Inside a 1925 Tudor in West Hollywood That Feels Collected, Not Decorated

Michelle Cohen thought she would live in her 1925 West Hollywood Tudor for a year. Three years later, the rental has become the backdrop for a new chapter, filled with inherited furniture, flea-market finds and the objects that have followed her through life.

“I fell in love with its character, location, and the feeling of how the surprise of the architecture felt aligned with a fresh start,” the interior designer said.

Cohen said the house’s smaller footprint and historic architecture were departures from what she had previously considered for herself. But she said the Tudor’s character ultimately made it feel like the right place to begin again after her move from Orange County.

The home’s interiors reflect that transition. Cohen, an interior designer with more than 25 years of experience, said she has never been interested in committing to a single decorating style. Instead, she combines midcentury modern furniture with French country pieces, white slipcovered sofas, Paris flea-market finds, inherited objects, art and ceramics.

“I do not design around one fixed style,” Cohen said. “I believe a home should be built around how you want to live so that intention, memory, and meaning all have a place.”

Cohen said that approach has resulted in a house that feels collected over time rather than decorated according to a predetermined scheme. She rotates vintage finds and artwork throughout the rooms, including pieces collected from flea markets and vintage shops in the United States and abroad.

She said some of the objects carry particularly personal histories. An antique copper pot in the kitchen, for example, traveled with her grandmother from Lithuania to South Africa in 1940. Cohen also has handcrafted ceramics from Australia, Italy and Los Angeles, along with a small sculpture made by a friend who has since moved back to Amsterdam.

She said friends have jokingly nicknamed her home “The Four Seasons,” a reference to the hotel, because of its welcoming atmosphere rather than its level of luxury.

Cohen said she considers hospitality an important part of good design. She wants guests to feel comfortable enough to settle in, stay longer than expected and use the rooms without worrying about damaging something.

For Cohen, the Tudor was supposed to be a temporary solution. Three years later, she said it has become a home that reflects the changes in her life while leaving room for whatever comes next.

“My home is always evolving,” Cohen said. “It will always reflect who I am in the current season of my life and still leave space for me to become.”

Designing within the limits of a rental

Although the Tudor was move-in ready, Cohen said its storage was not. The lack of closet space was typical of a 1920s home, she said, but it was also an opportunity to apply some of her experience as a designer.

Cohen said she made renter-friendly modifications to improve the home’s circulation and storage without fundamentally changing its character. In one area, she addressed an awkward arrangement with two door entries and added storage that she designed to look as though it had always been part of the house.

“I created a new flow where there were weird two-door entries to a room and added storage that is both practical and feels like it belonged there all along,” Cohen said.

For furnishings, Cohen said she tends to prioritize quality and longevity. She is a fan of Sixpenny sofas, which she said she uses for both her own home and her clients, and she looks to Design Within Reach for Midcentury Modern pieces. At the same time, she said she frequently shops vintage stores rather than relying solely on contemporary retailers.

A living room without rules

Cohen said her favorite room is the living room, which she has transformed into a library for her collection of design books and vintage magazines. She said the room can function as a workspace, a place to talk with friends or a larger entertaining area depending on what she needs.

The room was not always used that way. Cohen said it was once a space that largely went unused, a common arrangement she has encountered in her design work.

“It was one of those living rooms that barely got used,” Cohen said. “But, as I advocate to clients, there are no rules about what a room should be. The only guideline is that it is honest to you and how you want to live.”

Cohen said that flexibility has become important throughout the house. Rather than assigning each room a permanent function, she moves furniture and changes arrangements as her needs shift.

Furniture with a family history

The most meaningful pieces in Cohen’s home are two Bergère chairs that belonged to her parents, she said. Her mother first admired the chairs at the South African hotel where her parents were married. Years later, Cohen said, her grandfather learned the hotel was closing and bought the chairs at auction as a surprise for her mother.

The chairs remained in Cohen’s childhood home and were reupholstered several times as her mother’s taste and the family’s needs changed. Cohen said she remembers her father sitting in one of them after his own father died.

After Cohen’s parents died, the chairs came to her. She said they later became part of her children’s lives, too, appearing in family photographs and witnessing everyday moments, including her daughter giving her son a pedicure while he sat in one of the chairs.

The chairs are now covered in thick white Italian cotton and accented with green velvet pillows.

“They hold my parents’ beginning, my childhood, grief, motherhood, memory, and continuity,” Cohen said. “They are a reminder that the most meaningful pieces in a home are often the ones that have witnessed a life.”

A home that evolves with its owner

Cohen said her approach to her home is closely connected to her work as an interior designer, stylist and holistic health coach. She began her career at Chanel, where she said she developed an appreciation for proportion, restraint and personal details before moving into interior design.

After more than two decades in the industry, Cohen became a certified holistic health coach. She said the experience changed the way she thought about interiors and led her to explore the relationship between a person’s surroundings and their broader well-being.

Through her Los Angeles-based practice, Michelle Lisa Home, Cohen now describes that philosophy as “The Interior Life.” She said her work considers how a home can reflect a person’s experiences while supporting the life they are building next.

Her own Tudor continues to change along with her. Cohen said she moves pieces, edits rooms and reworks spaces as her needs evolve, while maintaining an aesthetic rooted in vintage furniture, inherited objects, art, books, textiles and collected finds.

“I do not believe a home has to follow one style to feel beautiful or coherent,” Cohen said. “I believe it only has to feel honest.”