American Beauty

Di Zock teamed up with her best friend to create a Venice Beach cottage that is perfect for alfresco living

- Jane Bowles

DiZock was living and working near Venice Beach in Los Angeles and had no intention of moving house when her best friend Jonathan King called to tell her about a cottage that that he had heard would be coming on to the market. ‘He felt it was too good an opportunity to miss and asked if I’d like to work on the project with him,’ says Di. ‘We agreed that he’d buy the cottage, we’d renovate it together, and then I’d rent it back from him. Since the interior needed complete remodelling, we also enlisted the help of our mutual friend, architect Tom Carson.’

The three friends agreed that the main priority was to reconfigure the layout, to make the rooms feel lighter and more spacious, and to improve access to the garden – a must-have for Di, who is a landscape architect by profession. ‘There were lots of small rooms, only one bathroom and a dark, enclosed storage room at the back,’ says Di. ‘Although we retained the original footprint, the interior was stripped right back to the bare stud walls.’