Walking Around
Storybook Home w/ creative gardeningI must say, I've found some interesting architectural, design and landscaping elements while walking around my Wilshire Vista neighborhood. We have many different types of architecture represented, mostly Spanish Revival. Then, there's a good amount of French Normandie, Mediterranean, some California Bungalow style, modified Colonial, English Tudor and even some Mid-Century Modern. One of my favorite styles is Storybook. These are "Hansel & Gretel" style houses with pitched roofs, overhanging eaves, sometimes they have rounded doorways, turrets, heavy hardware...basically, they look like witch's houses or gingerbread houses...very fantasy-like. There's a book and a website dedicated to these homes in Los Angeles.
On South Genessee Avenue there are a number of Storybook-style homes. Most are painted in light colors, so they don't look like evil witches homes. This one, pictured above, also has very creative landscaping that echoes the rolling rooflines of the house.
Talking about paint jobs, take a look below at the colorful examples I found while walking around my area.
Above, reminds me of those inflatable bounce houses for kids
Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. It might be nice to take a walk.
Labels: At Home, Los Angeles
posted by Ellen Bloom @ 10:57 AM
8 Comments:
I love Hansel & Gretl houses, especially those crazy roofs...rooves...roofs, I think.
Thanks for the Storybook link, I love that style. Especially that crazy one in Culver City!
Thanks for this post and the link to Storybooks! We live in one, only I've never heard it referred to as such; it looks like a small Tudor cottage but it has a turret so people in the neighborhood know it as the Castle House (though it's much more quaint and much less grand than that). Looks like something out of a Beatrix Potter illustration.
Oh I love Storybook houses! My favorite thing to do when we have lunch at Miyako is walk over to the nearby Storybook house and peek over the fence at it.
Storybook houses and front-yard cactus are new to me. No signs of that in Toronto! (I have seen some yucca plants in front yards this summer, but can they survive snow?)
Thanks for the photos!
Happy Labor Day weekend to you and Larry!
You know how I love LA's architecture...and Storybooks are LA encapsulate. Just after I'd moved here I took a "Dead Movie Stars" driving tour with my sister, and the tour guide drove us past the Witch's House. It, and seeing where Ed Wood died, were the highlights of the tour. (I wish I could remember what the tour was called. Ghoulish, but fun.)
Amazing what we can see when we take a walk around the neighborhood, those are such pretty story book houses!
The Witch's House is my favorite storybook home. This house is a Beverly Hills landmark of sorts. The owner, Michael Libow is currently restoring the property to its original state, along with the help of art director Nelson Coates. The Witch’s House is a must see for all Beverly Hills tourists, especially during the Halloween season.
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