COZY SPACE, STYLISH PLACE
Living large in a small space is not only possible but it can also be beautiful — if Tamra Fago’s 900-square-foot home in the Garvanza neighborhood near downtown L.A. is any indication. Though cozy, the artist’s space is filled with all sorts of pieces that combine to create a charming whole.
Fago, a former graphic designer and photo stylist with more than 30 years of experience designing clothing and accessories, gravitated to her current lodgings after a stint in Silver Lake. “It was just getting too expensive,” she says. Now, her early 1900s, white board and batten two-story home offers beauty, community and cost-efficiency.
Garvanza, which is bordered by South Pasadena, Highland Park and Pasadena, is one of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods. The home she rents, built in 1905 and one of three self-contained living spaces on the 18,000-square-foot property, was restored over 20 months by preservationist and owner Brad Chambers (see accompanying article).
Apart from Fago sharing the now-lush compound with two other renters, who live in their own separate structures, the location puts her just down the street from her 28-year-old daughter.
Inside her house, the whites, creams and blue-grays of the walls and the chocolate of the hardwood floors are offset by Fago’s vintage modern aesthetic. “I’m a minimalist when it comes to basic forms, but then my artistry takes over,” she says, adding: “My head is always in the clouds.”
Upon entering the home, a visitor spies sculptural hats — Fago’s latest creative venture is called Cru Moderne — mounted on steel wire trees. Her high-end chapeaus ($200 to $650) are carried at Camille DePedrini in South Pasadena and at CruModerne.com.
Her hats are surrounded by a lifetime of artworks and baubles.
In one corner, a lacquered Chinese wardrobe found at a garage sale is juxtaposed with a rattan chair that Fago re-covered in a dark felt adorned with colorful squiggles and an Anthropologie pouf she re-covered in cream sheepskin.
In the galley-style kitchen, Fago makes the most of her space by supplementing the vintage shelving with a butcher-block-topped kitchen trolley. Antique tin cans and colorful ceramics sit on the counter and do double duty as containers.
“The world’s smallest dining room,” Fago jokes, is a study in sophistication writ small. A West Elm Parsons desk is sandwiched by two white and birch-legged seats atop a bold, zigzag-patterned rug. On the table, Chilewich’s brass-colored vinyl runner in a coral pattern brightens a collection of seashells, dried coral and golden-winged salt and pepper shakers. “I grew up on the beaches of San Diego,” says Fago. “I’ve always loved seashells.”
A contemporary West Elm mirrored pendant lamp and a floor lamp with a Fornasetti-esque print shade that Fago found in Florence, Italy, light the room at night.
Behind the dining area is an antique breakfront (Fago lined the drawers with leopard-print silk) salvaged from another Chambers property: the late-1800s Donnelly House once owned by 19th century L.A. Mayor Prudent Beaudry. Small framed art and plates pepper the walls. A metal cutout in a floral pattern, made by Studio Tord Boontje for Artecnica and hanging on a curtain rod, creates a serene, dappled effect in the room.
On the second floor, a similar story unfolds. A piece of art here, an organism-inspired accessory there. Though constrained in space, Fago’s home is an everchanging canvas. For the spring, Fago has brought in a raffia couch and a tatami mat. “I’m always changing things around. Thousands of ideas go through my head all the time.”