Behind the ’Gram: Mosaic Tile House in Venice, CA
What started as a casual bathroom remodel became a fully bedazzled abode that visitors now love. Here’s the story behind the hashtag.
Tucked into the vibrant Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice, the Mosaic Tile House practically shimmers from the street. That’s because this once-plain, beige, single-story bungalow is now covered entirely in tiles — from the surrounding fence slats to the roof. Upon entering through a gate covered in spiraling spoons and forks, visitors see a front yard whose grass has been replaced by tiles, schemed in warm and cool shades, which create winding patterns throughout the space. Some of them have added decorations, like faces, polka-dot patterns, and quotes. And tiles aren’t the only materials: Benches and walls sport trinkets of all kinds, including broken plates and animal figurines. One wall features a version of Los Angeles’s iconic angel wings murals, with a twist — they are made up of not only tiles, but also painted mugs and shiny blue marbles.
Like the home’s exterior, the interior is a vibrant amalgamation of tile patterns and miscellaneous objects. Small painted contraptions, like one in which a wooden man jumps rope at the crank of a lever, guard the entryway. Beads and ceramic roses adorn purple kitchen shelves; orange tiles, small dolls, and pencils scatter the turquoise bathroom walls. The only visible place in the house without mosaics is a spacious studio in the back with worktables covered with paint bottles and walls lined with paintings whose colors are as vibrant as the tiles.
The colorful home is the work of married artists Cheri Pann and Gonzalo Duran, who transformed their home by the beach into what it is today. From portraits of the two together to plates they’ve collected from garage sales and broken into pieces, small details scattered throughout the indoor and outdoor spaces demonstrate the ways in which their art reflects the love from which it is born. I spoke with the couple by phone, and they shared the story behind the house, insights into their artistic partnership, and their hopes for the future of their beloved home.
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The Mosaic Tile House’s Evolution
The story of the house begins with the charmed meeting of its creators in 1992, when Cheri went to buy paint at a store in Culver City where Gonzalo worked. “It was just love at first sight,” he said. The two began dating, and when Cheri purchased the Venice home in 1994, she hired Gonzalo to build an art studio at the back of the house.
After the studio was completed, the couple experimented with making the sparse bathroom more interesting by decorating it with tiles. The result was so spectacular that they continued adding tiles to the ceiling in the next room over and the kitchen. “The process was so therapeutic,” Gonzalo said. “It’s great, fulfilling work, so after I got involved in it, we just kept going from there.”
After this initial creative spark, the now-married couple continued decorating the rest of the house, eventually working on the yard, where they replaced the grass with intricate tile designs. The house is a constant work-in-progress, as the two add details and patterns where they see fit.
A walk through their home reveals the charming and quirky touches the two have added throughout the years, from the front yard’s bright red bathtub filled with plants to the melted glass bottles placed between lavender and blue mosaics. Most heartwarmingly, there are the little mementos of their partnership: one wall of their art studio is filled with portraits of Gonzalo that Cheri has painted. On a wall by the kitchen, photos of the couple are nestled among ceramic figures and wooden shapes, a reminder of how the house itself is a monument to love.
Cheri and Gonzalo’s Artistic Partnership
While the Mosaic Tile House is the result of a longstanding love-fueled collaboration, the couple doesn’t work together on other pieces of art. “We tried it once, and it’s like cats and dogs,” Gonzalo said. “We’re both too independent. In the house, though, it’s a mutual thing, where I say, ‘How about this?’ and she tweaks it or has some things to say about it, and we’ll work it out.”
That isn’t to say they don’t influence each other’s work, as the rows of Cheri’s portraits of Gonzalo clearly demonstrate. Gonzalo, a painter and sculptor, has also painted portraits of the couple, and his other work is colorful and fantastical, often drawing from mythology. “I used to do light, happy subject matter and my wife does somber things, so I’ve become very somber from her influence,” he said with a laugh.
When it comes to decorating the house, it is exactly these differences that allow the space to shine as a reflection of their combined strengths. Using a variety of colors, they paint and bake pre-purchased blank tiles and tiles they cut from clay themselves. While blues and greens are the most prominent color schemes throughout the home’s 6,000-foot lot, no shade is off-limits — tiles range from light pink to fiery orange. As in the most effective collaborations, they take on tasks for each other; one of Gonzalo’s has always been the process of breaking the tiles. “Cheri won’t break them; she gets very attached to her tiles,” he said. “Now, mind you, we have 20 million tiles in the house, and she still won’t break one of them!”
The Love Story That Went Viral
The couple welcomed their first visitors in 1996, when they began holding exhibitions of their work in their new studio. For them, it felt natural to show people the rest of their spectacularly colorful home. The house later gained wider recognition when it was discovered by a Venice garden tour, which was boosted by a feature in the Los Angeles Times in 2003.
Though the Mosaic Tile House is still more of a local gem than a national one, in the age of Instagram, word about the home reaches diverse audiences in the form of photographs so vibrant they don’t even need a filter; more than 1,000 posts feature the hashtag #mosaictilehouse.
While Cheri and Gonzalo are delighted by their home’s growing popularity, they now welcome visitors only on Saturday afternoons, to make hosting guests more manageable. These visitors, who can also purchase Cheri and Gonzalo’s artwork from a small gift shop, help support these two working artists; the couple feels grateful for all who stop by. “All the people who come here are so appreciative,” Gonzalo said. “It’s just like a standing ovation each time. It’s great.”
The Future of the Home
Cheri hopes that their home will ultimately be recognized as a historic monument in the community. The couple plans to continue intuitively adding tiles and other decorations as they see fit. “Most of the downstairs is finished, but we have an upstairs that we haven’t done anything with. So that’ll be another 20 years,” Gonzalo said. “We’ll just keep working here until we drop dead.”
There’s no question that what began spontaneously and became an enduring project will continue to last, as Gonzalo explains that what draws them to tilework is its permanence. But beyond the material itself, the true source of the house’s wonder remains the collaboration and care the two have devoted to transforming their initially ordinary home into a living work of art. The Mosaic Tile House, Gonzalo emphasizes, is the reflection of not just a marriage, but a true artistic partnership. “I couldn’t have done it without my wife. That’s the best part of all of this: the creativity, the love. That’s what it boils down to. It’s just the love of the work and each other.”
About the author: Maddie Kim is an undergraduate at Stanford University. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The Journal, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, and The Adroit Journal, among others.
