Artist Marlee Brown Lists Candy-Colored Midcentury Modern in Baldwin Hills
By: Pauline O'Connor
Original Article Published by Dirt.com
In her artist’s statement, oil painter Marlee Brown writes, “Color is my passion. It is my first reaction to the world and my first responsibility to my art.” This claim is backed up quite convincingly by the artist’s well-known landscapes of Michigan’s Mackinac Island, and by the vivid interiors of the midcentury modern home in Southern California that she’s just put on the market, which was made over by her sister, TV host and decorator Katie Brown.
Though anyone would be forgiven for guessing the home’s location to be Palm Springs, it’s actually found in South L.A.’s midcentury enclave of Baldwin Hills Estates. Built in 1955, the single-story post and beam was designed by Harold B. Zook, who began his career working in the Palms Springs firm of Albert Frey and John Porter Clark, then went on to establish his own practice, based in Pasadena, in 1948.
Resting on a 9,581-square-foot hilltop lot, the home enjoys panoramic city and mountain vistas. The color wheel starts spinning at its main entry, which is concealed behind a green breeze-block wall. On the other side of the carved-wood front door awaits a sunny yellow living room lined on one end with walls of glass and on one side with ribbed-wood paneling. Each of the 2,700-square-foot home’s bedrooms and baths follow their own individual color stories, which make liberal use of pink, red, lilac, and orange palettes.
Two spaces that provide a palate (or palette) cleanser are the kitchen, which has been updated with stainless appliances and lined with custom cabinetry in a light wood tone, and an all-white painting studio space. Other highlights include concrete floors, built-ins, and a stacked-stone fireplace.
Online marketing materials note that the home’s kidney-shaped pool has been restored, and new air conditioning and a climbing wall have been installed.
Last sold for $2.35 million, the colorful property is on the market with an asking price of $2.85 million. Kevin and Stefani Stolper of The Beverly Hills Estates hold the listing.
