Property of Mr. and Mrs. Burton A. Schutt, Los Angeles.

8/13/2025 02:31:00 PM

Mr. and Mrs. Burton A. Schutt's house in Los Angeles might be compared to a filigreed box which when opened reveals a treasure of exotic fabrics and some fine sculptures of the Pacific islands and the East. Looking at its simple, white exterior, you would never suspect its color-conscious interior beauty, yet it contains a lesson for anyone who decorates or builds a house intimately interconnected with nature. Mr. Schutt is the energetic California architect whose work is frequently notable for the way in which Pacifica influences are joined to modern planning. His own house faces the world with a ten-foot latticed fence behind which the rooms are arranged around two patios. This solution, dictated partially by the triangular shape of the lot, and by a desire to make the most of California's proverbially sun-swept weather with privacy, is similar in theory if not in effect to the Near Eastern practice of building around a courtyard.

The Schutts' two patios, roughly triangular rather than square, are surrounded on two sides by the house itself; on a third they are bounded by the front fence which runs just a few feet in from the sidewalk. Mr. Schutt calls it a garden house, and he has filled the main patio, living room, and outdoor dining room with colors that are sympathetic to the blooms and foliage of tropical plants. The colors throughout are sophisticated and obviously mixed by a man whose eye is ever seeking new combinations. Those used in the bedrooms are less influenced by natural surroundings, being less exposed to the outdoors.

This house was originally conceived as an interim house to be lived in after Mr. and Mrs. Schutt sold a larger home in Bel Air and before they built a new house more extensive than the one you see here. It was designed to house Mr. and Mrs. Schutt, their two sons, aged 20 and 22, and a maid; to be large enough to entertain in, small enough for easy maintenance. It has been so successful in all these respects that the Schutts are beginning to wonder if they really want to move. It is an example par excellence of the easy elegance that is compatible with our servantless lives. Its architectural basis is humble. Two remodeled architects' field sheds contain most of the rooms, but only a trained eye could now identify the original structures. The front door is set in the fence, practically on the sidewalk, and it leads into a brick-paved patio, dappled with sunlight through a latticed roof, and heavy with the leafy fragrance of tropical plants. In the center is an irregularly-shaped pool, on whose surface gaily colored plastic bubbles float lazily around a sitting sculptured figure. From this patio you enter the living room, the boys' room, and the main patio. This last is inhabited permanently by a spectacular array of banana plants, ferns, broad-leaved tropical evergreens and flowering plants such as begonias; it is also inhabited a great deal of the time by members of the Schutt family and their friends. Two sections of it are covered: a dining area, complete with Dutch oven and broiler, next to the kitchen, and a conversation corner next to the front fence which is hung at this point with cinnamon brown curtains. These curtains, the salmon pink bricks that pave the floor and contain the plant beds, and the greens of the foliage, constitute the background for a group of light-colored outdoor furniture in canvas, iron, and teak. The effect so far as color is concerned is reminiscent of a Pacific island batik.

In the living room, which faces the patio through a wall of glass, Mr. Schutt has brought the outdoor colors in, but with a difference. Outside the basic scheme is brown and green; inside it is brown, beige, and yellow, accented with bowls of fruit and brilliant flowers such as the new Golden Fleece feathered cockscomb. A golden mustard carpet covers a spattered rubber tile floor in front of the fireplace, sheer hand-woven wool curtains, striped in mustard, beige, and brown, hang along the window wall, while a deep, comfortable sofa is upholstered in a broadly-striped, textured fabric in dark brown and beige, flecked with metallic threads. Brown and beige are also used in the boys' rooms with spruce woodwork, but the master bedroom is done in black and white with accents of kelly green. A black and white flock paper with matching curtains covers two walls, while a third is lined with shutters around windows and built-in cabinets. This room boasts a handsome Chippendale mirror frame, one of Mr. Schutt's most cherished possessions, but elsewhere in the house sculptures from the islands of New Ireland and New Guinea point up its Pacifica flavor.