Home Tour: Spanish-Style Home

The primary color of this growing family's California home is white. That is, the new kind of white -- relaxed, lived in, with not even a hint of preciousness.

Photographer Amy Neunsinger shares this light and airy home in Los Angeles with her husband Shawn Gold, her two children, and Amy's mother.

The 1934 Spanish-style home in Los Angeles is dominated by shades of white -- which may seem counterintuitive for a house with children -- but Amy insists "everything is machine-washable."

The sofa and chair's slipcovers go right in the washer, and the shearling throws childproof the sharp corners of the wooden chairs.

If a hearth serves as the symbol for the happiness of a home, Amy and Shawn's was especially hard-won:  "It was like an archaeological dig," Amy says of removing the original's flimsy mantel and layers of limestone tiles. The new mantel and old sconces were painted white, and the shelf holds shells collected on trips to the Bahamas and Mustique. The magnolia print is Amy's own work, and it's flanked by an iPod in a Bose SoundDock (the couple's space-saving replacement for a stereo and CD racks) and a Buddha from Thomas Schoos Design.

"I'm not one style or another," she says."It's all eclectic, but it all works together." Thus, a store-bought glass lamp and custom shade in front of a Shabby Chic warehouse-sale mirror (which also makes the room look larger).

To make the room seem bigger, and to visually link the kitchen, dining room, and living room, Amy had all the floors painted in Van De Cane by Dunn-Edwards. ("It's not too cool, not too yellow. It's perfect," she says.)

Amy tries to "bring the outdoors inside" in each room, and here, she has filled an antique bathtub from the Santa Monica Airport flea market with orchids -- an idea suggested by her mother.

No curtains. No ruffles. Not even so much as a single slat of blind. Amy often uses her kitchen as a photo studio, so she maximizes light by leaving the windows naked (the property is edged with a 9-foot fence for privacy). Adding to the sun-drenched airiness are the white frame-and-panel cabinets fitted, on the upper portions, with metal mesh hardware cloth (a refined version of chicken wire), since it's less expensive than glass.

In this house, there's no distinction between formal and everyday china: You need what you need and then get rid of the extra stuff," Amy says. Her favorites are easy to grab from open shelves on the wall. (She also displays a Robert Park Harris photograph, because "this is where I spend so much time, I'm going to put my favorite things in here.") Amy had the shelves made with store-bought brackets and leftover pieces of her countertops. Instead of pricier marble or granite, she chose the quartz surface CaesarStone for her counters. "I swear by it," she says. "You can do anything to it, spill on it, and it's always fine."

Blending right in -- thanks to plain custom cabinets -- are the stacked washer and dryer. "It keeps the laundry behind closed doors, but it's so easy to toss stuff in while I'm in the kitchen," says the woman who washes her slipcovers about every three weeks.

Amy works outside the home -- a full 20 feet behind it. The small outbuilding houses Amy's office (and portfolios along the stairs), and her mother's room upstairs.

Instead of a headboard, Amy and Shawn have head wear over their bed, with Amy's collection of Panama hats and sun hats."I wear a hat all the time because the sun is so strong here in L.A.," she says. Jackson is at the age where he's fascinated with books, and he and Shawn frequently have story time in the master bedroom.