A White Rental Dining Room Transforms into a “Colorful, Euphoric Riot”
If you’ve ever been to Los Angeles, you’ve probably seen a dingbat-style home, whether you knew the nomenclature for it or not. It’s a boxy home built on stilts, elevated for about four or six parking spots underneath. Renter Charlotte Hohorst found a two-story, two-bed apartment in a dingbat-style building during her apartment search in 2020.
“It had a dreamy layout, walkable neighborhood, and amazing light from big windows,” she says. “It was old and pretty dated, but I had a blank canvas and a lot of time at home on my hands.”
In her first few years living there, “I Facebook Marketplaced and DIYed my way from a serial killer-esque blank canvas to what I would call a colorful, euphoric riot,” Charlotte says. Here’s how she transformed the dining room.
Goodbye, chrome chandelier.
Charlotte says her apartment when she moved in had dated fixtures and renter-grade appliances. She replaced the “renter-grade” chandelier with a paper light fixture from HAY.
“Most of my adjustments were renter friendly, like, “peel-and-stick wallpapers, swapping out lighting and sink fixtures, and painting nearly every wall in sight,” Charlotte says of her home. “I definitely wasn’t expecting to get my security deposit back when I moved out, but I’ve had a few friends of friends ask if I could be their first call when I do.”
Wallpaper and curtains add drama — big time.
She used a renter-friendly dragon-print peel-and-stick wallpaper in the dining room, which matches with the blues throughout the rest of her home. She added the wallpaper with the help of a friend, and it took them half a day to apply. Charlotte says it’s her proudest accomplishment in her home.
“My friends are my biggest cheerleaders, and I felt so encouraged to go bold throughout the process,” she says. “I would ask for gut checks, like ‘Should I just paint this whole room navy blue? Should I do this dragon wallpaper?’ and every time they would respond ‘Hell yeah.’”
Charlotte also replaced the “horrible vertical blinds” with green West Elm linen curtains, and the color almost feels like a neutral in the room.
Secondhand furniture saved on budget.
Charlotte says one of the biggest obstacles in transforming her apartment was budget. “If I had an unlimited budget, I would have gone a lot crazier,” she says. “Instead I really leaned into Facebook Marketplace, I shopped the sales, the estate sales, the thrift shops. Don’t sleep on the furniture at Goodwill!”
She bought her chairs and table (separately) from Facebook Marketplace, but they ended up having the same claw feet. She had chairs re-caned and reupholstered in a blue velvet fabric from Etsy. And she found her bar cart (normally about $350) from Facebook Marketplace.
To see the rest of Charlotte’s budget-friendly, (mostly) renter-friendly, bold blue and green dingbat-style place, check out the full house tour.
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