My Houzz: Small-Space Living in a Restored Bungalow
See how this homeowner celebrates his personal style, his flea market finds and the heritage of his 1919 Long Beach home
Brian Hickman appreciates the imperfections of authenticity and the simple charm of period detail. So it’s no surprise that this serial remodeler bought a 1919 Craftsman bungalow fixer-upper in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California, and set about returning its interior to its original glory, removing decades of dubious updates. Along the way, he also added in details and design ideas that reflect the lessons he’s learned through 20 years of living in and remodeling houses of all sizes.
Hickman also enlisted Sorenson to re-create interior wood paneling to match an original portion that remained in the sitting room. “I measured and used the original wainscoting as a template and we replicated that throughout the rest of the house, just as it had been at one point,” Hickman says.
Since the original wood floors were in good shape, Hickman chose to oil them. “All of the finish had worn off and I didn’t want to polyurethane them, so I just oiled them with Danish oil,” he says.
“My favorite thing about this house is that it sort of hugs you — the ceilings and woodwork are all very intimate,” he adds. “It’s a very intimate house with no wasted space, and that’s what I love about it.”
Since the original wood floors were in good shape, Hickman chose to oil them. “All of the finish had worn off and I didn’t want to polyurethane them, so I just oiled them with Danish oil,” he says.
“My favorite thing about this house is that it sort of hugs you — the ceilings and woodwork are all very intimate,” he adds. “It’s a very intimate house with no wasted space, and that’s what I love about it.”
Hickman prefers a monochromatic interior to showcase his art and collections. “I like whiting things out because it really lets your collections show without competing with them,” he says. To achieve this, he painted the plaster walls throughout the home in Polar Bear by Behr. “It’s a good color because it works everywhere. A lot of whites have undertones of blue and green,” he says. “I love this one because it doesn’t have any weird undertones and it looks beautiful with everything.”
Hickman’s collections include vintage American flags; 1920s plein air paintings of California landscapes, seen here; and paintings of solitary people. He also curates his displays with pieces from his vast personal collection of pottery from the 1920s and ’30s as well as contemporary studio pieces. “I’ve always only chosen things I instantly feel I would want to look at all day,” he says. “The reality is we all spend a lot of time in our houses, and I wouldn’t want to suffer one single thing for a single minute that I didn’t want to look at — I’d rather have it be blank.”
As a result, even with all his collections to choose from when staging his space, Hickman believes that “blank” is also a good thing. “I think it’s important to have negative space, and by that I mean space that has nothing in it, because if there’s stuff on every surface and every wall, you don’t know where to rest your eyes,” he says. “I’m big on having a large collection of things [in one area] and then a wall with nothing on it, leaving it open for interpretation.”
The wooden furniture throughout speaks to the homeowner’s personal style rather than to an adherence to passing trends. “I don’t have a lot of pieces, and I like them to be very plain. I really like masculine-looking furniture mixed with other stuff,” Hickman says. “A lot of that is about refocusing my eye and other people’s eyes on the art.”
Hickman also says there’s another reason for his love of dark furniture. “The truth is I love dogs, friends, red wine and dark chocolate — all of which are messy! So rather than stress out about everything, I just use dark furniture to hide the evidence,” Hickman says. “I would always choose my dog over my sofa. I’d rather have livable, realistic furniture.” His sweet-faced lap dog, Ava, agrees.
Though Hickman made changes throughout the home, the kitchen and bathroom needed to be gutted. “They were absolutely horrific. Terrifying. What I basically did was strip all of the ugliness out,” Hickman says. What remains are simple, spare spaces that invoke a sense of timelessness.
“I conceptualize this house as a farmhouse,” even though it’s more pre-Craftsman,” Hickman says. “It’s got farm qualities to it, and I just instantly thought the kitchen should be very utility-based, like a farm kitchen — no-nonsense.”
“I conceptualize this house as a farmhouse,” even though it’s more pre-Craftsman,” Hickman says. “It’s got farm qualities to it, and I just instantly thought the kitchen should be very utility-based, like a farm kitchen — no-nonsense.”
As a result, Hickman created what he describes as a “European-style unfitted kitchen” rather than one with long runs of matching cabinets. “There’s not one single thing in this kitchen that’s attached to a wall,” he says. “If I decide the brown cabinet doesn’t work anymore, I can just move it and get something else.
“If you subtract the fridge, I probably have a $2,000 kitchen remodel,” Hickman says. He bought the vintage stove on Craigslist for $250. The sink is a $40 find from a flea market. “These are the things I find interesting, and when I don’t, I’ll replace them with something else. I’ll have the freedom to do that.”
