Caitlin Villarreal was super excited the first time she got into the Whitley Heights rental, a 1926 Mediterranean-style penthouse in Hollywood with tall ceilings, wooden beams, and arched bookcases near a big fireplace. “It had good vibes,” Villarreal said about the 1,500-square-foot apartment she pays $5,300 a month for in a historic area where old-timey movie stars like Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, and Bette Davis used to live. “It’s iconic just by being there year after year. It has floor-to-ceiling ‘Old Hollywood’ windows that open dramatically like in the movies. It doesn’t feel like a rental. It feels like I’m gonna be here forever.”
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Even after spending three days cleaning up ash and soot from the tragic Los Angeles fires in January, Villarreal said she was the happiest she’d been in a long time. “That’s the magic of this place,” she said as her 2-year-old British shorthair cat, Zuse, lounged elegantly on a velvet chair she bought at a hotel sale. “I want my place to be a sanctuary,” said Caitlin Villarreal, with Zuse, of her Whitley Heights penthouse overlooking Hollywood.
Villarreal, the co-founder of Lola & Veranda, a luxury organic bedding subscription service, works in her home office lit up by a crystal chandelier she bought on an app. After living in New York for 20 years and Connecticut for five, Villarreal, who grew up in Granada Hills and went to school in Santa Monica, is thrilled to be back in what she calls her divorcee’s oasis. “The past few tenants, including me, were all going through a divorce,” she said. Despite dealing with tough personal stuff, she’s super happy to have found the perfect place to settle down. “This neighborhood is everything I didn’t know L.A. could be,” she said of Whitley Heights, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. “It’s walkable, cozy, social, and lush like a raven who hangs out with crows, fancy and surprisingly green.” It’s also close to one of L.A.’s coolest spots. “I just got season tickets to the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl,” she said with excitement.
Not only is the fancy penthouse the 42-year-old entrepreneur’s home, but it’s also the headquarters for her fourth startup, Lola & Veranda, a luxury organic bedding subscription service she started. Fueled by a new motto — “I want to live” — she’s fixed up the apartment with reused items from friends, estate sales, flea markets, and an online auction app. “I don’t buy new stuff,” she said of the habit she picked up during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m not turning back.” Her new place, she said, is totally different from her six-bedroom home in Connecticut, which she and her ex bought during the pandemic. “My Weston home was a sleek and simple box in the woods,” she said.
Her L.A. home still feels modern but with a touch of randomness. Bright textured rugs in purple, blue, orange, pink, and red mix with handmade pottery, art, and cool glass coffee tables. Shaggy rugs are in bathtubs and on fancy chairs, and in the dining room, Villarreal put together a green marble table from an online store with vintage chairs and a zebra rug from a flea market. In Connecticut, Villarreal’s kitchen was all black “like a notebook.” Her simple kitchen in L.A. still has its pretty old tile and super tall cabinets that go all the way up to the 14-foot ceiling. A white and birch cabinet from Ikea is her island. There’s no dishwasher, no washer and dryer. “I don’t really care,” said Villarreal. “I don’t cook.”
With a great eye for lighting, Villarreal has added bold pieces throughout the apartment that bring warmth and drama, like a disco ball that lights up the living room like a club. A green glass pendant in her bedroom reminds her of Morocco, making the space feel cozy. A coral crystal chandelier in her office stands out and draws attention to the room. She’s also into cheap but cool lighting. “You can change any room and make it look like a gallery for less than $20,” she said. By adding wireless lights to her art and motion-sensor lights under the kitchen cabinets, she’s really improved how the place looks. “The key to making it cozy is adding dark orange filters,” she said. “Photographers use them.”
There’s no TV, but if she wants to watch something, she can set up her portable movie projector and turn the living room into a theater. Shortly after moving back to L.A., Villarreal became a fan of a plant store nearby and filled her apartment with big trees in pots, giving the rooms a cool vibe. This chill vibe is clear in the living room, where a tree in the middle of the room looks over a low sofa, pillows, and ottomans. “I’m all about relaxing,” she said. “This place is only going to get comfier over time.” The relaxed feel goes out to the deck off the kitchen, where palm trees, flowers, and citrus trees provide shade for the dining area.
When it comes to art, Villarreal said she just puts pieces on the floor without a plan and eventually hangs them up. “Art shouldn’t fight for space or yell at other pieces,” she said. “When it works, it works. I’m not a collector; I just love estate sales, which makes it less serious.”
What’s most amazing about Villarreal’s place is that you wouldn’t know she just moved in. The rugs, lights, and plants might be new, but the penthouse feels cozy and familiar, as nice as her cat Zuse, who came back to L.A. with her. “I had a lot of help from Taskrabbit,” she said with a laugh. Besides being a spot for people going through a breakup, the penthouse has some celeb history: “There’s a good chance Stevie Nicks lived here in ’71,” Villarreal said of the building’s fancy past. (It was even in the New York Times in 2011.) The last tenant, an artist, lived there for six years. “People tend to stick around,” she said. And she’s planning on doing the same. “They’ll have to drag me out of here.”
