#pasadena modern tour: Hamlin House, 1983

Our Pasadena Heritage 1940 Forward Modern House Tour soldiers on with the Hamlin House. (You can see all six homes here.) The Hamlin House bounces us out of mid-century modernism straight into the eighties.

Does this front door scream eighties or what? Oh and the fuzzy photo tour continues. Readers of yesterday's post have said I need to own it. Own it I shall.

This home is a good looking cubist dream nestled in a wooded glen. You walk down a few steps to get to the front door of this home, so it may be tucked inside of an arroyo in San Marino.

The Hamlin House, 1983, Photo by Dennis Smith

This house is absolutely stunning no matter what your taste. It is on multiple levels and has beautiful patios and balconies and has been decorated in impeccable mid-century modern style (even though this period of furnishings is not "authentic" to the eighties).

Look--dreamy impressionistic view of the house. Are you buying it?

New strategy. If I don't make the pictures so big in the post, you can't tell they are all blurry. Awesome!

Love the planters and drooping plants over the rails. Sort of evokes 80's office building? I mean this in an endearing way. The tour brochure explains:

It represents in a dramatic way how the stylistic expression of talented designers had to evolve when faced with new building codes of the 1970s that emphasized energy conservation. Gone were great expanses of glass and thin, minimally-insulated walls. 

The architects were again Buff and Hensman who were also the architects of the Norton House. Remember, the light and airy, nearly craftsman Norton house?

The house is filled to the rim with mid-century furniture. I like mid-century a lot (duh) and the house looks good with it. But a treat, here is a Redfin link to the house when it sold in 2012 from the original owners. And photos of their original 1980's taste. Not bad either.

Currently the home has an extensive modern art collection.

 This is a massive art installation, clearly made just for this space.

Well my photo is so blurry I can't tell if these are pop tops or bolts or something like that.

But it looks cool!

Nice mid-century furniture grouping. Mid-century looks right at home in the eighties.

One of the beautiful terraces.

 A remarkably clear picture of a beautiful little built-in.

Kitchen shot. Fairly plain and simple kitchen although the cabinets are walnut. This was a down-size home for a pretty prominent Pasadena family.The client was Thornton H. Hamlin, Jr., who was a local business executive and the former president of the tournament of Roses Association.  Mr. and Mrs. Thornton built the home after their four kids were grown. Our first docent was one of the daughters who explained how much fun her parents had building the house.

The dining table is utterly cheerful with the yellow chairs.

Bedroom feels like a tree house. It is tucked between two picture windows with views out to the trees.

Eighties dressing table.

 And nice mosaic tub. This is the original design to the home. And even blurrier by my lowered blurry standards but I loved the tile and wanted to show you.

Many people would have ripped the eighties dressing table lights down. I am glad the current owners left them up. 

 Downstairs in a below street level area, you have kids rooms and guest rooms. Zillow states the house is 3,518 square-feet, 4 bedrooms and 5 baths. It last sold in 2012 for $1.9M. Which, again, seems like a lot, but not for this quality of home with a large beautiful lot and a renown architect. The current owners got a bit of a recession bargain.  

A boys room, with cool British flag rug.

There is an old chimney on the property hidden among all this greenery and blurriness.

More mid-century modern collectibles.

Another cool piece of art...a bench made of pop tops.

Traditional modern bathroom. Me-thinks this is a current remodel. It couldn't have been put in by the original owners, could it?

The bathroom counter looks like terrazzo. I like it a lot.

Guest bedroom.

Two more fuzzy house photo tours to go. Hang in there. We can do this!

Related Posts:

• Pasadena Modern Tour 2013: Tyler House, 1958, Ted Tyler, Builder
• Pasadena Modern Tour 2013: Norton House, 1954, Buff and Hensman, Architects
• Pasadena Modern Tour 2013: Test House, 1952, Lawrence Test, Architect
• Pasadena Modern Tour 2013: Hamlin House, 1983, Buff and Hensman, Architects
• Pasadena Modern Tour 2013: Dorland House, 1950, Lloyd Wright, Architect.
• Pasadena Modern Tour 2013: Zook House, 1951, Harold B. Zook, Architect