Serene Venice house with bounty of outdoor spaces asks $4.2M

Michael Sylvester admits it: The phrase “indoor and outdoor living” is overplayed in Los Angeles. But he confesses that in 2012, when he and his wife, Tamami, were dreaming of building a new home in Venice, that’s exactly what they wanted.

They hired architect Sebastian Mariscal, whose work they had admired in the pages of Dwell, and together created a blueprint that didn’t just incorporate sliding doors or windows that stretched from floor to ceiling, two hallmark features of modernism, the architectural movement from which that phrase was born.

They pieced together a home where every room, from the gym to the bathrooms, connects to outside spaces: enclosed patios, a central courtyard, a wood deck, open-air passageways. Those spaces are populated with mature succulents and trees, including a California live oak and Japanese magnolia.

The trio wrapped the home in thin panels of a knotty grade of cedar that were stained ebony, and for the interior, they installed unpolished concrete floors (equipped with radiant heating) and lined several walls and ceilings with mahogany tongue-and-groove paneling.

Anchoring the 2,342-square-foot “compound,” which comes with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, is an open-concept living room and kitchen that completely opens on two sides via lift-and-slide pocket doors to the courtyard and a dining pavilion with an outdoor fireplace.

Eight years later, the Sylvesters have purchased a new residence in Rancho Mirage and are putting their property at 2233 Walnut Avenue in Venice up for sale, with an asking price of $4.2 million.

“Walnut Avenue is a textbook example of the architectural diversity that you get in Los Angeles, and I think we’ve contributed to that,” Michael Sylvester says. “I don’t know of any home in Venice that looks like ours.”

Brian Linder and Rick Grahn with Compass have the listing.