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Room of the Week: A Former Garage Becomes a Cool Study and Living Space
A disused garage in Los Angeles is transformed into a multifunctional chill-out zone, office and guest room
Before professional musician Tim Mosher married interior designer Lindsay Pennington, his former hunting cottage in Los Angeles was entirely his own in style. As the couple combined their belongings and she put her own touches on the house, she wanted to ensure that he still had a space to call his own. With a semicircular driveway in front of the house, their garage at the back was used to store things they rarely used, such as old bikes and mattresses. They even unearthed a 1990s Mac.
In transforming the building into Mosher’s office, the couple allocated almost all of their budget for construction, which included sealing the garage door, cutting in windows and a door, framing, adding drywall, installing a new floor and adding a small deck. Then Pennington got busy filling the space with Mosher’s favourite things and repurposed furniture and accessories. Now the newly made-over space serves as a music room, office, after-party area and guest room.
Room at a Glance
Who lives here Musician Tim Mosher, interior designer Lindsay Pennington and their two young sons
Location Los Angeles
Size About 100 sq ft
In transforming the building into Mosher’s office, the couple allocated almost all of their budget for construction, which included sealing the garage door, cutting in windows and a door, framing, adding drywall, installing a new floor and adding a small deck. Then Pennington got busy filling the space with Mosher’s favourite things and repurposed furniture and accessories. Now the newly made-over space serves as a music room, office, after-party area and guest room.
Room at a Glance
Who lives here Musician Tim Mosher, interior designer Lindsay Pennington and their two young sons
Location Los Angeles
Size About 100 sq ft
The couple created a small deck space just off the new door to the garage, which expands the room outdoors. Pennington found the café set for £15 at Big Lots and the kilim cushion for £6 at a Lulu & Georgia sample sale. ‘I’m a really democratic shopper. I look everywhere, from the high-end stores to junk shops,’ Pennington says. ‘Bringing all of these things together makes a room feel homey and really personal.’
Pennington wanted her husband to be surrounded by his favourite things. ‘The room is very masculine and reflective of him and his interests,’ she says of the new space. One of the biggest ways she brought in her husband’s style was with his art and rock ’n’ roll book collections. ‘I love to put a gallery wall in almost all of my projects,’ Pennington says. Some notable pieces include a poster signed by members of The Who; a concert poster that includes the band Mosher played with in high school, the Very Nice Plants; an original Wes Lang piece she was given as a gift; and an Alexander Calder print she and the couple’s sons gave Mosher for Father’s Day.
‘There’s no magic or mathematics to arranging art,’ Pennington says. For arranging a gallery wall, she advises using a mix of sizes and frames, and vertical and horizontal pieces. ‘The most important thing is to leave room for creativity and experimentation,’ she says. Mosher regularly adds new pieces and switches things around.
Read how to pick the best frame for your art
‘There’s no magic or mathematics to arranging art,’ Pennington says. For arranging a gallery wall, she advises using a mix of sizes and frames, and vertical and horizontal pieces. ‘The most important thing is to leave room for creativity and experimentation,’ she says. Mosher regularly adds new pieces and switches things around.
Read how to pick the best frame for your art
One of the few new purchases was this CB2 sofa bed. The big splurge was the mix of patterned cushions from Hollywood at Home. Almost every other piece was something the couple already owned or an inexpensive score. The Persian rug, for example, was a hand-me-down from a friend of a friend who could not use it in her own home.
Wall, ceiling and trim paint: White Dove, Benjamin Moore
Check out this step-by-step guide to making your own cushions
Wall, ceiling and trim paint: White Dove, Benjamin Moore
Check out this step-by-step guide to making your own cushions
This Lucite coffee table from CB2 is another go-to piece for Pennington. ‘A lot of the young families I work with in LA have smaller homes with tight spaces, and this is a great solution,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t hide the rug; it just floats, and it’s easy to move when we need to fold out the bed for guests.’ By the way, that’s Pennington and Mosher’s dog Dixie to the right of the table. She loves to nap in the office.
Three new windows bathe the desk area in natural light. Mosher has had the desk for years; it’s an old piece from the LA Unified School District. The vintage floor lamp is from a second-hand store. The pieces add a little rusted character to the bohemian mix.
A vintage chrome étagère corrals novels, mementos, books and photographs. Pennington had found it broken and covered in dust at the back of a second-hand shop years earlier. She knew that similar pieces go for thousands, and she got a great bargain at £250, even though she didn’t have a use for it at the time. The vintage Louis Vuitton case on the bottom shelf keeps loose papers and records in one place.
A TV hangs on an articulating arm in the corner above Mosher’s guitar collection, just out of view in this shot. When Pennington is away, Mosher and their two sons like to come out here and have a guys’ film night.
If you look closely at the photos, you may notice that a few pieces have been moved around or replaced. That wasn’t due to photo styling; there were two photo shoots several months apart. The couple believes in staying creative and versatile; the music room (and the rest of their home) is constantly evolving.
TELL US...
Have you converted your garage into a working or living space? Share your stories and photos in the Comments below.
TELL US...
Have you converted your garage into a working or living space? Share your stories and photos in the Comments below.