She transformed a historic Hollywood penthouse into a 'sanctuary' with secondhand gems

Caitlin Villarreal felt giddy the archetypal clip she stepped wrong the Whitley Heights rental, a storied 1926 Mediterranean-style penthouse with towering ceilings, hand-carved woody beams and a brace of arched bookcases alongside an oversize fireplace.

“It had bully energy,” Villarreal said of the 1,500-square-foot flat she rents for $5,300 a period successful a historical vicinity wherever Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin and Bette Davis erstwhile lived. “It’s iconic conscionable by lasting gangly twelvemonth aft year. It has floor-to-ceiling ‘Old Hollywood’ windows that stroke unfastened unexpectedly conscionable similar successful the movies. It doesn’t consciousness similar a rental. It feels similar a everlastingly home.”

In this series, we spotlight L.A. rentals with style. From cleanable assemblage walls to impermanent decor hacks, these renters get creative, adjacent successful tiny spaces. And Angelenos request the inspiration: Most are renters.

Even aft 3 days spent cleaning up ash and soot pursuing the devastating Los Angeles fires successful January, Villarreal said she was the happiest she’d been successful years. “That’s the magic of this home,” she said arsenic her 2-year-old British shorthair cat, Zuse, curled up elegantly connected a velvet seat she purchased astatine the Gramercy Park Hotel liquidation sale.

“I privation my location to beryllium a sanctuary,” said Caitlin Villarreal, with Zuse, of her Whitley Heights penthouse overlooking Hollywood.

Villarreal, co-founder of Lola & Veranda, a luxury integrated bedding subscription service, works successful her location bureau illuminated by a crystal chandelier she purchased connected the Invaluable app.

After 20 years successful New York and 5 successful Weston, Conn., Villarreal, who grew up successful Granada Hills and attended Crossroads School successful Santa Monica, is thrilled to beryllium location successful what she calls her divorcee’s oasis. “The past 3 tenants, myself included, were each going done a divorce,” she said.

And contempt going done hard changes successful her idiosyncratic life, she feels an effervescent glee astatine uncovering the cleanable spot to land. “This vicinity is everything I didn’t cognize L.A. could be,” she said of Whitley Heights, which is connected the National Register of Historic Places. “Walkable, warm, social, soulful similar a raven who tolerates crows, decadent and shockingly greenish and luscious.” It’s besides wrong walking region of 1 of L.A.’s astir iconic landmarks. “I conscionable purchased play tickets to the Los Angeles Philharmonic astatine the Hollywood Bowl,” she said with excitement.

Not lone is the stately penthouse the 42-year-old entrepreneur’s home, it’s besides office for her 4th startup, Lola & Veranda, a luxury integrated bedding subscription work she co-founded.

Buoyed by a caller mantra — “I privation to live” — she’s refashioned the flat with repurposed goods from friends, property sales, flea markets and the Invaluable online auction app. “I don’t store new,” she said of the wont she developed successful Connecticut during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I won’t ever look back.”

Her caller apartment, she said, couldn’t beryllium much antithetic from her six-bedroom location successful Connecticut, which she and her then-husband purchased during the pandemic. “My Weston location was a modern and minimalist container successful the woods,” she said.

The galley room of the 1926 penthouse retains its play charm.

Her Los Angeles location inactive feels modern but with a interaction of eclecticism. Colorful textured rugs successful purple, blue, orange, pinkish and reddish blend with handmade pottery, creation and chic glass-top java tables. Shag rugs are placed successful bathtubs and connected Philippe Starck Plexiglas shade chairs, and successful the eating room, Villarreal has paired an emerald-green marble eating country array she recovered astatine the Los Angeles-based Decorjois with vintage achromatic leather Knoll chairs and a zebra-skin rug from the Mongers Market flea market.

In Connecticut, Villarreal’s room was outfitted wholly successful achromatic matte “like a Moleskine notebook.” Her humble galley room successful Los Angeles retains its charming play tile and sky-high cabinets that scope the 14-foot ceiling. A elemental achromatic and birch furniture from Ikea serves arsenic her island. There is nary dishwasher, nary washer and dryer. “I could attraction less,” said Villarreal. “I don’t cook.”

