棲居美學9 房屋參觀 | 加州古董商收藏的房屋

Hey, Homeworthy, it's Brian here in Bluff Park in Long Beach, California. Welcome to my home. Come on in. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. Hey, I'm Brian Hickman. I am the co-founder and co-owner of One Good Eye Vintage. And this is my house. What drew me to this particular house in this particular neighborhood is I have lived in several different neighborhoods around Long Beach and restored old houses, primarily old Spanish houses. And I was looking for another project. And a friend of mine said, Hey, there's a house that's about to go on the market in Bluff Park, which is the name of this historical neighborhood. And if you want to take a look at it before it goes on the market, I know the people. So I was able to get into the house before and I made an immediate offer on it before it ever entered the market. I think they put a sign up and it was technically on the market for two or three days, but it immediately became mine. What drew me to the house really was the Bluff Park neighborhood. This is one of Long Beach's oldest and most prominent historical zones, which means that the houses cannot be altered in any major way on the exterior. And so that means that you'll always have a very vintage-inspired old 1920s, 1930s neighborhood. So that's what drew me to this house and I was super excited that I got it. We did renovate a lot of this house. The people who were here before me did a great job getting it going, did the structural things, foundations, electric, all the hard stuff, and they put in new floors. But from there, I kind of just wanted to put my own stamp on it, so I sort of reduced it back out, took down some of the more contemporary things and of course installed a ton of vintage lighting, which is a big passion of mine. So just about every light in this house has been swapped out at this point by me just to give it the feel of the way that I like to live. And of course, because I'm not under 30, every light's on dimmers. The layout of this house, this house is 1925, and I would describe it as an English cottage style or kind of a barn-like cottage that you might see in the English countryside. You walk into a little foyer, a little area there, and then you walk directly into the living room, which I'm in right now, and that is the main room of this house. Off to the right, you can go through the dining room and then through a little room that I use as a gallery that has French doors that go directly to the garden. And if you went to the left, you would go through the kitchen and then all the way through to a little room that I use as an office that also overlooks the garden. Also to the right is a staircase, a very steep, narrow, and low staircase. So, you know, buyer beware there. If you go up that staircase, you'll end up at the top of a landing. There is a bedroom to the right, a bedroom to the left, completely symmetrical, and a bathroom right in the center. Again, 1925, mostly original. That means original single-paned windows, wavy glass, old weird wood, things that are crooked, all the things that I love about life. OK, so the very first room that we go into is the foyer, obviously. Pretty small but cool and has a couple of favorite things that I love about the space. I use this old shoe rack to store books, keys, dog leashes, all the stuff that I need at the door. So that's been very, very handy. Got this at the Long Beach Flea Market probably 25 years ago. I've been carrying it around ever since. I also have some Mexican vintage pottery that I love. This cool pot with all these birds and this amazing, whatever this is, monster thing, which I really like. One thing that I wanted to point out that I love is this weird wall. So this whole room was dry-walled, I thought, but I had to switch out an electric switch and when I did, I noticed that on the back of this wall was this and it didn't make a lot of sense to me why this would be under here. So I came back on this side. What I thought was dry-walled was actually cardboard that had been horse-glued over this wood. Now, I do not understand what this was. I don't know how much of the rooms have this, but I just left this one exposed because I thought it was so beautiful with these big old vintage planks, these face-nailed and these gaps. I just thought it looked so cool. I'm not sure it'll stay here forever, but right now I enjoy looking at it. I probably would never expose all of the rooms if they had this, but I do think it's a beautiful little excavation of an architectural feature of this house, again, from 1925. So I do love that. So now that we've done the entry, let's take a look at the living room. All right, so now we're in the living room, one of my favorite rooms a ton of light in here and really great views and also filled with a bunch of great things that I've collected over the years. So first up we have some amazing old 1950s art. I'm a huge fan of both studio pottery and studio art. That is art and pottery that were created at a school. And so this is one of these composition drawings that I love. It's right here over an old Victorian stand that I've had literally forever. So love that. I also have been carrying around this incredible broken Greek urn for probably 30 years. It weighs a ton. Whenever I move, it's the worst thing on the world. It's broken. It probably is going to fall apart any day now and I could not love it more. So it reminds me that all things are impermanent, right? I also