How a Los Angeles Wardrobe Stylist Transformed a $2,300 Glendale Rental With Hand-Painted Murals and Vintage Finds

Painting the walls of a leased apartment remains one of the most common taboos in American renting. Yet for wardrobe stylist and art director Morgan Jordan, applying bold pigment to her landlord’s property was the only way to make a first-floor Glendale unit feel like home after moving out of shared housing.

Jordan secured the one-bedroom bungalow for $2,300 a month through Westside Rentals in February 2025. The unit already featured architectural details rarely found in standard Southern California rental stock, including a Spanish-style rounded archway separating the living and dining areas. For a professional who spends long hours loading heavy garment bags and set supplies across Los Angeles film locations, the ground-floor access, combined with an in-unit bathtub and washer-dryer, outweighed the hesitation most tenants feel about altering a temporary space.

Roughly 60% of Los Angeles County households rent their homes, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, creating a massive population that typically relies on peel-and-stick wallpaper or removable decals to avoid forfeiting security deposits. Jordan took a different route. Drawing on her background painting sets for the entertainment industry, she spent six months settling into the space before picking up a brush. Her bedroom became the first project, coated in a saturated red anchored by a contrasting strip of vibrant blue trim. The color palette traces back to a mauve guest room in her childhood home, adapted here to complement textiles sourced during trips to Guatemala and Morocco, alongside a woven wooden bed frame acquired through Facebook Marketplace.

The dining room ceiling required two days of labor and resulted in physical strain, but it stands as the apartment’s most complex intervention. Jordan painted a sage green base dotted with small stars, using the room’s existing flush-mount dome light fixture as the center point for an Art Deco-inspired star motif. White points radiate outward from the fixture, framed by baby pink trim that echoes the tones in her surrounding wall art. Because she is not an electrician, working around the existing hardwired lighting dictated the design rather than replacing it.

Kitchens in older Los Angeles rentals frequently present challenges that paint alone cannot solve. Jordan disliked the brown cabinets and linoleum flooring in her galley but opted against the extensive sanding and disassembly required for a full refinishing job. Instead, she hand-painted pink flowers against white backgrounds directly onto the cabinet fronts, drawing visual inspiration from traditional Danish botanical illustrations. She started on the least visible doors to practice her technique before moving to prominent surfaces, eventually sewing sage green curtains to hide utilitarian storage areas.

Furnishing the apartment operates on a strict one-in, one-out policy. Rather than accumulating clutter, Jordan continuously cycles inventory through Facebook Marketplace. Her professional skill set provides an edge: styling items, cleaning them, and photographing them under controlled lighting routinely allows her to resell secondhand goods for more than their original purchase price. A mirrored shelf bought at a Glassell Park estate sale for $80 anchors the bedroom wall, while other pieces rotate through the space as her work demands shift.

Sourcing materials in Los Angeles often means navigating between high-end prop houses and community reuse centers. Jordan regularly visits EcoSet, a Glassell Park nonprofit facility that functions as a green resource hub for film and television workers to acquire leftover paint, backdrops, and props diverted from landfills. For live greenery, she frequents Creature’s Plants & Coffee in Eagle Rock and Plant Material in Glassell Park. Thrift networks, including Out of the Closet stores and alerts from friends working local estate sales, supply the remaining vintage decor.

Not every acquisition integrates smoothly into a multi-unit building. A seaglass chandelier brought back from Bali generated noise complaints from a neighbor who mistook the wind-chime effect of the glass pieces for breaking windows. Jordan and a friend relocated the fixture to the enclosed laundry area between the bedroom and bathroom, where cross breezes occasionally move the glass without disturbing adjacent units.

Living alone in Los Angeles for the first time after years of splitting leases with roommates in Echo Park has shifted how Jordan uses her off-hours. The demanding schedule of film and television production leaves little energy for constant socializing. Her current lease arrangement, supported by a responsive landlord who handles maintenance and trash removal quickly, has turned the customized bungalow—shared with her three-legged cat, Zsa Zsa—into a quiet staging ground for knitting, playing piano, and planning the next round of renovations.