and Consort Home (blue).
Dining Room
Table: France & Son. Side chair: vintage, American Garage. Armchairs: vintage, Organic Modernism. Pendant: Jan Plechac and Henry Wielgus. Art: His and Hers by Carly Kuhn. Wallpaper: Tropical Birds, Cole & Son.
Kitchen
Murphy added a custom brass shelf above the Hallman range to perch a mirror that helps the room look bigger. Tiles: Clé. Mirror: Scout Design Studio. Art: vintage, Nickey Kehoe. Paint: Stone 1, Portola Paints & Glazes.
Guest Room
“The space wasn’t large enough for a bed for two, so I had to build up,” says Murphy of this 92-square-foot former office. Her inspiration: a retro sleeper train. Wallcovering: Ornithology, Milton & King. Bedding: Schoolhouse. Paint: custom, Fine Paints of Europe. Dresser: California Closets.
When Is a Hallway More Than a Hallway?
When you think of them the way Murphy does—as rooms, not transitions.
Tour the Rest of the Apartment
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