combine it with this cool old shipping container, which I think is fascinating. Something was shipped. It still has the prepaid label and the address on it. Love that. Used it as a side table. Now I just kind of made it into an area with some shapes. So that's pretty cool. Over here, this is the fireplace area. Obviously, I have a lot of art because I really love looking at beautiful things. And so a couple of features here that I love. This was redone before I got here. So they redid the marble and the surround. It did a great job with that. This painting, again, I've had it for decades. It goes from house to house and actually even in this house, it goes from room to room. I don't always have stuff in the same room. After a while, I get bored and then I move it around. So that's interesting. I've been carrying around these old hand irons. I know I had mentioned sometimes I've had stuff forever and never used it. So I love these hand irons and I finally put them in and I love them. So those are great. They remind me of old sculptures from the 50s, Italian, and I love them. I wanted to show you a little bit of this built-in. This is an original built-in to the house. I did swap out the shelves for some rustic shelves just to give it a little bit of texture and I did this darker color on the background to pick up this painting. I want to show you this painting up close, if I may, because I'm displaying the back of the painting. Believe it or not, I purchased this from England, sight unseen, and I bought this, which I love. So beautiful. But when it arrived, it had this on the back and I loved this even more. Number one, because you can see the incredible intricate frames and the little splints they've used to keep it together. It has its original price tag thing on it, which I love, and it's signed on the back. So I don't know. I just love this. I'm sure I'll switch it around at some point, but right now, this makes me happy. I also have some of my favorite books in here and some old weird objects that I've created and collected. Really fun. I don't know. I love books and I like looking at other people's style and what they've done. Also a lot of art books because I like art. So a lot of things to look at in here, just things I like looking at. That's a good little collection there. If I turn around a little bit here, this is one of the side tables here in the living room. Again, just a little collection of objects and weird things that are going on here. An old mid-century brass lamp, a painting on a little easel that I got, and these incredible Italian side tables, which I'm a huge fan of. These come from a gallery in Palm Springs and actually that gallery has some of the most incredible things. We can talk about resources later. This couch, I've had forever. It actually came off of Craigslist and it has lived all this time in multiple houses and the reason all my couches have blankets on them is because my dog runs my house. So it is possible to have great vintage stuff and animals, no problem, just get yourself a blanket, throw it in the laundry once a week, boom, dog gone, right? So that's really great. Another flea market find, this strange painting called I Win, which is interesting. And this old lamp is also a vintage find from the Palm Springs flea market. Another great one to check out if you get a chance. And some roses from my own garden. These things in the corner I want to talk about for a brief moment. So years ago, a friend and I were selling vintage at the flea market and this amazing photographer man and his wife walked by and he was carrying two of these. And I said, wow, those are so interesting. What are those? And he said, oh, it's wood that's been eaten by worms in like a river. And I said, I've never seen anything like that. And I moved on with my day. About five years later, I was shopping at the flea market and I found these. So I don't know if they're the same ones, different ones, but I love them. They remind me of elephant tusks, but not horrible. So I love them. So they're in the corner. I've had them for a long time. Here, just again, some objects. Another flea market find, an old French 1940s burwood piece that I love. Had this for years. These old candlesticks that I got when I was in Italy once. And this amazing painting is one of a recent thing that I've got. Almost everything here I've had for a while, but this is relatively new. Love that landscape color. And I just think it's a beautiful mix with all the different tones that I have here in this room. So I also have this great old chair that I bought last year. It is covered in mohair. And it is very comfortable. For many, many years, the joke in my house among my friends and family was that I did not own a single comfortable chair. And now I do. So anybody who comes to visit can sit in this chair. Awesome. Sometimes vintage could be comfortable. Just gotta look for it. OK. Also a little bit here. An old 1950s Italian mirrored star that I love. And this very strange table that is actually Egyptian. Again, purchased at a flea market. It's some type of redwood or wood top with these crazy legs that remind me of Edward Scissorhands. So I love it. Or maybe Beetlejuice. One of the two. So love that. That's a great combo for me. Excited about that. And the last wall in this room is this one which contains a couple of things that I really, really love. Number one, this great old mirror. For some reason, the top had been broken off, but I didn't