Mini Modern: New 495-square-foot L.A. house

Another view of the main space, with the kitchen on the left. Doors and windows are framed in warm wood. The “floating” kitchen partition of white-painted light density fiberboard, or LDF, is supported by square tube steel posts from Industrial Metal Supply. The partition serves as pot and pan storage and buffet counter.

Detail of the partition, facing the kitchen.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The coffee table rests on a polished concrete floor. Simple materials were used to save money and provide stylish continuity from room to room.

The doors and windows from Taylor Brothers Architectural Products in Los Angeles cost about $25,000, a splurge justified by the welcome sense of openness they provide. “We kept cost in mind to know when to spend and when not to,” designer Molina says.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

The set on the right is shorter but equally effective, bringing light and air into the living room and making the space larger than it really is. That’s the building’s owner, John Oddo, sliding the Douglas fir-trimmed doors.

The reverse view. Note the dining table around the corner, on the right.

That dining table sits right outside the kitchen.

Molina estimates that custom cabinets would have easily cost $40,000. Using mostly IKEA units kept the price to about $4,000 before installation.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

More windows to let in sunshine. Down the hall: the bedroom and bath.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

The cabinets run 36 feet along one side of the building, not only providing kitchen storage but also serving as built-ins for clothing in the bedroom. On the opposite wall: open shelves backed by recycled pink plexiglass.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

In the bedroom, the courtyard’s tranquil blue stucco continues inside the house, helping to erase the boundary between inside and out -- and seeming to expand the space.

Small bath with a sink bowl on top of a vanity leaves more under–sink storage.

Oddo, the house’s owner, inside the bedroom. By the time the house was completed in 2009, the recession forced him to rent out the new space. Selsky answered Oddo’s ad on Craigslist and, after one walk-through, snapped up the rental for $1,600 a month.

Strategically placed stucco walls provide welcome refuge from the busy street and from neighbors, allowing for a secluded courtyard. The lockable steel-framed front gate with half-inch-thick frosted acrylic maintains privacy and security, so that all doors of the house can be left open to capture refreshing breezes.

So does this house, where a tenant gladly pays for quality of space over quantity of space, prove that smaller is better? According to Molina, “It proves that small is good. Smaller isn’t better for everyone. But many of us could do with less, for sure.”   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )