A Quiet Geometry



Low-slung hills, reeded glass, handmade furniture. In a city defined by extremes, this compact Silver Lake suite makes a case for serenity, proportion, and thoughtful design.

Photography by Roman Koval

The Bamboo Suite occupies the lower level of a 1950 hillside duplex in Silver Lake, just south of the reservoir and perched on a hillside overlooking Silver Lake Boulevard. While technically a basement, the space has been reimagined to be light-filled and expansive, thanks to a renovation that prioritized flow, natural materials, and clean lines.
The first major move was to reorient the layout along a single visual axis: from the reeded-glass front door, the eye travels straight through to the bedroom wall at the far end. This clarified sightline—alongside a subtle two-step drop from the entry landing to the main floor—helps the space feel larger than its footprint.
The renovation was guided as much by lived experience as by design intuition. The homeowners—a husband-and-wife team, working as a creative director and a production designer in independent film—designed the unit with visiting parents and out-of-town friends in mind, drawing inspiration from classic European pied-à-terres. The space had been occupied by long-term tenants in years past, yielding lessons for where the space felt generous and where it needed more breathing room.
Built-ins were pared back, ceiling fixtures were swapped for warm side lighting, and a shared wall was reinforced for acoustic privacy. A compact kitchen was designed to feel seamless—incorporating a ceramic cooktop and hidden convection oven into a minimal footprint. The new entry landing, built in varnished plywood, stretches sideways into a custom bench for the dining nook before stepping down to cork flooring—visually unifying the various zones and grounding the space in a soft, natural palette.