This Fashion Blogger's Seriously Stylish L.A. Home Is the Epitome of #HouseGoals

When lifestyle blogger Kat Tanita moved from her comparatively small West Village apartment in NYC into a much bigger space in Venice in L.A. a couple of years ago, she had nearly three times the amount of space to work with. Coming from a spatially challenged 650-square-foot apartment to a generous 1700 square feet of space with two bedrooms and two and a half baths, she knew there was tons of opportunity to turn this beachy Venice space into a relaxing and airy haven for her and her dachshund terrier, Charlie.

"I moved into the space from NYC a year and a half ago and wanted the space to be really clean, white, bright and airy," says Tanita of her newly decorated home. "I painted every room in the house in Benjamin Moore Cloud White and started adding and building things as I went." With the project finally complete, she's able to focus on other things, like a wellness cookbook coming out in 2019.

With her apartment's big and beautiful kitchen and plenty of space to experiment with all her creative pursuits from cooking to fashion, this NYC expat has found her stride on the shores of Venice, California.

"I'm a former NYC gal living in L.A.—with a totally different lifestyle, but I love it," says Tanita of her new pace. "My life has really shifted and slowed down in the last few years. I'm so much more relaxed and love watching the surfers come in at the end of the day and biking around my neighborhood."

Though the space was renovated in 2011, Tanita made small cosmetic updates—many of them on her own. "I took out the ceiling fans in the home and all the light pendants and switched them out with my own," she told MyDomaine. "I also painted everything white and had a handyman build a custom bench, which is now my dining nook/breakfast area."

With her wellness cookbook in full swing, Tanita needed a kitchen to match. She accented the spacious all-white space with a colorful Turkish runner and brand-new lighting. "I wanted the space to feel really light and beachy, relaxed and inviting," she says. "Venice is such a charming coastal town, and I knew I wanted the space to reflect my neighborhood and the overall vibe."

For her living space, Tanita was hoping to create a room that was clean, beachy, light, airy, de-cluttered, and bohemian. "I wanted the space to have oversize furniture that people could feel comfortable in with lots of linen, shearling rugs, and cozy materials," she told MyDomaine. "I knew I wanted to mix my sophisticated, travel-inspired NYC style with my new West Coast, L.A. lifestyle."

To create the ideal east-meets-west relaxed and bohemian abode, Tanita used a ton of beechwood, shearling, linen, wicker, straw baskets, and shells. Having left all of her former furniture in NYC, she started entirely from scratch. "It was pretty easy—I love neutrals," she says. "I stuck to neutrals like white and cream and then added pops of blue and warmer brown tones."

Now that the space is finished, Tanita can look back and appreciate the time and effort she took to decorate the space to her liking. Some of her favorite pieces—a custom macramé piece found on Etsy made by a Brooklyn artist and handmade textiles found in a local market in San Miguel de Allende—now hang around her home. But her favorite piece remains her Restoration Hardware linen bed.

Decorating doesn't happen in a day, and Tanita says she had to learn to be patient. "The hardest part was getting overly excited and wanting the entire house to be done right away. It's so important to have patience when decorating and let everything slowly come together—and mix in specialty pieces that are unique that you pick up on your travels or at flea markets so it doesn't all look too cookie-cutter."

At the end of the day, Tanita loves that her home feels lived-in and comfortable. "It's so inviting," she says. "My dog runs in and out all day and jumps on the furniture. I have parties and entertain at least once a month. And, of course, I love my entire bedroom devoted to my clothes!"