Mary Kawar never planned to leave the home sheâd owned for 15 years. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area community of El Cerrito, it boasted a lifetimeâs worth of treasures, from antique furniture and souvenirs collected on her travels to photos of her children and grandchildren. But during the pandemic, Maryâs daughter, Jennifer, asked if she would consider moving in with her. Mary, now 88 and semi-retired from her career as an occupational therapist, liked the idea.
“I loved my house and had no intentions of leaving it until I left the planet, but it was more than I needed,” she says. “And Jennifer wanted me closer if or when I needed additional support.”
Mary Kawar made the most of limited space in her backyard ADU in Berkeley, California, with Clei’s Circe wall bed and Genie convertible table, both from Resource Furniture in San Francisco.
For her part, Jennifer had never thought about building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), but sheâd just purchased a home in Berkeley with a backyard art studio that she figured could be converted into a standalone apartment for her mom. “I thought it would be easy and relatively inexpensive because it already had plumbing, electrical, and heat,” Jennifer recalls. “The lie I told myself was that it was basically an ADUâit just needed a few tweaks,” she adds with a laugh.
Those “tweaks” snowballed into a major renovation, but after eight months or so, Mary was able to move into the space.
The compact yet fully outfitted kitchen enables Mary to prepare meals and host friends. The pendants are by Livex. The cabinets are standard Ikea boxes with doors by Semihandmade.
Downsizing from a 2,000-square-foot house to the 360-square-foot ADU went surprisingly smoothly, in part because Mary was willing to sacrifice size for the comfort of having family nearby. “When people hear Iâm in such a small space, they say they could never do it,” she says. “But itâs a unique design, with high ceilings and lots of windows. I have a regular oven and a full-size fridge as well as room for my coffeemaker and Vitamix.”
In the bathroom, wall and shower tile from All Natural Stone in Berkeley is paired with Artisan Tiare porcelain floor tile from the Tile Shop.
One space-saving move was outfitting the living area with a queen-size wall bed and convertible coffee/dining table from Clei, both purchased at Resource Furniture in San Francisco. Still, she misses having a bathtub, and sheâs trying to find a spot for her exercise equipment and the tools she uses for hobbies like silversmithing. But itâs a small price to pay for the convenience of tiny home living, she says. “I take one or two international trips a year. Now I can just turn the key and leave.”
The Santa Cruz ADU that Brian Friel and Melissa Virostko share with their two children opens to a flagstone patio that extends the living space. Says Brian, “Our living quarters are efficient, but itâs nice to have some other spaces that we can to escape to.”
Architect Brian Friel and therapist Melissa Virostko took a different path to multigenerational living at their ADU in Santa Cruz. The couple had lived intermittently with Melissaâs mother, but when they found themselves priced out of the areaâs expensive housing market, she suggested they redo the garage-turned-studio behind her own home.
Local zoning restrictions at the time limited them to a building measuring no more than 10 percent of the lot size, so Brian, cofounder of the multidisciplinary design firm Young America Creative, came up with a plan for a 600-square-foot ADU. The program is surprisingly well-rounded with a main-floor living/dining room, galley kitchen, primary bedroom, a bathroom, and a lofted sleeping area.
The couple combined Ikea cabinetry with custom plywood doors and dark green tile in the galley kitchen. The skylights are among the five that Brian designed for the place. “A lot of people nix skylights from their projects because of the cost and because theyâre scared theyâre going to leak,” he says. “But here, they all serve a purpose.”
When the couple moved in, their daughter was about one, and their son, now 4, wasnât yet born. “We didnât have much stuff, and I think we had a pretty good handle on storage needs,” Brian says. “Now that we have two kids, thatâs an area weâre constantly battling with. But it also requires us to keep our consumption of material things in check. Weâre mindful of what we accumulate, because as soon as the house starts filling up with belongings, it starts to feel small.”
A vaulted ceiling in the living area makes it more spacious. The barn door separates the public rooms from the bedroom and bathroom.
Sharing a single bathroom hasnât yet proved to be untenable, but, as Brian notes wryly, “The kids donât spend a lot of time in the bathroom yet.” Even so, the couple is glad to have a double-sink vanity along with radiant floor heating. “For a high-use bathroom like ours, the floor was a spendy thing with a huge impact,” says Brian.
The homeâs skylights and large windows represent another smart, albeit pricy, design move that make the spaces feel airy. “Five skylights sounds excessive, but they really enhance the quality of daylight here,” he adds.
Brian and Melissa love how the outdoor space extends their ADUâs living area, but say that itâs also nice how it connects them with Melissaâs mother, which has been invaluable. “We have a really good dynamic,” Brian says. “And itâs a dream for her to be such a big part of her grandkidsâ lives. Our initial plan was that we would swap houses with her when we outgrow our place, but we feel we have a few years left to live here.”
Brian specified a large window and built-in storage for the primary bedroom, which opens to a deck beneath a three-foot overhang. “The bedroom isnât massive, but it feels really gracious,” he says.
After renting a large industrial loft near downtown L.A., Adam J. Cooper was looking for something quieter when he found a backyard ADU in Los Angelesâs El Sereno neighborhood. The ground-floor unit, designed by architect Max Kuo, cofounder of AllThatIsSolid, clocks in at a roomy 900 square feet.
A DJ, producer, and designer, Adam has lived on his own there since 2021. “I have a spa-like bedroom with a soaking tub, a second bedroom that I use as my office and two bathrooms. The people who designed this are creative, world-class architects. The materials, the layout, and the natural light here, the fixtures and windowsâIâm super grateful to have a space like this in a city like L.A.”
A tapestry that Adam J. Cooper bought on a visit to the Ivory Coast hangs in the living room of his Los Angeles ADU, which is detailed with birch plywood flooring.
Terrazzo countertops from Concrete Collective are paired with clean-lined cabinetry in the kitchen.
Behind his unit he keeps a grill and a dining table, while just in front he has room to mix paints for his annual Caribbean-themed Junkyard Jouvert event, which the L.A. Weekly dubbed one of the cityâs best parties.
Adam has no doubt that his rent would be astronomical if the ADU were anywhere west of downtown, but the neighborhood offers something more. “I was born in Trinidad and Tobago and grew up in Venezuela and New York City. Itâs very important to me to remain close to immigrant communities. Thatâs the culture here on this side of Los Angeles, and it feels good.”
Rather than compartmentalize spaces, architect Max Kuo set a soaking tub from Signature Hardware and a shower into a corner of the primary bedroom. Itâs a feature that Adam appreciates. “Iâm 38 now and I need that spa-like vibe,” he says.Photo by Adam J. Cooper
Though ADUs have helped to increase density in competitive rental markets like L.A.âs, Adam has found that ADU owners sometimes lack experience dealing with tenants.
“ADUs are typically family-owned, so the quickness and responsiveness that you might be accustomed to in a new high-rise or a big apartment building isnât always there,” Adam says. “When youâre living on a single-family lot, the folks responsible for the property havenât necessarily managed multiple tenants. It can be harder to get that same attention and care from your landlords to get things done.”
In the bedroom, ample built-in storage and a Floyd platform bed keep clutter to a minimum.
