Foster Residence, Granada Hills, CA Interiors
We were fortunate enough to find this home in mostly original condition. The kitchen was in near-new shape. We used to joke that the original owner from whom we purchased it used “1 finger cooking” in the kitchen. I.E. she dialed in for delivery.
The front and back images were photographed by the wonderful architectural photographer Marvin Rand.
One FUN FACT is that the original owners were friends of the writers from the “I Love Lucy” show. There was an episode where Lucy and Ricky had a bet about who was the biggest gossip. Ricky Ricardo fakes that he is dreaming about Grace Foster running off with the milk man to get Lucy to gossip about it. Well – this was an inside joke. The original owner’s name was Grace Foster!!!
We had a lot of fun living there, and entertaining there…
Great Room
This A.Q. Jones designed Eichler featured the classic great room – combination kitchen and family room that had the original pull out rotating kitchen table extension. The home was staged in a fun upbeat minimalist style but with a bit of fun flair to it.
Overall Fixes
The home required very little renovation. some of the original floors remained. they showed a little wear and tear, but we opted to keep them, as they really told ‘the story’ of the house. Some wall to wall light green shag carpeting in the living room and rust colored sheet linoleum floors from the late 1970s in the family room were removed. Removing the old flooring was one of the more demanding jobs ever, because the glue was very stubborn. More appropriate 1960s looking VCT squares were installed. Our tile installer was even able to cut down the new 12×12 tiles to a more historic looking 9×9 size throughout the install!
Although the wood over the fireplace matched the ceiling rafters, it seemed out of place. We replaced this with a birch paneling that was finished to match the original mahogany Luan paneling that was on the remainder of the walls.
The MASTER of the House!
Mr. Foster, the original owner was a professional pilot. When he came home – he came home a a true passion pit!!! The bedroom had red velvet flocked wallpaper and red shag carpet! while this was truly fun and kitschy, it was not something we could live with. So the VCT flooring was installed in this room and the walls were covered with a tasteful vintage plastic grass cloth wall covering.
Dining Room
The dining room area was finished with a Modern tiki feeling. Not overt tiki, just subtle pop Polynesian influences like the orange spun plastic light fixtures which replaced the standard Eichler white glass globes.
Atrium Landscape
The Banana Palms were actually pups from transplants from MM’s parents original house in Hollywood in the 1950s! The central planter was finished off with a fiberglass fountain and matching fiberglass lamp and black river rock which extended out and in between the definitive lines between the large floating concrete pads.