know that. So I got it for 50 bucks, which I love. I've had it for probably 30 years. It's gone to every house with me. One of my favorite objects. Same thing with this great brass lamp. The shade and the light are brass, which I think is amazing. So the light only comes from underneath. Really beautiful. Also a little collection of some vintage potteries and paintings and objects. This is actually from a local artist here in Southern California that is amazing. And it's probably hard to see in the video, but maybe they can zoom in a bit. It's double-sided. So one side is this figural king. And on the back side, I'll just turn it around. On the back side is the king I'm supposing in death. So pretty fascinating sculpture and I love it. The reason I put it in front of this mirror is so the only way to see the back is to be able to see it in the mirror. So that's pretty cool. Over again, an old bureau that I've had for at least 30 years. It weighs a ton. It travels everywhere with me. One of my favorite things. OK. So now we can check out the dining room. The process kind of of how I've evolved into my style is just basically I've always kind of conceptualized some sort of 1930s painter living in exile in Italy, right? That's kind of my vibe. So in that, you know, 99% of the items in this house are thrifted or from vintage or antique stores. And obviously we have great flea markets here in Southern California. So my thing is if I see something and it makes me really excited, I buy it. If I can afford to buy it and I love it, I don't necessarily need to know where it's going to go. And some items I've had for 10 or 15 years that I've never used. And then suddenly I find a place for them. So if I love it, I get it. If it's affordable, it makes sense. The other great thing is because so much of what I do is vintage and antique flea market inspired, I can take risks because I'm not spending a ton of money. So if I buy something and it doesn't work out, we can resell it at one good eye. I can resell it, you know, in the market in general. But it's a great way to be able to take more risks because you're not spending a tremendous amount of money. So I've always found that to be a way that I can explore things that matter to me. I mean, the thing about my house is all the items here have traveled around with me probably for about 30 years, some of them. Some of them are newer. Some of them I've had forever. But this is kind of a snapshot. Like today is a snapshot of where I'm at right now in my style. I've always just tried to surround myself with beautiful things because I think the world's a little challenging. And I like to look at beautiful things and be reminded that there's a lot of great people making beautiful, gorgeous things in the world. And I want to be part of that. OK. So now we're in the dining room, another great spot. And a lot of vintage features, all the moldings, all the beautiful stuff that was already here. What I brought to this party was some other vintage finds and some more great art. So first of all, we have this incredible 1930s English barley twist table. This is from my incredible friend Jenny Moss from Found Rentals. She is also an incredible stylist and antique dealer. And she and I saw this table together. She had already purchased it. And again, talk about come around four years later when I was looking for a table for here, she happened to be getting rid of it. And so she was generous enough to let me buy it from her. And I love everything about it. The other cool thing that you probably can't see super great is this table completely folds down. So no matter where you lived in the world, this table could come with you. And I paired it with these old bent wood chairs that I've had for decades. I have a whole set of them, but I only have two of them at a time. Just for space, I don't generally have big dinner parties indoors. They're usually outdoors. And also, it kind of reminds me of the album cover of Upstairs at Eric's. So I do love that. I've got this old weird trestle table. I'm a big sucker for trestle tables, old messed up tables. To me, they're beautiful. And these old green vases, again, from Pasadena Flea Market. And this crazy amazing old Chinese box that has somewhat disintegrated, which I think is spectacular. I also want to point out the lighting. So I'm a huge fan of vintage lighting. I think vintage lighting is one of the easiest ways to transform a space instantly. This light above the table, I brought to this house from Italy. And the reason it's got such an interesting color is it can only take a certain bulb that I had to also get in Italy. I also put in these German 1960s sconces that came from Etsy. And that's a great way, Etsy, any of these resources where people are seeking out lighting, vintage lighting all over the world. Bring it to your house. It looks so great. And then finally, this painting is one of my all-time favorite paintings that I have. Again, a flea market find. The coolest part about it, we won't be able to see, which is on the back. Somebody wrote, do not enter, no trespassing. And then 1975, and here it is. So, got that at the Long Beach Flea Market, one of the greatest flea markets you could ever visit. And just laying in someone's space, same thing with the one on the other wall, came from Long Beach Flea Market, so I kind of have them here together. Maybe they lived together in a former life. I don't know, but now they do here, so we love that painting. A