This tiny Hollywood home is the residence of Mad Men star Vincent Kartheiser who purchased his slice of Tinseltown in 2003, but it wasn’t till 2010 that he contracted designer Funn Roberts to renovate the space. The 580 square foot space was carved into several small rooms, something that the actor had endured for a long time before commencing a partnership with the designer and builder. The design process literally started at the front door, an old wooden door that the designer said must go. They replaced it with a steel and glass one, which ended up setting the aesthetic tone for the rest of the renovation. The two planned smart, space-saving ideas and clever ways to devise them, in what the actor calls a “Japanese-industrial” style. The space was completely opened up into one large room. One intriguing design move was to design a shower for the middle of the living room, which was inspired by the 2008 film Synecdoche, New York.

The bathroom and closets were arranged along one wall and then hidden behind custom Japanese-inspired fiberglass-and-steel sliding screens that glow when illuminated from behind. Custom light boxes along the top of the wall burn gently as well. The home’s most clever design contraption was the bed that descends from the ceiling for sleeping and then rises again to give the actor extra living space when he is moving around. The pulley system that controls the hanging bed needed some serious hardware, including a 300-pound steel counterweight that’s hidden in a corner of the closet. For the headboard, the designer fastened a huge slab of redwood to the wall but put it on hinges so that, when the bed is raised, the piece of wood can flip down to double as a desk.

The designer worked with Kartheiser’s existing appliances in the kitchen, trading the old cabinetry for new teak.

When not in use as the headboard, the large redwood slab folds down to become a desk.

The bed was designed to hang from the ceiling and can be hoisted up and pulled down as needed.

The bed is counterbalanced by a 300-pound weight.

For extra privacy, a thick red theater curtain on a ceiling track; the curtain emerges out of an adjacent closet to completely cordon off his bedroom space.

Custom shoji-inspired screens of Roberts’s design conceal the closet and extend to provide privacy for the adjacent shower and soaking tub. The sink in the bathroom is made from a boulder taken from the property of one of Roberts’s pals.

Roberts found the Montauk black slate, which he continued in a second bath.

Kartheiser’s private courtyard includes a covered seating area and fire pit, designed by Roberts. Pulling the top off a seeming coffee table reveals that it’s actually a fireplace

Kartheiser’s courtyard also includes a dry sauna with a ceiling made from 2,500 pieces of wood.

The area includes a Wally planter from Woolly Pocket near the custom steel-and-glass doors.

Photos: Joe Pugliese for Dwell