“If you subtract the fridge, I probably have a $2,000 kitchen remodel,” Hickman says. He bought the vintage stove on Craigslist for $250. The sink is a $40 find from a flea market. “These are the things I find interesting, and when I don’t, I’ll replace them with something else. I’ll have the freedom to do that.”
Serendipity also played a role in the kitchen’s redesign. A friend sent Hickman a photo of an antique he might want to consider using in the space. Hickman wasn’t interested in that piece but was interested in the dark wooden cabinet in the background of the photo. The owner was willing to part with the cabinet for $700 and the kitchen’s centerpiece was established. “I fell in love with it,” Hickman says.
Buying the cabinet, however, changed Hickman’s initial concept for the kitchen layout, requiring additional plumbing work and a new solution for the sink.
What the small kitchen lacks in square footage, it makes up for in other ways. “I have been restoring houses for 20 years,” Hickman says. “One of the houses I lived in was 4,200 square feet with a giant kitchen and every drawer, cupboard and gadget you can imagine. But it’s funny, because I always end up cooking with the same pan and the same wooden spoon anyway.
“What I have learned as I have progressively moved to smaller houses is that constraint lets you be more creative,” he says. “If you have unlimited resources and unlimited space, you just end up wasting it and not knowing what to do with it, but when that isn’t the case, you find you can be very creative. I’ve never felt more free than I have in this little house. I think if you don’t need it, you don’t need to have it around you. It all takes up energy. Even maintaining stuff takes up energy.”
“What I have learned as I have progressively moved to smaller houses is that constraint lets you be more creative,” he says. “If you have unlimited resources and unlimited space, you just end up wasting it and not knowing what to do with it, but when that isn’t the case, you find you can be very creative. I’ve never felt more free than I have in this little house. I think if you don’t need it, you don’t need to have it around you. It all takes up energy. Even maintaining stuff takes up energy.”
The new bathroom interior features period-appropriate tile and fixtures.
The house has two closets, each 24 inches wide, so storage is limited. “I have all of my pants and shirts on hooks in my closet, and I also have a dresser in there with my other stuff, but I had to get rid of a lot of it,” Hickman says.
Hickman stores seasonal items in bins and his collections in the basement and rotates the art on display every six to eight months. “I do a lot of shopping in my own basement. In these little houses, it’s all about editing — that’s just the way it is,” he says.
He also pays attention to how he puts things together. “I think the key to having collections that don’t look crazy is unifying stuff. Choose things that you really love and that speak to you, and then [group] it together with a unifying element that makes sense.”
He also pays attention to how he puts things together. “I think the key to having collections that don’t look crazy is unifying stuff. Choose things that you really love and that speak to you, and then [group] it together with a unifying element that makes sense.”
Hickman considers himself a veteran vintage hunter and has frequented flea markets around the world. He estimates that 95 percent of his furnishings and decor were found during a flea market foray.
His advice for flea market shopping: “Never physically take your hand off something you are considering until you decide you don’t want it. Otherwise, someone will step in and grab it!”
He also encourages treasure seekers to enjoy the adventure. Hickman says that for him, learning the story and history behind an item is half the fun.“Flea market sellers are the best storytellers on Earth,” he says. “Ask, listen and enjoy.”
His advice for flea market shopping: “Never physically take your hand off something you are considering until you decide you don’t want it. Otherwise, someone will step in and grab it!”
He also encourages treasure seekers to enjoy the adventure. Hickman says that for him, learning the story and history behind an item is half the fun.“Flea market sellers are the best storytellers on Earth,” he says. “Ask, listen and enjoy.”
Hickman, pictured here, says, “Restoring old houses is not my day job. It’s my hobby job and sometimes I do it for other people. I’ve always bought old houses, lived in them, restored them — saved them is what I like to call it — and passed them on.”
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My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
Browse more homes by style:
Small Homes | Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Who lives here: Brian Hickman; his son, Adam; and their blue nose pit bull, Ava
Location: Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California
Year built: 1919
Size: 1,100 square feet (102 square meters); two bedrooms, one bathroom
Brian Hickman says that when he bought his home, “a lot of the period stuff had been removed,” including some of the woodwork details. “My job was to put it back as best I could and return it to a semblance of what it had going on back in the day,” he says.
The previous owner had taken down the original interior doors, but thankfully saved and stored them in the basement. When tearing down drywall to rewire the house, Hickman also discovered that the original crown moldings had been stored in the space beneath the house. “I don’t know why they saved it — but it was great!” he says.
Hickman rehung the doors and hired local woodworker Andy Sorenson to reinstall the molding. “We didn’t stain or refinish it. All I did was wash it. It is exactly how it had been left and it’s probably the original color, which is almost black,” Hickman says. “I think it’s amazing. We didn’t do anything except nail it back up.”