In Toluca Lake, a celebrity enclave in Los Angeles known for its Spanish bungalows and quiet streets, a young homeowner and content creator chose something rarer than another sprawling open plan. Working with designer Lidan Sfadia, the 2025 build turns its back on the all glass, all open trend of new construction and instead offers rooms with edges, thresholds, and character.
“I wanted to preserve the neighborhood’s feel as there are many old Spanish homes with a lot of character,” says Sfadia, and the house makes good on that promise from the first step inside. A formal foyer, framed by wood beams and wrought iron arched doors, greets visitors with the weight and warmth of tradition before the rest of the home unfolds.
Rather than dissolving into a single continuous space, the family room, dining area, and kitchen remain distinct, joined by arched doorways that let light and movement pass through without collapsing privacy. “As I tried to shy away from the typical new construction feel which is an all open layout, I created an intimate home,” Sfadia explains. It is a house built on rhythm, each room holding its own mood while still belonging to the whole.
The material language carries much of that mood. Greige Italian limestone floors set a quiet, earthy base. Calacatta marble tops the kitchen island and dresses the bathrooms, while the kitchen cabinetry, in dark stained European white oak, grounds the space against the paler stone. Brass Watermark fixtures warm every faucet and light switch, echoing the copper rain gutters outside. A reclaimed 1920s Spanish clay tile roof caps it all, a nod to the past that Sfadia never treats as pastiche.
“The biggest challenge was making sure the house didn’t feel like a new construction,” she admits, and the layering of old and new, from the reclaimed roof to the custom Fleetwood sliders in the primary suite, is where that challenge is answered most convincingly.
Outdoors, arched steel doors open onto a pool, a spa, and a 125 year old olive tree, with views stretching toward the adjacent Lakeside golf course. “I wanted to create a warm feeling easy on the eye and a relaxing environment,” Sfadia says, and the palette of off white walls, oak furniture, and linen upholstery delivers exactly that.
The furnishing sources read like a well kept address book: a reclaimed wood console imported from Turkey and lighting from Amber Interiors in the entry, an RH table with Belgian linen slipcover chairs and a vintage Persian rug in the dining room, woven barstools from Berber Imports in the kitchen, a mohair custom sofa and sconces by Jake Arnold for Crate and Barrel in the family room. Every piece of art throughout the home comes from Creative Art Partners.
“This home is the perfect blend of timeless charm and luxury, offering both sophistication and character,” Sfadia says of the project, and it is hard to argue otherwise.
