Exterior decorating: In Hollywood Hills, outdoor rooms get vintage-Mod touch

Annette Gutierrez, pictured with husband Gustavo, created an outdoor great room as an extension of the indoor kitchen. “I wanted it to feel like my front living room so you can walk out and just plop down and relax,” Gutierrez said. “We use it all the time.” For a tour of her outdoor living areas, keep clicking.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

The hanging plants are ferns and philodendrons planted in sphagnum moss, bonsai mix and peat moss. Gutierrez wraps them with colorful twine, adds beaded accents and hangs them from the ceiling with twine-covered wire from a craft store. To keep them from drying out, she submerges them in a bowl of water.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

On the front porch, Annette Gutierrez hung a kokedama-style “string garden,” hanging plants that emulate Japanese moss-ball arrangements. The net effect is a loose web of flora that serves as a partial visual screen.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

A simple arrangement of rocks give potted plants a finished look. “I’m an orderly person,” Gutierrez said. “I like things to look cohesive.”  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

The black-and-white recycled plastic porch rug is reversible, so when the top faded, Gutierrez simply flipped it over. Sedum succulents in two hues grow in a wedding cake planter from Gutierrez’s Atwater Village store, Potted.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

“If you have a great-looking pot, you want it to stand out,” Gutierrez said. “For me, the top dressing is another way of planting and giving it another other dimension.” Here, dark rocks create a geometric pattern that plays off the sculptural plants. “It’s like making a mini-landscape on the top of the pot.”  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

When Gutierrez and her husband remodeled, they wanted an outdoor great room as an extension of the new kitchen.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

The outdoor room off the kitchen has a custom couch upholstered in the same weather-resistant Sunbrella fabric used in another outdoor living area near the pool house. Outdoor rugs, Gutierrez said, “really makes a room.”  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Grouped together on a weathered table, a wild assortment of pots makes a cohesive vignette.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Succulents called string of pearls spill out of the ceramic Orbit hanging planters from Gutierrez’s store.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

The setting: a 1908 Craftsman in an old part of the Hollywood Hills.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Beyond the alfresco sitting area next to the house: an outdoor dining area.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Lava rock plays the role of unconventional planter on the tile-topped dining table outside.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Above an outdoor sink, Gutierrez installed this iron piece, originally used as a security barrier on windows in Egypt, like an artwork. “It looks like a painting,” she said. On the counter: a potted dwarf plumeria.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

The long view: You can see three vignettes in this one shot. In the foreground, a sitting area has Gutierrez’s grandmother’s Russell Wright chairs, which were powder-coated aqua to match a Bauer Pottery oil jar and the pool. To the right is the dining area, next to the barbecue and the outdoor great room. Off in the distance is another lounging area near the pool house and shower. After reseeding the lawn three times because of her dogs, Gutierrez planted synthetic grass from Turf Evolutions.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Gutierrez’s menagerie of potted plants even extends into her outdoor shower.   (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

The outdoor shower is lined with a mix of classic Malibu tile, vintage ceramics and stained glass.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

A chipped blue Bauer Pottery creamer gets a second life as a planter for jade plants.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

An inexpensive Ikea chaise provides another place to lounge with a good book. Gutierrez initially had the pink bouganvillea in a pot and has moved it to two different houses. The lemon tree also has grown since being transplanted from a 1-gallon pot. “I love my lemon tree,” Gutierrez said. “I think everyone should have a lemon tree.”  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

A planter with crassula and Kalanchoe daigremontiana sits on a side table that Gutierrez designed using 2-by-4-inch bathroom tile.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

In the fern garden on the cooler, south side of the house, Gutierrez used concrete pavers embedded with orange tile to give the patio bursts of color when seen from above. “The fig tree looked so sad when it didn’t have leaves,” she said. “I thought it would be pretty if some color came up when you looked down from the second floor.” She embedded her deceased dog’s tag in one of the pavers.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Another place, another pot.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

Aeonium rosettes.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)

As seen through a window of the house, Gutierrez’s wall planter and pots are an eclectic assortment of materials, textures and colors. For more on Gutierrez’s garden, read the related article. Look for the video chat between Gutierrez and Times staff writer Lisa Boone at the bottom of the article.

For an easy way to follow the L.A. home and garden scene, bookmark our L.A. at Home blog and check out our Homes of the Times photo galleries.  (Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times)