One of my favorite visual artists is Lynn Hanson. I love her earthy, moody, naturalistic artwork, but I am also a huge fan of her adorable (and now famous) house in Venice, California.
I first saw Lynn’s house in a 2010 article in Country Collectables’ Cottage Style magazine. I found her home so charming, that I kept the magazine, just for the photos of her 1921 bungalow.
Whenever I’m cranky, or agitated, or overwhelmed I pick up that magazine and flip immediately to Lynn Hanson’s seaside cottage. It just seems to calm me and transport me to a peaceful, happy place.
I scanned all the photos onto my computer, and though it didn’t do the color palette justice, you get a sense of the simple, vintage beauty of her place.
Lynn bought her home in 1983 and has been making it her own ever since.
Many other people have taken delight in Hanson’s 762 square foot cottage – it is routinely featured on the Venice Studio Artwalk and Venice Secret Garden tours – and so I was able to find additional public pictures of her house & garden online.
The L.A. Times recently did a pictorial of her home.
So I thought it would be fun to compare some older pictures and newer pictures side-by-side.
Have a look…
(recent pic)
(2010 magazine pic)…
Lynn loves to change things up – she seems to have the wonderful mania of an artist who can’t leave any surface untouched. She even paints her kitchen floor on a regular basis: “At some point, I tired of my black-and-white checkerboard kitchen floor and started painting it trompe l’oiel vintage-linoleum style with a turkey duster.” [excerpted from “natural wonder” Cottage Style 2010 (#56)]
Living room:
(recent pic)…
(2010 magazine pic)…
(recent pic)…
The decor (in recent photos) seems to have veered a little more toward sharp primary accent colors, and less pastel, soft blues and sea greens. Both schemes are attractive – I can’t decide which one I like better!
(recent pic)…
(2010 magazine pic)…
I appreciate the tousled bed covers… so natural, so candid (but probably totally staged for that picture!)
Here’s the other portion of the master bedroom that my scanner cut off:
I love how Lynn rotates the artwork in her home as she acquires (or creates) new pieces…
You can see in the picture below (of Lynn’s daughter’s room) and a couple of the others above, that Lynn’s artwork has migrated around the house.
The loveliness, however, extends far beyond the actual house. It spills out into the garden and the art studio that Lynn converted from an old carport.
For a detailed tour of Lynn’s garden and studio, see the phenomenal photos that Janine Robinson took in May, 2011 – now featured on her blog at: Laguna Dirt.
It’s amazing how the natural, ephemeral decor just flows effortlessly throughout Lynn’s entire property. Her airy, beachy cottage is enchanting. Though small, Lynn’s charming bungalow delights one’s senses at every turn.
“My house is like my mind: There’s a lot going on,” she says. “I’m always dragging in new things.” [excerpted from latimes.com feature article Cottage as her canvas: the home of Venice artist Lynn Hanson ]
If you would like to learn more about artist Lynn Hanson, see her website here and her blog here.
ps… I am so inspired by her house and her artwork that I feel like taking a turkey baster to my own kitchen floor! (…or was that a “duster” that she used?)
