A way of enjoyable permeates the rooms of Cecilia and Abraham Beltran’s colourful one-bedroom house in Lengthy Seaside.
The adventurous couple enjoys crisscrossing Los Angeles to discover its treasures, from the peaceable gardens of the Huntington Library, Artwork Museum and Botanical Gardens the place they’re members, to the scrumptious dim sum palaces of the San Gabriel Valley. On Sundays, they prefer to take floor streets akin to Paramount or Atlantic Boulevard again to Lengthy Seaside “to experience things we’ve never seen before,” Abraham says, providing Mexican pastries from Lengthy Seaside’s James Beard Award–nominated Gusto Bread. “We love Los Angeles. To us, driving is a part of living in California.”
On this sequence, we highlight L.A. leases with model. From good gallery partitions to momentary decor hacks, these renters get inventive, even in small areas. And Angelenos want the inspiration: Most are renters.
“We both have a deep passion for Midcentury design and color,” Cecilia shares, reminiscing concerning the time the couple toured the Stahl home within the Hollywood Hills and took their very own image in homage to Julius Shulman’s iconic picture of two girls reclining in the lounge of Case Examine Home #22. Sometime, she mentioned, they hope to re-create a scene from the 1998 Coen brothers movie “The Big Lebowski,” wherein Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) makes a White Russian for the Dude (Jeff Bridges) as a result of it was filmed at one other certainly one of L.A.’s legendary Midcentury properties — John Lautner’s Sheats–Goldstein Residence above Beverly Hills.
The Beltran’s house encapsulates their design sensibility and “above all, the people we love.” There’s daring, Midcentury Trendy-inspired furnishings the couple discovered on Craigslist, tongue-in-cheek smiling pillows and the “Hole to Another Universe” wall decal by Blik, which will be eliminated after they transfer. Peppered all through the area are mementos from their travels, such because the limited-edition artwork print “La Famille” bought on a visit to London in 2023.
Household pictures, mementos from their travels and quirky equipment adorn the Beltran’s longtime house.
Their nicknames for one another — Pikachu and Hamster — are displayed on a plaque in the lounge alongside Pez dispensers in vibrant hues, the customized wood cake topper of their likeness bought on Etsy for his or her 2012 marriage ceremony and a complete gallery wall of pictures of relations. Within the bed room, charming wood Kokeshi dolls from Japan take up two cabinets not removed from a sequence of photographs of Abraham, 41, and Cecilia, 48, taken on their first date in 2006.
Their most prized possession? A line drawing of the couple, created in a single take by their 10-year-old nephew. “He’s a genius,” Abraham says proudly. “I teared up when I saw it,” provides Cecilia.
Set in a 1941-built complicated of 4 items, their house was initially designed for Boeing workers in managerial positions. That explains the 800-square-foot rental’s full-size kitchen and eating room, which go well with Cecilia and Abraham’s love for internet hosting household gatherings, holidays and the birthday celebrations they seek advice from as “Adventure Days,” the place the birthday individual picks an journey for the household to go on from “sundown to sunset.”
Along with a eating room, the house incudes a spacious kitchen, that includes a wall decal from Blik, and a pantry and laundry room.
The eating room options orange Ikea chairs the couple discovered on Fb Market and drove to Altadena to select up. “Since the fires, I’ve been thinking of the family and hoping they’re OK,” says Cecilia.
“It feels like a house,” Cecilia says, noting the built-in ironing board within the kitchen, certainly one of many interval particulars she enjoys. Additionally they really feel lucky to dwell someplace that has sufficient room for a washer and dryer and pantry, which will be elusive for a lot of Los Angeles house dwellers.
They’ve resided on this Lengthy Seaside house within the Village since 2010. Their first after transferring out of their dad and mom’ properties, it has turn out to be a central hub for his or her household, together with their 5 nieces and nephews, who’re common guests.
The couple’s dwelling decor features a line drawing by their 10-year-old nephew, household photographs and colourful Pez dispensers.
Household is on the core of their lives, and as such, the house is organized round making relations really feel welcome. “I want the kids to feel like they can relax,” says Cecilia, a library technician.
As Cecilia’s youngest brother, Peter Jurado, notes, “Cecilia and Abraham are the glue of the family. They are some of the most caring, compassionate, warm and funny folk I know. Humor is ever-present when they’re around, and they keep the mood light and happy. When I’m at their house, the photo collection of family and friends on the wall always reminds me of what is important in life.”
Due to the excess of pure mild, the house has the texture of a tree home, emphasised by the bounty of lush houseplants Cecilia collected through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We call that the portal,” Abraham says of the Blik “Hole to Another Universe” wall decal.
“The plants make me feel cozy,” she says. “I talk to them during my watering mornings when I play a special tropical playlist on our Sonos. They’re like my kids — the only living things I have to be responsible for.”
Sometimes, when it will get scorching in the summertime and so they want they’d air con, Abraham imagines transferring to a brand-new place.
However one of many advantages of dwelling of their $1,800-a-month house for thus lengthy — they joke that they don’t know anybody who has lived in an house so long as they’ve — is their means to save cash.
Houseplants thrive within the sunny bed room.
Within the face of excessive mortgage charges and Southern California’s rising dwelling costs, Cecilia, who additionally does tax preparation, says, “One of the most common questions I get from my tax clients is, ‘Should I buy a house?’ I tell them to crunch the numbers and ask themselves if they can really afford everything that comes with a house. If Abraham and I owned a house, we’d be living paycheck to paycheck.” As an alternative, the couple not too long ago returned from a visit to Hawaii and are sending Cecilia’s mom to Japan this month. “It’s nice to be able to help our families if we need to,” Cecilia says.
The couple are huge followers of Midcentury Trendy structure and luxuriate in touring L.A. landmarks, such because the famed Stahl Home in West Hollywood. (Courtesy of Cecilia Beltran)
The couple additionally enjoys the advantages of dwelling near their neighbors. “I keep an eye out for everyone,” says Abraham, a gross sales recruiter who works from their lounge, which overlooks the road.
They describe their next-door neighbor as an uncle. “He makes us chili every couple of months,” Cecilia says. “If something is off, we all talk to each other and resolve the issue.” Different neighbors not too long ago invited Cecilia over for Mahjong.
A “Hello Sunshine” bathe curtain provides additional colour to the Beltrans’ toilet.
For a very long time, the couple adopted a strict “one in, one out” rule. “It was hard to bring my tchotchkes into the apartment at first,” Cecilia says, “especially for Abraham, who comes from a hoarder upbringing. His half of the closet is color-coded; mine is just thrown in there.” The important thing to dwelling in a small area, she says, is communication.
In the end, Cecilia says, she desires the house “to feel like us. I think we pulled it off.”
Abraham agrees. “I grew up in Montebello in a house where it was hard to relax because it was full of stuff. Having this space makes me feel overjoyed. Our apartment is a beautiful way to recharge our batteries every night.”
The bookshelves of the 1941 house are crammed with household pictures, books and private mementos that make the couple joyful.
