A Five-Year Renovation of This 1950s Bel Air Home Opens It Up to the Breathtaking Surroundings

Tucked away in the famous California neighborhood of Bel Air, an unassuming 1950s house was a true time capsule. "This was a very charming, traditional home with great bones," says interior decorator Robyn Ordon, who owns the home with her husband. "But there were quite a few drawbacks." It had been renovated by its previous owners in the ’90s, but nothing had been done since. Sunlight barely made it inside the convoluted floor plan, which also seemed to be overly modest for the area. "The house had too few bedrooms for this neighborhood, plus their layout wasn’t ideal," Ordon recalls. 

These details chipped away at the home’s potential, but they weren’t as problematic as the one true wasted opportunity. "Overgrown hedges and trees surrounded the entire property, so there was absolutely no view," she says. Ordon teamed up with Michael Campbell of FORM Design and Development for a renovate-to-sell project that would capitalize on the nearly two-acre site. "We kept a lot of the stone and wood details of the exterior, and we opened up the rooms and staircase to create better flow and light," Campbell says. 

Over five years, Ordon and Campbell painstakingly brought every aspect of the house into the 21st century while doubling its square footage. As for the most enviable feature, a view of the Pacific Ocean, Ordon and Campbell turned to Kolbe Windows & Doors to showcase each perspective like a work of art.

Ordon chose products from Kolbe’s VistaLuxe® Collection and let the mood of each room dictate the interior window and door color selection, varying between black and abalone frames. "With the wonderful views in the primary bedroom in particular, I wanted floor-to-ceiling walls of glass in a more contemporary look," she says. "In this case, I had them done in white, and the final result was gorgeous."

Now the house is a perch that puts the surrounding landscape on full display. "We really were able to create something very special in this home," Campbell says.

—

Head back to the May/June 2022 issue homepage