The Bohemian Bungalow in L.A. Was Tiny, but It Had Soul

The City of Angels remains a city of teardowns. Despite ordinances to preserve Los Angeles’s classic little bungalows, those charming dollops from the early 20th century that have helped define the city’s architectural character continue to be replaced by McMansions and apartment blocks.

One house that slipped through the cracks is a 1927 Spanish Colonial-slash-Craftsman in the Fairfax neighborhood, just south of West Hollywood. In the fall of 2020, Siena Deck, currently a production assistant at HBO, won an eight-way bidding war to claim the heartbreaker, paying $1.29 million.

The 1,228-square-foot house, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, is tucked into a lush pocket two blocks from Melrose Avenue, in an area known for its large Orthodox Jewish community. The interior is all arches and curves. Outside, jacaranda trees turn the grounds purple in spring. But what really impressed Ms. Deck, 25, were the decorative and frequently imperfect marks left by the former occupants, who lived there for 17 years.

As Ms. Deck later discovered, the bungalow and its previous owners, Stella Alberti, a wedding dress designer, and her husband, Pedro Alberti, an artist, were featured in a popular home décor book from 2015 called “The New Bohemians.” The author, Justina Blakeney, pegged the couple as “folksy bohemians,” who packed their little house with “tales of adventure, treasure hunting and hand-me-downs.”

The Albertis, who were from Argentina, were clever and thrifty. When they broke a dish, Mr. Alberti applied the fragments to one of his outdoor mosaics on the property; pieces with mug handles were stuck onto a side-yard pizza oven for hanging utensils and rags. In the main bathroom, they created an island of patterned floor tiles under a slipper tub, surrounded by a sea of less expensive, plain tiles. They chose not to install window treatments, letting the sunlight filter into the living room through the dense surrounding foliage.