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Creative couple Eileen O’Dea and Ryan Silverman have spent 14 years renovating their 75-year-old, two-bedroom cottage in Los Angeles’ Mar Vista neighborhood. The Apartment Therapy house tour describes custom woodwork, finish work and changes to the home’s layout, including a kitchen renovation that took about nine months.
Eileen O’Dea and Ryan Silverman have spent 14 years customizing a 75-year-old cottage in Los Angeles’ Mar Vista neighborhood, according to a house tour published by Apartment Therapy. The report describes changes to the home’s layout and finishes, including a raised kitchen ceiling, handmade cabinets and custom wood floors.
The couple first came to the home through Silverman, who rented it for years before they had the opportunity to buy it. The cottage has two bedrooms and is shared with the couple’s three dogs, Lucy, Hank and Tilda. O’Dea and Silverman are creative business partners: they founded The Wooden Palate, which makes cutting boards and home accessories, and STUDIO E&R, a woodworking company that creates custom furniture and architectural woodwork.
O’Dea told Apartment Therapy that the house was dark and lacked personality before the couple began working on it. Their projects have included adding windows, converting half a bedroom into a closet, raising the kitchen ceiling and changing walls between the kitchen and dining areas. The couple also applied specialty wall finishes, including limewash and Roman clay, in several rooms.
The closet was one of their first major projects. O’Dea said Silverman built it before she moved in, with a fumed-oak herringbone ceiling, walnut dressers and shelves, and parquet flooring. They later redid the bedroom floor in quarter-sawn oak parquet and added a custom bed with integrated nightstands. In the kitchen, the couple built the cabinets and installed green stone counters and a solid bleached-walnut chevron pattern. They also bought a La Cornue stove at an estate sale, which O’Dea described as a bargain.
A Home Shaped by Their Craft
The tour offers a detailed example of homeowners applying professional design and woodworking skills to a home they live in, rather than treating the renovations as a single makeover. The work spans floors, ceilings, cabinetry and wall finishes, with changes intended to suit the couple’s routines and interests as well as alter the cottage’s appearance.
It also shows the practical limits behind a highly customized renovation. O’Dea said the couple do not have the same budgets they work with for some clients, and that it can be difficult to find time for substantial projects while also being able to afford them. The kitchen took about nine months to complete, illustrating how a room-by-room approach can stretch over time even when the owners have relevant experience.
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From Rental to Long-Term Project
Silverman rented the Mar Vista property for many years before he and O’Dea were able to buy it. The Apartment Therapy account says the couple have worked on the home together for 14 years. Rather than describing one recent renovation or a complete rebuild, the report presents an accumulation of projects carried out over that period.
The couple’s work extends beyond their own home. Through STUDIO E&R, they make custom furniture and wood features, including walls, ceilings, doors and floors; O’Dea also works with finishes such as limewash, Moroccan clay and Roman clay. Apartment Therapy describes the house as a personal living space shaped by their interests and collected objects, not simply a display of their business work.
“The house was quite dark and didn’t have much personality until we started playing … adding windows, creating a large closet from half a bedroom, raising the ceiling in the kitchen.”
— Eileen O’Dea, speaking to Apartment Therapy
Project Costs and Remaining Work
The Apartment Therapy report does not provide a total renovation budget, a detailed project-by-project timeline or a full account of which work has been completed most recently. O’Dea said some projects take a long time because of the challenge of coordinating available time and money, but the report does not identify a specific next renovation or say whether the couple consider the house finished.
The published account is a home tour based on the couple’s descriptions and images, not an independent inspection or cost assessment. It does not specify which tasks, if any, were carried out by outside contractors, or provide permit details for the changes to the ceiling, walls and other parts of the home.
No Further Renovation Announced
The source material does not announce a new project, completion date or planned follow-up for the cottage. O’Dea told Apartment Therapy that projects can remain in progress for extended periods, and that the kitchen remains the couple’s favorite room seven years after its renovation. For now, the report documents the home as it stands and the work completed over the couple’s 14 years there.
Key Questions
Who owns the Los Angeles cottage?
Eileen O’Dea and Ryan Silverman own the home, according to the Apartment Therapy report. Silverman rented the cottage for years before the couple had the opportunity to buy it.
Where is the cottage, and how old is it?
The two-bedroom home is in Mar Vista, Los Angeles. Apartment Therapy describes it as about 75 years old.
What did the couple change in the kitchen?
They raised the ceiling to the roofline, removed walls between the kitchen and adjacent spaces, built the cabinets and added green stone counters. The report also describes bleached-walnut chevron woodwork and a La Cornue stove bought at an estate sale.
How long did the kitchen renovation take?
O’Dea told Apartment Therapy that the kitchen took about nine months to complete. The report says it remains the couple’s favorite room.
Have the owners announced another project?
No. The supplied report does not identify a planned next renovation or say that all work on the cottage is complete.
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