Serving Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, and the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods of Los Angeles since 2011.

1920s Brookside Home Completely Transformed

834 South Tremaine Avenue has been transformed for the next century while still honoring its 1920s heritage. (all photos from the MLS)

 

“I wanted to deliver a home that was move-in ready for a family, just bring your luggage!” explained the owner and creative vision behind the transformation of 834 South Tremaine in Brookside.

The owner is a local resident and an accomplished animation designer/producer who’d also renovated and sold eight homes over the years. About five or six years ago, he relocated to Brookside from Toronto, where he’d been living and commuting to LA for work for years. The leafy neighborhood reminded him of his childhood neighborhood outside of London. An old house fan, he told the Buzz he took on the project when he saw it come on the market in 2020, excited by the opportunity to restore the house.

“In 1923, this house would have looked substantially different,” he told us. “It’s been substantially changed over the years. My goal was to reinvent the house in a way that felt honorable to its 1920s past, but bring it into this century for the way we live today.”

 

 

The owner turned to another Brookside resident, Greg Roth, a senior interior designer, also trained as an architect, with Home Front Build, a design and construction firm, to realize his plans for the house. Home Front Build has extensive experience doing historic restorations.

“We are very good at being able to work in the style but bring it up to the standards of how we live today, with more openness, light and greater functionality,” Roth told the Buzz. “We do projects all over the city including nearby in Larchmont and Hancock Park.”

“The owner was very focused on details and creating unexpected moments in the house,” said Roth. “We were excited to work with him to flush those ideas out and bring them to fruition.”

A small closet, or cloak room, is an example of such a moment. Formerly a tiny powder room, it was converted to a more functional closet, just right for stashing backpacks, bags, shoes, etc.

 

 

According to Roth, a lot of engineering when into the project to achieve the owner’s objectives of creating a large great room with kitchen and family room and a master retreat for the adults upstairs with a master bedroom and bathroom suite and balcony.

 

 

Much of the back of house was completely rebuilt with steel beams and new footings, though the originally footprint didn’t change, explained Roth.

“The reaction from the neighbors has been completely overwhelming, which I am not the least bit surprised by,” Loren Dunsworth, a Brookside neighbor who is representing the house and invited us for a preview last week told us this morning. “As you know, I live right across the street and I have watched this labor of love come to life over the last 18 months. I have seen most of the houses in Brookside and I think this is by far the loveliest house in this area. The attention to detail is bar none. As a Brookside resident, I could not be more thrilled that they have maintained the 1920s charm of the home, even to a great degree enhancing many of those details.”

 

 

834 South Tremaine is open today from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Dunsworth told us she’s happy to arrange private showings.

 

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Patricia Lombard
Patricia Lombard
Patricia Lombard is the publisher of the Larchmont Buzz. Patty lives with her family in Fremont Place. She has been active in neighborhood issues since moving here in 1989. Her pictorial history, "Larchmont" for Arcadia Press is available at Chevalier's Books.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. I absolutely love the house on 834 S. Temaine. Usually I am filled with a sense of dread
    when I see “transformed” in the description of an old house. As a photographer for
    Architectural Digest for over 30 years I have seen the very best. This was done so beautifully
    and with such sensitivity to the year the house was built and the historic neighborhood.. Congratulations to all involved !

  2. Thank you so much Mary !! I am the realtor Loren Dunsworth and I could not agree more. Would love to give a shout out to our fabulous staging company : SPRUCED HOMES and our rock star photographer :LAUREN ENGEL / ENGEL STUDIOS

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