{"id":502143,"date":"2026-10-20T11:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T11:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/502143\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T11:18:12","slug":"a-simple-upgrade-turns-an-ugly-garage-conversion-into-a-stunning-adu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/502143\/","title":{"rendered":"A simple upgrade turns an ‘ugly’ garage conversion into a stunning ADU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Several years ago, while dropping her son off at a friend\u2019s house in Studio City, Sam Donnelly fell in love with the charming neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018This is magical,\u2019\u201d says Donnelly, an executive producer on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent.\u201d<\/a> \u201cI felt like I had gone back in time. It was like those American suburban neighborhoods you see in movies \u2014 white picket fences, people walking their dogs. I knew we had to live there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirteen years ago her family, which includes her husband and their son, Joe, now 18, moved here from England. They landed in a Laurel Canyon house with views, but she felt isolated in the hills. \u201cI wanted to be able to walk the dog and walk over to my best friend\u2019s house around the corner,\u201d says Donnelly, 54.<\/p>\n

\"Sam <\/p>\n

Donnelly and her son, Joe, in the kitchen of the ADU. <\/p>\n

Eventually, they found a small house on an 11,000-square-foot lot at the end of a cul-de-sac in Woodbridge Park, a family-friendly neighborhood in Studio City <\/a>filled with tree-lined streets.<\/p>\n

As an accomplished designer and builder of new single-family homes through her side job with Mercantile and Merchant<\/a>, she teamed up with longtime collaborator architect Ryan Perella of Perella Architecture <\/a>to create a 3,000-square-foot contemporary home that doesn\u2019t feel out of place in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

In Los Angeles, a city where so many neighborhoods have been overwhelmed by bland modern box houses<\/a> and black-and-white developer-built farmhouses, Donnelly instead aimed for her new home to feel like it had always been there.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

An aerial view of the Studio City compound, with the main house at right. <\/p>\n

Just before finishing construction, Donnelly and Perella revisited an idea they had considered from the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we should build an ADU,\u201d says Donnelly, who often hosts family members from the United Kingdom for weeks at a time.<\/p>\n

The backyard was big enough for another house, and their two-car garage could be turned into a guesthouse. But there was still one problem. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have much money left,\u201d she says, explaining that construction costs to rebuild the house were about $1.3 million.<\/p>\n

\"Sam <\/p>\n

In the end, they went ahead with the ADU, building a simple stucco box that Donnelly says cost around $250,000. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to keep the ADU feasible, we built it using pared-back finishes and fixtures,\u201d says Perella, \u201cbut it was still invaluable to Sam for both housing extended family visits and providing a quiet refuge for work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the main house was complete, Donnelly loved how it opened out onto the backyard, an expansive space featuring a swimming pool, a cozy firepit with seating, a barbecue and dining area, and a drought-tolerant garden. She was also pleased with the landscaping. \u201cIt\u2019s exactly what I wanted and had dreamed it would be,\u201d she says as she walks through the garden. \u201cIn England, we\u2019re big on the idea of outdoor rooms. The various areas make it seem as if it\u2019s more than just a large open space.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing she disliked was the ADU, which was visible from most rooms in the front house. \u201cThe only thing I could see was this ugly modern garage at the back,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The bedroom of the ADU opens out onto the pool and backyard. <\/p>\n

Luckily, just a small upgrade changed her mind. A few years after turning the garage into an ADU, she removed the stucco and installed cedar shingles in panels from Ganahl Lumber to add character and a natural feel. She chose panels, which cost about $6,000, instead of applying single shingles because they were faster and easier to install. Since the building sits next to hedges on two sides, she didn\u2019t cover the whole thing. She also painted the doors a warm brick color, saying it \u201cmade it prettier.\u201d Installed over three days, Donnelly says she pulled off the glow-up for roughly $9,000.<\/p>\n

The ADU measures 700 square feet and includes a large bedroom, a bathroom that has an opening to the outside for easy access to the pool, and a large closet.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t look inside,\u201d Donnelly says jokingly as she passes the closet door. \u201cIt\u2019s a metaphor for my life.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Due to her limited budget, Donnelly installed wood countertops in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The kitchen window of the ADU overlooks the outdoor dining area in the garden. <\/p>\n

The kitchen is open and bright, with a large window overlooking the garden, a retro-style Smeg refrigerator, vertical white wood paneling from Delta Millworks<\/a> and wood countertops. \u201cIt was a budget choice,\u201d she says of the countertops. \u201cIf I had a bit more money, I wouldn\u2019t have gone that way, since they\u2019re a lot of work,\u201d she adds, noting that the stains and water damage on the wood have to be sanded.<\/p>\n

Polishing the concrete floors of the garage also saved money, which made sense since the ADU is often used as a pool house. \u201cI couldn\u2019t afford to remove the floors or have them repainted, but I did want the ADU to be easy to use,\u201d she says. \u201cNo matter if it\u2019s a teenager or my parents, I don\u2019t want them to have to worry about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The bathroom inside the ADU. <\/p>\n

\"The \"To <\/p>\n

To give the interiors a soulful look, Donnelly mixes new furnishings with vintage estate sale finds. <\/p>\n

Like the main house, the ADU\u2019s interiors mix new pieces with vintage accessories, including a Room & Board four-poster bed in the bedroom and midcentury ceramic lamps, textiles and artworks that Donnelly found at Los Angeles estate sales. \u201cI\u2019m a huge estate sale person,\u201d she says. \u201cOld Beverly Hills estates are my favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ADU is a comfortable, flexible space that can be used as a pool house and a place for Joe and his friends to hang out. In addition to using it as an office and hosting family for long visits, Donnelly has also rented the ADU out for commercials and photo shoots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a hustler,\u201d says Donnelly, who works on one new home at a time while working as a showrunner for \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve never met a paycheck I didn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Decorations <\/p>\n

A bedside table is filled with art and vintage accessories.<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

A vintage midcentury lamp and artworks add warmth to the living room of the ADU. <\/p>\n

Admitting she felt the ADU \u201clooked like a garage to me\u201d when it was a stucco box, Donnelly now enjoys the views of the backyard from the large accordion kitchen door she keeps open all day. The cedar shingles have transformed the space into something completely different, giving it a relaxed and warm rustic feel.<\/p>\n

Donnelly says her interest in architecture and interior design began during childhood. \u201cI was that kid who was always rearranging my mum\u2019s furniture and painting my bedroom,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When Donnelly started her television career in England, she got into the habit of buying homes, living in them and then fixing them up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I renovated it, I would sell it and move into another disastrous property. I couldn\u2019t stop myself, and it\u2019s always been like that,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cPoor Joe, until we moved to L.A., my kid never really lived in a finished house. His friends all had nice British homes, and he never knew what it was like to live in something that wasn\u2019t a building site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it looks like they\u2019ve finally settled into a finished home. Actually, they have two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several years ago, while dropping her son off at a friend\u2019s house in Studio City, Sam Donnelly fell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[18287,194442,194441,1431,1576,194438,9172,17254,48,52,51,194440,47,50,49,194439,22562,194436,23914,194437,315],"class_list":["post-502143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-backyard","tag-cedar-shingle","tag-drought-tolerant-garden","tag-family","tag-friend","tag-garage-conversion","tag-house","tag-joe","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-large-bedroom","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-new-single-family-home","tag-pool","tag-sam-donnelly","tag-studio-city","tag-stunning-adu","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}