L.A. house fits family heirlooms into vintage-modern design mix

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Interior designer Tamara Kaye-Honey of House of Honey, left, sits at the outdoor dining table with homeowner Melinda Fay. For a fun little quirk, 1950s thrift-store office chairs bought for $25 apiece were set around the wooden table from Jensen. The hanging Egyptian arabesque light is from L’aviva Home. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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A mix of work — outsider art, pieces by emerging artists and some vintage finds — hang salon-style in the entryway. At floor level, a bit of family practicality: metal baskets to collect shoes. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Ogie, left, and Bandini are camouflaged in the living room rug from Anthropologie. The thrift-shop landscapes and paint-by-number that fill the wall cost about $350 total. Decorator Tamara Kaye-Honey found the sconces at a Pasadena antique mall. The low-slung seating pictured here originally had a floral fabric and was re-covered in hides. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Salvaged signage now hangs over a vintage credenza and record player in the living room. The building, named for Mark Fay’s great-grandfather, was by Grand Central Market near the intersection of 3rd and Hill streets in downtown L.A. Designer Tamara Kaye-Honey painted the backdrop with matte black chalkboard paint to help speakers mounted on the wall disappear. The feathered object to the right of the sign is a Cameroonian juju hat from L’aviva Home. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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One nook of the large living room has been turned into its own sitting area, with an antique settee covered in floral Schumacher fabric and chartreuse thrift store chairs. Decorator Tamara Kaye-Honey painted the fireplace black to help the colorful pieces stand out. The ceramic whippet is an inherited piece from Melinda Fay’s aunt. “It always greeted me when I went to her house.” (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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The dining table came from the Salvation Army. Originally painted green, it was refinished and paired with chairs in striped wool from Midcentury L.A., a North Hollywood importer of vintage design. In the background, next to the white whippet statue: a spotlight from the 1960’s that once belonged to Mark Fay’s father. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Designer Tamara Kaye-Honey used black in key spots in the house to help artwork stand out. Here in the family room, she installed a textured black wall covering by Christian Lacroix. She stripped and bleached the Salvation Army credenza using a pickling process. Art on credenza includes a vintage 1970s Japanese woodblock print by Iwami Reika, a black-and-white vintage photo Melinda Fay bought at the Rose Bowl Flea Market for $5, and a small gray ceramic vase scored for 99 cents at ACTS thrift store in Pasadena. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Because the master bedroom had too many hard lines, designer Tamara Kaye-Honey covered a rounded headboard from the Salvation Army with an ikat fabric from Michael Levine. “I’ve always been into pattern on pattern,” said Fay, explaining the choice of a Dwell Studio duvet cover. Grasscloth on the wall added texture and warmth, and sconces were added for reading light. Melinda Fay found the painting by midcentury Surrealist painter John Stancin on EBay. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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One wall in the master bedroom is a bright blue backdrop for the mirror and midcentury Italian ceramic lamps from Sunbeam Vintage in Highland Park. Melinda Fay wanted to hang the mirror low and chose not to use lampshades, partly because she didn’t want to block the mirror. “Tamara gave me the great tip of using the Edison light bulbs,” Melinda said. The four framed pieces at left are turn-of-the-century Fay Fruit Co. crate labels, purchased at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Mark Fay bought this work by street artist Becca to woo Melinda. “She used to have her paintings wheatpasted all over alleys and utility boxes around Silver Lake, where I lived at the time,” Melinda said. “She is the first thing I see each morning. She reminds me of the vintage me. And the vintage us.” The painting hangs in a bedroom nook with a Danish modern chair that was bought at the Pasadena City College flea market and reupholstered in fabric from Michael Levine. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Sturdy sliding barn doors for son Boon’s room were covered with striped vinyl wallpaper by Marimekko. “I wouldn’t put anything fancy in my kid’s room,” Melinda Fay said. “I wanted something that I can wipe down.” (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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The sports theme in Boon’s room plays out with a locker reflected in the mirrored door. The piece is from ReForm School in Silver Lake. “I chose this one because it looks like an armoire,” Melinda said. “I had it stripped and sandblasted and refinished.” The vintage desk is from Sunset Bazaar in Silver Lake. The antique dart board came from a flea market. “I’m a baseball mom. I’m used to the mantra: “Good eye, good eye,’” Melinda joked. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Melinda and Mark Fay in their backyard. When the couple removed overgrown ivy, they uncovered a multilevel concrete wall constructed by the previous owner. The Fays planted purple verbena, yellow santolina, white Santa Barbara daisy and ornamental deer grass in the tiers. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Boon, right, and his brother, Haskell, swing on the back patio in a hanging rope chair from Lost & Found in Los Angeles. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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A vintage iron coffee table and daybed accented with Schumacher throw pillows are flanked by silver metallic deck chairs from Trina Turk. Designer Tamara Kaye-Honey added orange piping to the gray Sunbrella fabric to complement the orange vinyl cushions on dining chairs nearby. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Mark Fay scavenged the oversized tile from the remains of his grandparents’ house in the Hollywood Hills. Now it’s hung on the exterior of the brick fireplace at his Eagle Rock house.