lot of color in that one. Good contrast to the dark black one. So, how I originally got into vintage and antiques is really just, I had my first house, and I was thinking, now what, right? So I've always lived, I had always had apartments and lived in Los Angeles and was kind of had furniture that had been given to me or found on the street. And so as you do when you're first getting started in the world, and so I started to think about just how I wanted to live and what made me excited. So that's how I got into it. I've been going to vintage and flea markets probably for the last 35 years, and not just in America, by the way. Whenever I travel, I always make it a point to go to a local flea market and I try to bring something home. So some of the objects in this house are from Europe, from Italy, from different places I have visited over the years. Career path-wise, obviously it's kind of funny, but I always say it's not really hoarding if your stuff is cool. But realistically, vintage collectors are hoarders. That's reality. So I buy more stuff than I can use. I think it's beautiful. I love having it, even if it's for a short time. And then I start thinking about could I pick some of these objects, put them together and then let other people take them to their house. So that's kind of how the vintage shop, One Good Eye, got going. This is its second incarnation. It was up and running for a few years and then we took a little break and now it's back. But the great thing about it is again,it allows you to take risks because if it doesn't work here, it'll work at someone's house. So career-wise and that kind of exploration of vintage is just sharing that world with other people. And the other great thing that I'll say is I have had the greatest conversations over these last 35 years with people from the vintage world. I swear to you, the stories are unbelievable and I love these people So some of the folks at the flea market I've been seeing for decades and they've always got a great story. The items and objects have a great story and I just think it's a cool way to live. So to me, I'm kind of taking in a history of an object, putting my own stamp on it, I guess, and then when I'm gone, it'll move on to somebody else and they'll put their history on it. So I love that idea about handmade vintage beautiful things and I'm just super excited to share them with other people. So that's the dining room. Now let's take a look at where I have coffee every morning with my dog. This is my little gallery room right off the garden, one of my favorite places to be. And this is where I read my news, read whatever, hang out with my dog and drink coffee in the morning. Obviously I have filled this with every great thing that I've ever found. A lot of cool stuff, vintage art mixed with prints, oil prints, carvings. I have some masks on the other wall, we'll see. Really, in my mind, you can mix anything as long as you're excited about it and it makes you happy to look at. So I don't have any rules about collecting art. If I can afford it, I buy it. If I can't, I don't. But if I can afford it, I buy it, even if I don't know where it's going to be, just because I know eventually it'll mean something to me. Same thing on this wall, mixed some old figures that I brought back from the East Coast, an old mask, sketches, just odd, weird things. This is actually my most favorite thing in my entire house, is this painting of this person. It is amazing. I love it so much. It is Italian, but I found it in Los Angeles at the vintage flea market for 20 bucks. And I was carrying it around the flea market and people were like, that's the weirdest painting I've ever seen. And I thought it was the most wonderful painting I'd ever seen because I feel like this kid's going somewhere, right? So I love that painting. I look at it every day. It makes me really happy. And right behind us, I did want to show you... So sometimes you think to yourself, what would happen if there were a fire? What would I take? Well, I would take my dog and I would take these two shelves. So everything that I truly cannot live without are in these two shelves. I've got a World War II picture of my grandfather when he served in the Navy. I've got a picture of my own father, who is a master mechanic and used to work on old vintage cars when I was a kid. I've got an oil painting of my mom. I want to share a little secret with you. Apparently in the 1950s, you could send a small picture of your daughter to a prison and they would return a beautiful oil painting. So would you do that today? Absolutely not. Did they do it in 1950? They did. And I have the picture to prove it. And then this is actually a picture of me, finally, at the March on Washington in 1993. A very important date in my life. A very important event. And I always like looking back and seeing where I've been and what I've been up to. I also in this bowl have Polaroids. I take Polaroids of my friends and family when they come over for dinner. And I always put them in this bowl. So whoever's been here, I just take their picture, my dog, my friends, and I just keep them in this little bowl. Also this incredible old wedding photo of my parents, which I love. Also all of my favorite books and a couple of weird things. I like to collect religious sculptures. I used to have a lot more of them. I've kind of weeded them out a little bit. But I also collect old bears if they came from California because I came from California, so