With a talented oculus for lighting, Villarreal has installed connection pieces passim the flat that adhd warmth and drama, including a glittering 40-inch disco shot that illuminates the surviving country similar a discotheque. A delicate greenish solid pendant successful her chamber that she recovered connected Invaluable reminds her of Morocco, creating a consciousness of intimacy and transportation with her space. A coral-hued crystal chandelier successful her bureau hangs low, drafting much attraction to a country that mightiness different beryllium ignored. She besides has discovered the quality of inexpensive and chic lighting. “You tin alteration immoderate country and marque it look similar a assemblage for little than $20,” she said. Significantly improving the quality of the interiors, Villarreal installed wireless LED spotlights connected her artwork and rechargeable battery-operated motion-sensor lights nether the room cabinets that crook connected erstwhile she walks inside. The cardinal to adding warmth, she said, is the summation of Selens acheronian orangish gel filters. “It’s what photographers use.”

There is nary television, but if she wants to ticker a movie oregon binge-watch a series, she tin region her Nebula Mars Pro portable movie projector from the copper cookware wherever it is stored connected the hearth and behold — the surviving country is transformed into a screening room.

Villarreal’s eating country features vintage chairs by Knoll and an emerald-green marble eating country array she purchased online from Sylvia Knight‘s Los Angeles-based furnishings institution Decorjois.

Villarreal doesn’t cook, but she tin bid pizza.

Shortly aft moving backmost to Los Angeles, Villarreal became a regular astatine Mickey Hargitay Plants a fewer miles distant and has filled the flat with tremendous trees successful ceramic pots, giving the rooms a bohemian feel. This temper is particularly pronounced successful the surviving room, wherever a ficus histrion successful the halfway of the country overlooks a low-lying Roche Bobois Missoni Mah Jong sectional, pillows and ottomans. “I’m each astir lounging,” she said. “This abstraction volition lone get squishier implicit time.”

The lush motif is carried outdoors to the platform disconnected of the kitchen, wherever the hillside’s thenar trees, bougainvillea and citrus supply shadiness for the eating array and chairs.

Regarding art, Villarreal said she “drops pieces with nary rhyme oregon crushed connected the level and yet hangs them. Art shouldn’t combat its abstraction to beryllium seen oregon outcry astatine the framework adjacent doorway for bid and quiet,” she said. “When it works, it works. I’m not a collector; I’m an estate-sale junkie, which makes it mode little serious.”

The fireplace is flanked by arched bookcases.

Villarreal’s flea marketplace finds.

What’s astir astonishing astir Villarreal’s flat is that you’d ne'er cognize she precocious moved in. The carpets, lighting and houseplants whitethorn beryllium new, but the penthouse feels lived-in and familiar, arsenic comforting arsenic her beloved Zuse, who made the trek backmost to Los Angeles with her. “I had a batch of assistance from Taskrabbit,” she said laughing.

Along with being a haven for divorcees, the flat has personage cred: “There’s a just accidental Stevie Nicks lived present successful ’71,” Villarreal said of the apartment’s glamorous history. (It besides was featured successful the New York Times’ Home and Garden conception successful 2011.) The past tenant, an artist, lived successful the flat for six years. “People thin to enactment here,” she said. She plans to bash the same. “They’re going to person to footwear maine retired of here.”

The bathroom’s archetypal tile has been preserved.

The 1926 bath feels frozen successful time.

How she made her historical Hollywood rental consciousness similar her everlastingly home

• “Install your large anchor plants archetypal and furnishings second.”
• “Don’t beryllium frightened of high-gloss paint; it’s a game-changer successful small, impactful spaces similar step railings and bath ceilings.”
• “Buy creation you love, past bent it respectfully.”
• “Skip Target for the ‘small stuff’ to capable retired a abstraction and spell to the flea, oregon walk an hr connected Invaluable.”
• “Crappy rental room and bath? Get immoderate chill hardware that’s unexpected, et voilà! A post-Botox two-week boost.”
• “Textures: The much the merrier.”
• “Trays and coasters: More texture, much shapes and little matching. It’s getting chaotic here, but it works.”
• “Preloved: This full location is preloved with estate-sale finds, gifts and auction finds.”
• “Low to the floor: The little the better. The cathedral ceilings treble arsenic art, and the monolithic histrion dormant halfway takes up a batch of space.”

Zuse capitalizes connected a photograph op successful Villarreal’s bedroom.

Views of Hollywood astatine dusk.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)