More design profiles: Homes of the Times archive. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

By Lisa Boone

April 24, 2013 1:23 PM PT

When Mark Fay heard that the F.P. Fay Building was about to be demolished, the “True Blood” sound engineer drove to downtown Los Angeles to see the building named for his great-grandfather. That day, Easter Sunday, he discovered the building had already been knocked down, with little left but some ironwork and Fay Building signage on a piece of marble.

Twenty-three years and one trip to the welder later, the silver F-A-Y lettering now hangs above a treasured turntable, standing out against a living room wall’s matte black chalkboard paint. In the Eagle Rock home where Mark and Melinda Fay live with their two boys, Boon and Haskell, the rescued sign represents not only a piece of salvaged family history but also the decorating mix of the moment: a playful blend of vintage and contemporary.

PHOTO GALLERY: In Eagle Rock, a vintage-modern mix

“I have great nostalgia for things and an appreciation for vintage,” said Melinda, a psychotherapist who specializes in art therapy. “I love Midcentury, but I believe in comfort. I like to mix it up.”

The heirlooms go beyond inherited pieces (those Emmy Awards on the shelf belonged to Mark’s father, Sheldon, a cameraman). For these regulars at the Rose Bowl and Pasadena City College flea markets and aficionados of Etsy and EBay, possessions have been amassed through a combination of kismet and determination.

Case in point: After his grandparents’ house in the Hollywood Hills was demolished, Mark jumped the fence and found “The Archer,” a large stone relief originally mounted outside the pool house. He snagged it from the junk pile and hung it on the exterior of the brick fireplace at the Eagle Rock house. “The Archer” now oversees his children at play, just as it did when he was a child.

The Fays’ surplus of artworks, including outsider art and thrift store finds, chronicles the couple’s life together. In the master bedroom hangs a painting by street artist Becca that Mark bought to woo Melinda. Over the couch in the family room, a snake is rendered on a vintage map by Lynn Hanson. “Our house is right on the bottom above the artist’s signature,” Melinda said.

The artwork is as diverse as the home’s decor. Melinda, who is launching a gallery show May 11 at Curve Line Space in Eagle Rock, called it “such an emotional and personal thing.” But the couple also have had to be pragmatic, adapting the rooms of the 1948 home to accommodate their growing family.

During the last two years, the couple worked with South Pasadena interior decorator Tamara Kaye-Honey to add layers of texture and color and to create separate gathering places inside and out. What used to be a large, difficult-to-arrange living room has been divided into a central area with couch, a more intimate nook by the fireplace and a station for spinning LPs. The family room for kids inside is balanced with a “chill space” for grown-ups outside.

“I’m into creating a space for my kids where they can be free and have memories,” Melinda said. “As a therapist, I think I wanted to create intimacy by establishing both grown-up spaces and kid spaces.”

High-end furnishings are paired with budget finds. In that fireside nook, an antique settee covered in floral Schumacher fabric sits alongside chartreuse chairs from a thrift store. A dining table — bought from Goodwill and refinished — is surrounded by classic chairs from Midcentury L.A., a North Hollywood importer of vintage design. And in a surprising move, decorator Honey chose a patterned black Christian Lacroix wallpaper as a backdrop for a Salvation Army dresser reborn with a pickled finish.

Adding to the sentimentality that permeates the home is a ceramic whippet statue, once belonging to Melinda’s aunt. Placed next to the fireplace, it is one of the first things you see as you enter the house.

“It always greeted me when I went to her house,” Melinda said. “Nostalgia plays a big role in both of our lives and our memories growing up with the things that surrounded us. We have tried to infuse those elements into our home and imprint those memories onto the next generation.”

lisa.boone@latimes.com

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L.A. house fits family heirlooms into vintage-modern design mix

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