Tour a Designer’s Venice Beach Sanctuary

Mimi Shin left the glittering New York fashion world behind for Los Angeles some 20 years ago, and for a decade now the AD PRO Directory designer has resided in a modest Spanish Colonial–style abode in Venice with her husband Brad Hennegan, who makes sports documentaries, and their 13-year-old daughter, Marin. “It was the sweetest house we could afford,” Shin muses, but after leaving it untouched for 10 years, it begged for a significant upgrade, one that allowed Shin “to retain as much of its character as possible.”

So, she joined forces with Alisal Builders and ORCA Living landscape design to embark on a soulful revamp. The stucco exterior, terra-cotta tile roof, and window openings stayed intact; a second story was added to accommodate her office; and the front door now opens onto the dining room, the pool beckoning in the distance.

“Architecture is at the core for me. It’s so important to lay a space out correctly,” says Shin, who received her masters degree in architecture from UCLA. The residence was first imagined as a beach shack, so the living room footprint was small. By removing the entry from that zone, the area feels newly whole, no longer cut off by the constant flow of people moving in and out.

The barrel-vaulted ceiling remains, as does the fireplace, which “had a quirky shape with big hips, but we simplified it and gave it a lime wash for more texture,” explains Shin. One highlight is the deep-seated, built-in sofa; another is Charlotte Perriand’s chaise lounge, a vintage piece that Shin breathed new life into by re-upholstering it in a lush Dedar fabric. “I love the idea of taking something iconic and playing around with it. The green just draws your eye right outside,” she adds. A striking mirror, Austrian glass candy jar, and vintage coffee table for family game nights all create vibrant layers.

Through a mirrored arched opening across from the living room is the old galley kitchen turned library, what Shin dubs a no- or low-tech refuge. Cooking, one of her biggest passions, now unfolds in a lived-in but luxe kitchen. A departure from the Formica and linoleum that defined her New York apartments, it flaunts veined quartzite counters, cabinets crafted from smoked sawn-cut oak, and a spun metal Lawson-Fenning lighting fixture hanging over the island.

“For the most part, everything in it will age to a more beautiful finish,” Shin points out. It’s an efficient kitchen too, equipped with panel-ready Fisher & Paykel appliances and an integrated sink featuring a dropped deck where the faucet sits, preventing water from pooling on the counter.

Outside the kitchen, Shin shrouded a vintage sideboard packed with extra tableware in automotive paint for a particularly glossy effect. “I was experimenting and went to an auto body shop and asked how to use it,” she recalls.

Those tucked-away platters often come out for dinner parties in the minimalist dining room, a space Shin modeled on the photograph of an Italian post office. From the get-go, she envisioned the custom table as the showstopper, pairing it with vintage Italian chairs—”I wanted Scarpa and didn’t have the budget, but these work beautifully”— and artworks, “because if you don’t have art on the walls, you don’t have a room.”