HGTV designer’s rustic-chic cabin in Elysian Heights asking just under $1M

What Chip and Joanna Gaines are to shiplap, interior designer Leanne Ford is to white paint, and when it came to making over her own house, a 1911 cabin in Echo Park, the star of HGTV’s “Restored by the Fords” stayed very much on brand.

One of the first homes ever built in the neighborhood, the rustic cabin was once owned by Clara Kimball Young, the second female film star, after Mary Pickford, to set up her own namesake production company.

Located on an 8,433-square-foot lot in the Elysian Heights tract, the two-bedroom, one-bath cottage was purchased by Ford a little over two years ago for $800,000. Along with coating its interior in white paint (identified in a New York Times story as Sherwin-Williams’s Shoji White), Ford added new plumbing, French doors, a Malm fireplace, a vintage sink, a Smeg refrigerator, built-in shelving, and onyx countertops.

In an entry on her blog, the designer explains she and her husband are selling the cabin due to having a proverbial “bun in the oven.”

The property is listed with an asking price of $995,000, and open house is scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Photos by David Anderson/Ambient Light Studios, courtesy of Diana Braun