I like old bears. And I want to also point out these odd things. So a few years ago these mud builder wasps were making houses all over my property. And I thought they were incredible, so I started collecting them. And they sort of are like the most basic architecture, but super amazing. So even things from nature like wasp houses can become decor if you think the object is interesting. And again, if I didn't love them, I wouldn't have them. But because I do love them, I want them. So I just think it's a great way to display things you care about. Other weird things in here, just things I've collected over the years. They just make me happy to look at, which is why I like sitting in here every morning with my coffee. So my number one tip for flea market shopping is never walk away from an object you're considering. Put your hand on it and never let your hand come off it. Because there's people like me that will listen while you're negotiating. And when you get to a great price and then you walk away, I will step forward and buy it at that price. So I want to encourage you not to take your hand off an object while you're considering it. The other great thing I will say is get to know some of these vintage dealers. They all have Instagrams nowadays. They're on Facebook and different places. They know what you love. And if you get to know them on a personal level, as friends, as friends sharing the vintage world, then they'll reach out to you when they find something that they think would be amazing for you. So again, the stories are incredible. The people are really fun. Get to know them. Ask questions. Admire their beautiful things. Even if you don't buy something today, in the future, they might have something that's perfect that speaks right to you. And since you already know them, they'll save it for you. So that's my best advice is buy what you love. Ask for a deal if you can. But, you know, respect the item and how much hard work it is for vintage dealers to find and curate beautiful things. And get to know these great people so you can bring their items into your house. All right. Let's come through these cool old vintage doors. Let's check out the kitchen just to the left. All right. So the kitchen, again, such a great room and a great story behind it. When I first moved here, the floors were here. I don't know if they're original to the house, but they've been here for a very long time in this traditional checkerboard pattern of marble. So beautiful. The kitchen itself, though, had white cabinetry and a ton of upper cabinets. I felt like I didn't need all that space and also I really wanted it to be kind of free and look a little more interesting to me. So the first thing I did was switch out all the cabinets. I took all the upper cabinets out and just left them out. No need for those and I've got plenty of storage. I also swapped out, again, all the lighting is vintage found on Facebook, the flea market, Pasadena City College, Rose Bowl, you name it, I buy lighting there. So I got a couple and in fact, the light over the kitchen sink, which we can see in a moment, actually came from a house in Seattle, super interesting and was shipped down here for me. The other great thing is while I was renovating this room, I discovered some original beadboard in the ceiling, which led me to do the entire ceiling in beadboard. So that little discovery, that little excavation of something that was part of the house originally, is what led me to expand on that and do the whole kitchen thinking that was probably here originally and had been taken out at some point. Also, a friend of mine, contractor, was taking down an old house here in Southern California and I was able to get some old wood beams to put into the ceiling to provide the transition between the beadboard and the walls. I love those beams. They just give a little bit of character. They look like the beams in the attic of this house, but now I wanted to expose them here. I also want to point out a couple of things. Good food. So I have had this good food sign. I bought it at Round Top in 1997 and it has been with me in every kitchen ever since. Now, I know sometimes things come in and out of fashion. You know, oh, people have signs. Now they don't want signs. I will never not have my good food sign. It means something to me. It was an incredible trip with some amazing friends and the fact that I got to buy it and keep it with me as a memory is really important to me, so I love that about it. I do also want to point out how you can just make things work that already exist. These cabinets are IKEA. They are not custom. I didn't have a big budget to go do a bunch of cabinets. So what I did was I painted them. And they've been here at least 25 years, way before I got here. And they were bright white and I just wanted them to be different. So I used an old Benjamin Moore historical color. And as you may know, I'll share with you because I learned this, IKEA cabinets are plastic and so there's some difficulty in painting them. But when I was on Reddit, when I was going to paint them, this woman came on there and said her boyfriend paints cars for a living. And they use a binder spray to bind the paint to the plastic on fenders and stuff. She gave the name of the product, which is just a spray adhesion. And so all I did was pop these doors off, spray them with this plastic adhesion, paint Benjamin Moore historic paint. Boom. New cabinets. But I didn't spend any money. So that