Stylist Aaron Hom has styled rooms for Restoration Hardware and Design Within Reach, but some of his most personal work has happened at home—and, usually in very small spaces.
His latest project, a 1922 bungalow in the Maxwell Park neighborhood in Oakland, CA, is now on the market for $750,000.
In 2009, House Beautiful photographed Hom’s earlier Craftsman bungalow. He had furnished it with midcentury pieces and secondhand finds, making the compact home feel larger with his use of light, layout and easy access to the outdoors.
For the 870-square-foot, two-bedroom home, he has applied the same strategy on a larger scale.
“The interiors are beautifully designed, but then you step outside and the property just keeps unfolding,” says listing agent Jodi Nishimura of Kai Real Estate.
Hom, who lived in a loft during the pandemic and wanted an outdoor space of his own, bought the house in 2021. He looked at about 40 properties before settling on this one for its backyard. The facade gives little away, but once you’re past it, Hom says, “it’s a private world.”
The kitchen opens onto a large deck that Hom treats as an extra room for meals and gatherings, and there’s also a hot tub. Paths wind through drought-tolerant grasses, sunflowers, strawberries, persimmons and passion fruit to a sculpture garden patio and a 130-square-foot studio set up as an office. A vine-covered arbor rounds out the grounds.
“It’s true indoor-outdoor California living,” Nishimura says.
Earlier owners handled much of the interior renovation, with Hom adding the designer finishes. Nishimura describes the kitchen as modern but elegant and the bathroom as artfully done.
“It’s pretty rare to find a home in Maxwell Park with this level of impeccable design,” she says. “That level of curation is difficult to replicate.”
The neighborhood, which dates to 1921, borders the Dimond District’s shops and restaurants and sits near trails in the Oakland Hills.
“Maxwell Park is a bit of a hidden gem in Oakland,” Nishimura says. “For me, it’s really the combination of the design, the gardens and the indoor-outdoor experience. It’s a classic California bungalow that has been elevated by someone with a really sophisticated design eye.”
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Larissa Runkle is a seasoned real estate writer, lifestyle journalist, and marketing strategist with over a decade of experience and 2,000+ published articles. Her work covering housing, personal finance, and lifestyle has appeared in major publications like Bankrate, MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, and New York Post. In 2023, she launched a boutique copywriting studio to partner with land developers and top brokerages, creating strategic content that builds lasting brand authority. When she isn’t writing, Larissa enjoys the outdoors from her home in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, where she lives with her husband, son, and German shepherd, Yoko.
