When Melissa Benham, principal of Studio Emblem & Co., moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, she was seeking a new chapter, one infused with the city’s creative pulse and luminous light. By chance, so were her longtime clients: a young couple and avid art collectors with whom she’d collaborated on multiple homes over the past decade. Their paths converged in Los Feliz, the creative Eastside enclave that has long drawn artists, filmmakers, and visionaries. This project, Benham’s first since opening Studio Emblem & Co. in West Hollywood after a decade as partner of Chicago’s Studio Gild, would become both a personal milestone and a defining expression of her evolving aesthetic.
The property comprised a 5,100-square-foot main house, originally built in 1950, later altered in the 1990s. Over time, layers of mismatched Spanish Revival references and dated finishes had left the interiors feeling heavy and disjointed. Rooms were small and choppy, windows undersized, and beams and terracotta surfaces leaned toward theme rather than authenticity. Stripped to its studs, Melissa first phase for the home was nothing short of transformation: peel the home back to its integral foundation, reimagine its interior architecture, and reconfigure every space to honor both the home’s California roots and her clients’ contemporary, avant-garde sensibilities.
The vision unfolded as a gallery-like, nonetheless livable residence. Walls came down to form an elegant enfilade of rooms across the first floor, each framing views of the Hollywood Hills to the west and lush garden foliage in every direction. Door and window openings were enlarged and repositioned to flood the interiors with natural light, a guiding principle throughout the remodel. The dark, dated finishes gave way to a restrained palette of European white oak, soft white plaster, and blackened steel, creating a serene architectural canvas for the couple’s collection of important contemporary artworks and collectible design objects.
Melissa’s scope spanned both interior architecture and furnishings, allowing her to shape the home holistically. She rebuilt the main stair into a graceful, fluid curve; transformed a cramped breakfast nook into a sunlit, sculptural alcove; and merged a formal dining room and office into a generous library with rhythmic fluted plaster walls and a moss-green ceiling. Plasters developed in collaboration with Kamp Studios, lent a tactile richness to focal points, the variegated fireplace in the living room, hand-raked arching contours in the entry hall, and moody aubergine walls in the powder room.
The Boffi kitchen, a complete transformation that was relocated to the western side of the house, now opens seamlessly to outdoor dining and lounging spaces, with bi-fold doors framing the hillside beyond. The primary suite shed its awkward loft style for a more harmonious layout, with a reconfigured bath where silver travertine and plaster now embrace maximal hillside views.
Throughout, furnishings and lighting were sourced from a blend of local artisans and international makers: Pierre Paulin, Studio Drift, Atra, Callidus Guild, Lindsey Adelman, Apparatus, Waka Waka, Henry Kim, Estudio Persona—while the art animates the serene architecture with bold color and wit. A sizable collection of Wolfgang Tillmans photographs punctuate the spaces with the couple’s distinctive, playful collecting eye.
Curated with Karyn Lovegrove Art Advisory to focus on California Contemporary artists, Los Angeles-based artists form an important through-line in the collection, including: Jonas Wood, Sterling Ruby, Matt Connors, Lesley Vance, Honor Titus and Jesse Homer French, a mix of abstraction and figuration that roots the home in the clients’ newly adopted city.
The result is a home that is at once a private art gallery and a wellness sanctuary. It honors Los Angeles’s light, its Spanish Revival lineage, and the creative spirit that drew both designer and clients here from across the country.
From compromised Spanish Revival, to California contemporary arrival, this project honors the home’s California roots while embracing a distinctly modern sensibility. It is a light-filled sanctuary where architecture, art, and design flow seamlessly together. It stands as a testament to a new chapter, for the designer and homeowners, brought to life in the heart of one of L.A.’s most storied neighborhoods.
Architects: Studio Emblem & Co., Roger Davies
Photographer: Roger Davies
www.studioemblem.co