was pretty cool. So I do like that about it. Again,I like pottery. I like old things. So I've got a collection of some old salt jar, a sugar jar, old jugs. I always keep my kitchen silverware and stuff in these little crocks. Number one, if someone's over for dinner and they say, can I help? They can actually help because they don't have to look for anything. You could just say, sure,grab that silverware. The other thing is, most of the time when I eat, we eat outdoors. And so I can just bring these out and set them on the table. So that's a really, really good thing. I love this old French print. It's a kitchen fruit bowl. So beautiful. I think it's about 1940. Again,a find from Long Beach Flea Market. And people bring great stuff like this all the time. There's never a shortage of great stuff out there. Over here in this corner, I wanted to point out because we talked a little bit about having things that you love, whether you know what to do with them or not. This copper shelf, I've had for 20 years. It's been in my storage and I just never used it. And then I moved here and it literally fit directly between these two things when I took out the upper cabinet. So I was like, I've got the shelf for that. So super excited. This is kind of my little workstation here. All the things you need. I said 99% of my house is vintage and it is. The only things that aren't vintage are the appliances probably. But everything else, I try to kind of stay in a vintage thing and just have some cool objects and a great painting and a really great card that a friend gave me for my birthday. And I loved it so much that I put it up here so that I can be reminded of that feeling. I also want to point out the old stove. So this is original to the house. I don't think it goes all the way back to 1925. I think it's a 1940. So at some point they swapped it over. But this has been here ever since. An incredible old stove. It heats up really, really fast. It's awesome for cooking. The oven is about the size of a piece of paper. So if you're a big baker, probably not for you. But luckily, I don't bake. So it's good for me. So I cook everything on the top only. But the ovens are really small. So kind of a funny thing about vintage stoves. But they're so beautiful. They're worth it. And finally, in the middle, just needed a little island here. But didn't want to be crazy about it. So I have this old English library table. Probably 1940s. It actually has built-in bookshelves on the side. So it would be cool if they had cookbooks or something in there. I don't have that right now. Again, just some leftover pottery and bowls. If I'm serving dinner or a dinner party, I'd probably put all the food on here and all around. And then just let people come and get what they need. And if there's an opportunity, one more great piece that I think makes great sense for storage in an old house where storage is always a short. I just put an old hutch here in the kitchen that actually has all of my everyday plates and bowls in it. Just like the silverware. When someone comes over and they say, how can I help? It's really great to say, can you grab that silverware and can you grab some plates from the cabinet? They don't have to look for them. Here they are. I also have a great collection of old white pottery This is probably one tenth of what I have. But I can only display so much at a time. So I try to pick pieces and put them up here. Just a great old piece from a great old shop that doesn't exist anymore. Bountiful in Venice, California. For those of you that know that shop, it was incredible. They had the most beautiful things. I don't think they're there anymore, but I'm super excited that I have this old hutch to remember them by. So that's a little view of the kitchen. Bluff Park, again, my neighborhood here in Long Beach is amazing. It is filled with incredible vintage houses going all the way back to the Victorian era. We have two folk Victorian houses on this block. We have modern. We have modernist houses. We have some of the most major architects that were working in this period in this neighborhood. So it is incredible. Even to just walk your dog every day is amazing. But what's also amazing are the neighbors themselves. So we have a bunch of architects, musicians. We have some artists. We have a chocolatier who lives in the neighborhood. So there are just some incredible people here. Again, I find Long Beach really exciting. I lived in Los Angeles. I love Los Angeles. And I love Southern California. I've lived here my entire life. But the great thing about Long Beach is it's all about possibility here. People are incredibly supportive of your art, your music, your architecture. Whatever it is you're doing, everyone here is cheering for you. And I really love that about Long Beach. I think it's got a can-do spirit and really accepting of all people. So I would probably never live anywhere but Long Beach even though I hope to travel around as I've done and continue to travel. But this will always be home to me because I love the people. OK, so now that we've seen the kitchen, let's check out my little home office. This room is actually an addition to this 1925 structure. I don't know when it was put in exactly. But it is great because it has closing French doors that replicate the vintage doors that are found in the house. And then it has this incredible view of my garden. So my garden is my happy place. It's where I feel the most at ease and peace. And it's