Room of the Day: Color Them Happy in Los Angeles

When people come to Caroline and Jayden Lee’s home in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, for the first time, they often look around and exclaim, “This place is so you!” That’s music to the ears of Jess Taylor, who, along with husband Jonathan, designed the home for the couple. The Taylors, principals at Taylor + Taylor, are old friends of the Lees, so they well knew their clients’ style and preferences long before the project launched.

Photos by Echo and Earl
Room at a Glance
Who lives here: Caroline and Jayden Lee, photographers and owners of Woodnote Photography and Echo and Earl
Location: Atwater Village, Los Angeles
Size: About 120 square feet (11 square meters)

After traveling the world and doing a stint in the Midwest, the Lee family decided to settle down and rent a Southern California bungalow. Like many leased properties, this one came with white walls. One of Jess Taylor’s early decisions was to keep the neutral backdrop color. “As photographers, Caroline and Jayden appreciate good, natural light,” she says. This living room “is a fairly small space with a low ceiling, and I thought the way the light reflected off the walls made it feel bigger and brighter.”

Many interior designers have to encourage their clients to experiment with colors. Jess had no such problem with these clients, whom she describes as “funky, fun and lively.”

“Our challenge was to make sure it didn’t look like a rainbow threw up in the space,” she says. “In the end we settled for dark blue, dark pink, light pink and emerald green. Black and white anchors the space.”

The starting point was the many-colored Moroccan rug, a piece from Caroline’s import business, Coco Carpets. People who haunt antiques and secondhand stores and dabble in flea market shopping will know what a lucky break the designer got with the sofa, the next big purchase. “We found the sofa already covered with this blue upholstery,” says Jess. “It was an incredible find.”

Sofa: vintage, MidcenturyLA; floor lamp: West Elm; coffee table: Urban Outfitters


The coffee table holds a selection of photos the couple has taken. “They had about 100 of these 4-by-4 prints, and I asked them to winnow them down to 15,” Jess says. “It was fun watching them do it and hearing all the stories behind the pictures.”

Pink tray: CB2, basket: vintage


The Lees have also amassed a collection of art and photography books. To give the couple more display space, the Taylors purchased these brackets from a big-box retailer and topped them with wood from the local hardware store.

The plants are an important addition. “I believe that plants really add life to a space,” says Jess. “But because they travel so much, I had to be careful to select plants that could go without watering for a while.” This undemanding pothos fit the bill.

Caroline rescued the mannequin hand from a trash bin. “That’s the kind of people they are,” says Jess. “They have a quirky sense of humor.”

Shelf brackets: West Elm


A midcentury console scored at the Long Beach Antique Market houses Jayden’s record collection and more books. The black and white photograph is an image the couple took at a fashion shoot. At Jess’ request, they picked one of their favorite images, and she had it enlarged and framed. “I think the piece is playful and dramatic,” says Jess.

Why We Love Midcentury Modern Design


While the Taylors kept the white walls, they painted the back of the door a pale pink.

In the planning stages, Caroline added a hanging chair and a peacock chair to her dream list. When this rattan hanging chair was discovered on Craigslist, it was snapped up, spray painted white and hung in the corner with rope. “I like it by the window, because it doesn’t block the light or take up a lot of space,” says Jess. (A peacock chair is in the bedroom.)


Ideas for making a wall hanging like this (lengths of yarn tied with slip knots around a dowel and then cut at an angle) has been floating around the Internet for a while. The designers liked the idea of adding a 3D art element to the room, and when Caroline decided to try this project, they encouraged her.

“Even though she is not a DIY person, she decided to take it on,” says Jess. “I think it turned out great.” For the dowel, Caroline used a piece of bamboo from her backyard.

The globe is a reference to the Lees’ globe-trotting (last year they realized their goal of traveling to all seven continents). The brass kangaroo is a nod to Jayden’s Australian heritage.


Pink is Caroline’s favorite color; she even has the rosy shade in her hair. Designer and client were thrilled to discover this vintage chair that already had pink upholstery, and it proves that sometimes design luck strikes twice.

“Usually when you find vintage furniture, you have to spend a lot of money reupholstering it,” says Jess. “Discovering big pieces like the sofa and chair in the right upholstery was a big savings.”


More hardy plants surround a gold-toned, glass-topped table.

Table: Urban Outfitters


A self-portrait shows that the comment about the interior’s perfectly fitting the Lees is spot on. “As a designer, you want your clients to identify with the space they live in on a daily basis,” Jess says. “That’s why it’s so fun to hear people say that.”

Guide: How to decorate with pink

URL: Room of the Day: Color Them Happy in Los Angeles http://www.decor-ideas.org/cases-view-id-25612.html