Cool Conversion: The Basement Apartment of Lourdes and Zach

Nestled in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles,Calif, sets a converted church owned by Lourdes Hernández and Zach Leigh. Known as Ruby Street, the church itself has become a well-known venue for events, while Lourdes and Zach live in the basement apartment.

Initially on the lookout for music venue spots, they realized the church they got married in was a perfect spot for weddings and purchased the property. The Ruby Street was born. The venue is now booked almost every
weekend of the year.

A first glance at the basement showed as a dark, boarded up dwelling. Zach’s skills as a designer/builder renovating buildings for The Good Form provided the skill set to overcome the daunting task of remodeling. They began by stripping away the boards, and large and lovely windows appeared. Lourdes stated, “We bought this book about Garvanza [the neighborhood] and saw an old photo of the church that showed some windows in the front lower part of the building. We then opened the walls to see if we were missing any other openings and voila! We found three more windows on the lateral side of the building! We then knew this was a livable space and decided to move in!"

Using a selection of Dunn-Edwards colors, see the exciting transformation!

To learn more about the venue site of Zach and Lourdes, visit The Ruby Street. Follow Zach’s work at The Good Form and listen to Lourdes’ skills as a singer by checking out her new album Karaoke on her site
Russian Red

All images used with permission and courtesy Lourdes Hernández and Zach Leigh