nice to be able to work almost inserted into the garden. The other thing is just like the rest of my house, I still think vintage has a place in a home office. Because just because I need a computer and a printer doesn't mean I have to not look at beautiful things. So I filled it with some of my favorite things. Big giant paintings, plain air paintings from California. Again, Flea Market. This old French Gothic desk that I bought here in California probably 30 years ago. It's been in every office I've worked in ever since. And again, just paired with one of my dining room chairs. I love green, old matte green pottery. So I have a few pieces of that. This weird sculpture. And I also like to mix old stuff with new. So I do want to point out that we have Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. Which is my favorite film. And so I think we should all live like Lloyd. So I keep him here to remind me to just have a good time. Because what else are you doing? And then a couple of other things. I do love this old French factory lamp. It was enameled at one point which kind of wore off. It does still work which is incredible. And then a really good friend of mine gave me this spine from Texas. An old cow spine which I think looks very sculptural. So I've had that for years along with this tiny little copper Indian. Actually kind of a Native American piece. It's an old bank from Nebraska which I think is so beautiful from 1930s. So I have that here. Love that so much. And again just got some art around and some great objects that keep me happy. So that's the little home office. All right. So now that we've seen the main house let's check out the garden. All right. So now we're going to check out what could possibly be my most favorite part of the house which is the garden. So take a look. So the great thing about this garden is how new it is. I know it looks like it's been here forever. But really it hasn't. When I came to this house in 2020 COVID had just happened and everything was shut down. And I had some time to work on this yard. And this yard was all grass and cement because it had young children living here before I moved here. And so that served the needs of that family. But I really wanted to have trees and kind of a more romantic vision especially since I've traveled a lot and seen a lot of gardens and wanted to live in a certain way which is a really outdoor lifestyle. So I got to work immediately with an amazing friend of mine whose name is Mike MacGyver who is a landscape designer. And he knew exactly what I loved. And he was like let's do it. And so he helped me create what you see here today. And we can take a little bit of a look at some of the great features of this garden. One thing to point out is all of the trees, plants and shrubs you see were brought here in the last five years. There were two giant cypress trees and a couple of old camellias. But other than that everything you see was brought here in the last five years. And I only say that to give you hope that if you're just getting started on a garden today don't worry about it. Because in a couple of years it's going to look amazing. So I think it's Martha Stewart who said you know if you want something that lasts a lifetime plant a garden. And I will also say that when you do plant at first it seems so small and you're like I didn't get it right. And then as things grow it's just a great place to be. So I love this garden. I spend most of my day out here. I sometimes work out here. And I definitely entertain my friends and family here. So I'm glad we have a chance to take a look. This area here actually the fireplace was here. So the people before me did a beautiful job with this old stone fireplace and this pergola that's above us. What I added to the picture are all the different plants potted boxwoods all these old roses and salvias and some of this giant climbing rose which I absolutely love which is a David Austin rose called Lady of Shallot. So beautiful. It blooms practically the entire year and I love it so much. I also have some vintage pieces out here. Again, outdoor vintage is a little bit challenging because you want to be able to sit in it. But I do have these old Brown Jordan chairs which I love combined with some newer cushions and a table I found on Facebook. But a really great way to kind of add it's not the primary seating but it's great extra seating and it looks super cool. So I do love that about it. Of course, a garden wouldn't be a garden without old pots and pottery. I bought this incredible pair of pots off of old Craigslist. They belong to a couple. Both of the men were set designers in Hollywood going all the way back to 1930. They died in their 80s and this was part of their estate. And I am so thankful that I'm able to steward these into their future because they're so beautiful. They're cement. They are ridiculously heavy. But I love that they belong to people who deeply loved and cared about each other. And now I get to care about them too. So I do love that and I love old pottery in general. Obviously mixed with old terracotta and just weird stuff. I've been carrying this thing around forever. This came out of a church in Philadelphia. It is what you would put in the side of a building. It has a really cool hole in the back where they would put rebar through it to hold it into the bricks. I don't know why the church no longer exists but there was a set of these at Long Beach Flea Market probably 25 years ago and I bought this one because I thought it was so beautiful. The rest of these things again, I like old building fragments so we have some of that and some newer furniture just mixed in so that we have a comfortable place to sit. Right? Obviously covered in leaves because it's that time of year. This section is actually newer. I did this last year. There was a jacuzzi here that I didn't think was part of the garden for me. So I had it removed. We put in this stone walkway and I'm adding in this Italian hydrangea rose kind of cypress garden. I'm hoping to find an old vintage bench. Again, I'm going to always be on the hunt for what I want and what I want right now is an old English bench. When I find it, it's going to go right here. But in the meantime, I'm happy to grow roses for the house, hydrangea for the house, mixed in with some great jasmine and things that smell beautiful. In party time, I would probably set this up as just a second little seating area so that people can come out and enjoy themselves before they go to dinner which we'll see in a moment. And again, we even have some citrus here. So I grow lemons in the citrus tree, little potteries, old weird things I've had forever. Again, I'm a big sucker for old potteries, even if they're broken. I mean, if you've ever traveled to Italy or anywhere, when they break a pot, they just wire it back together. So that pot's been wired together for who knows how long. I'm into it. So anything old and kind of has some character and history, I think looks great in a garden. So I've added it here. OK. So now let's take a look at where we eat dinner. All right. So here in the garden under this amazing oak tree is where we have dinner. So this is an old farm table that I brought outside, kind of Italian style. And I mixed it with these vintage Italian iron chairs. Cool note, because we're on gravel and Italians always are on gravel, old Italian chairs have these bars on the bottom which allows them to sit on gravel without the feet sinking in. So if you've ever wondered why are there bars on the bottom of those weird chairs, that's why. They don't sink in no matter how long you sit here. And trust me, we've had some pretty long dinners. Of course I have string lights. No dinner would be complete without string lights. And the whole garden is lit pretty beautifully at night. The oak tree is one of the trees that I had brought here since 2020. It is one of my most favorite trees. Both this oak and the two sycamores in this dining area are native California species. That's important to me. That attracts hummingbirds. That attracts butterflies. It's a great way to celebrate California which I love so much by using native trees so that the environment is supporting those things. And again, nothing better than on a sundown underneath the sycamore and the oak trees, beautiful string lights, great friends and family, wine, chocolate, dogs, food. There's no better way to live than that. So I really try to have as many dinners here as I can, especially in the summer. And there's always room at the table for more. So if anybody wants to bring a friend, they bring a friend. It's just a great way to live. And I really try to incorporate this kind of vintage love I have even here in the garden. What I think makes a house a home is that when you go in, you're seeing someone's story. I really feel that everybody has a story. And I think sometimes we're afraid to tell it because we think that our story's not interesting or we think that we're not unique or we think that someone will say that what we love isn't interesting. But I think those are the very reasons to explore your own story. And that's kind of really what I've done. As I mentioned, if you're here today, this is a snapshot of where I'm at today. If I start loving unicorn mugs, I can assure you that if you came back to my house in five years, I would have a display of vintage unicorn mugs. So what I would say is the best thing that any of us can do for ourselves, myself included, is just be who you are, be excited about what you're into, give people the opportunity to get to know you. And part of that is where you live. So to me, my house represents me. It represents where I've been. It represents dreams and aspirations, I guess, of mine. And it just represents cool people that I've met along this journey. I did want to say, because I had said it earlier and I will say it now, I don't think beauty costs more money. I just think it takes more time. The reality is if you went in one day to furnish an entire house and I came into your house, all I'm seeing is where you were at that day. I'm not seeing your life and I'm not seeing the history. This is why I think you should take your time. Don't just buy things. Buy things that matter. Buy things that just make you so excited you can't stop thinking about them. Or buy things that every day when you walk by them, you go, ah,I can't believe I got to look at that again. Because that's how I live. I just don't have anything here that I don't love. And if I eventually grow out of it, then I sell it and I put something in its place. So I think take our time, create a house that represents our whole history so that people get to know who we are and what mattered to us. I think that's a pretty beautiful way to live. So that would be my advice on how I approach home. Thanks for watching. Be sure to go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content, shopping guides and so much more.