Brent Poer is certain about one thing when it comes to interior design: Minimalism makes him uneasy.

“When I walk into a minimalist home, I always think, ‘Oh my God, have you been robbed?’” Poer says, standing in his living room underneath a Juliet balcony covered in ceramic plates. “But then, I’m sure a minimalist would feel the [opposite] way about our home.”

From the outside, the 1922 Normandy-style house Poer shares with his husband, Beau Quillian, looks traditional and calm, with steep-pitched roofs and arched windows.

But once you step inside, the Pasadena house feels completely different.

Poer says visitors are often surprised when they come inside the space. “It’s either a quick ‘Wow,’ which usually means they don’t like it, or a long, drawn-out ‘Wwwwoooooowwww.’”

Guests also tend to ask the couple about earthquakes.

“Our decorating style is a mix of two perspectives,” says Poer, a 58-year-old advertising executive. “We have similar tastes, but Beau’s style is a bit more Miss Havisham — he likes a hint of decay. What we share is that our [obsessive compulsive disorder] is in overdrive.”

Beau Quillian, left, and Brent Poer with their dogs Otis, Sister and Selene, sit in the stairway in front of a poster that reads “Keep Calm and Call Brent.”

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Many Californians avoid Mills Act homes because of strict preservation rules, but the couple enjoys the challenge of restoring and caring for their historic house.

“Thirty-six people toured the house the day I saw it, but no one made an offer because they didn’t want to deal with the government,” Poer says. “If you tell me I need a latch from 1922, I’ll find it. When we had to replace the roof, I brought nine different samples to the Mills Act office downtown — all meeting California code.”

“The house is special if not for the sole fact that the 24-foot ceiling in the living room was just the perfect forum for all of these things,” Poer says.

Inside, the couple has decorated just the way they want, filling nearly every inch of their three-bedroom home with lively collections. As Poer puts it, they enjoy “going down a rabbit hole” when they find something they like.

Their home is colorful and has a touch of “grandma chic,” since Poer’s grandmother, Gigi, left him the contents of her Atlanta home. It’s a playful take on British decor with Victorian-era Tartanware boxes and pre-World War I Black Forest antlers on carved wood plaques that were once used as hunting trophies. They also have English Staffordshire porcelain dog and giraffe figurines, vintage British and French Majolica plates, and lamps and rugs they found on Etsy, EBay and at auctions.

The couple’s kitchen is “great for parties,” Quillian says. It’s also the perfect setting for French artist Nathalie Lété‘s plate collection for Anthropologie.

The plates in the kitchen are “another example of us liking something and then going deep on that obsession,” Poer says.

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“We know it’s crazy,” says Quillian, 54, a freelance fashion editor and wardrobe stylist who has worked for Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire. “But we love searching for treasures.”

Curled up on a vintage sofa they found at a Long Island junk store and refurbished, the couple likes to reminisce about their favorite finds from their 22 years together. These include Hermès dog plates, found in Japan, and circus paintings by Denes de Holesch, whom Quillian calls the “Hungarian Picasso.”

“When the French artist Nathalie Lété created a plate collection for Anthropologie, of course, we went crazy,” Poer says of the wall-to-wall Lété plates in the kitchen, which he describes as “odd and humorous.”

“We choose art that speaks to us,” Poer says.

Artworks line the stairway to the second floor including a print that reads: “We will make it through this year if it kills us.”

When asked how they choose their art, which ranges from a cut paper collage by Los Angeles artist Emily Hoerdemann to street poster art in their bedroom, Poer says, “We purchase things that speak to us, which means we will love it forever.”

For example, when they saw a bird-shaped guerrilla art piece in a Silver Lake Junction store — the same one they had seen scattered throughout New York — the couple, both originally from New York, took it as a sign they were meant to be here.

Although their home sits in the peaceful Historic Highlands neighborhood of Pasadena, the couple has experienced plenty of drama in their space over the years. Once, they brought in a shaman to cleanse the house with sage and cedar during a full blood moon. “And we’re not woo-woo!” Quillian says.

After Poer’s father fell down the stairs, the couple converted their one-car garage into a stylish guest house.

The couple chose the color palette in the guest house because “we wanted the spaces to feel calm and a place that people would want to relax,” Poer says.

Three years ago, Poer’s father fell down the stairs and nearly died. Six months later, a massive oak branch dropped and pinned Quillian for 45 minutes, breaking his leg in four places and giving him double head trauma. Then, last January, the couple had to evacuate during the Eaton fire.

When they got the evacuation order, Poer packed his bags and started taking paintings off the wall, putting them in his truck. “I told Beau to take one last look,” Poer recalls. “‘Is there anything you’d be upset about losing? We have to accept that whatever is in the truck might be all we have left to start over.’”

“When we left, I thought, ‘The house is definitely going to burn because of the winds,’” Quillian says of the January 2025 fires that destroyed parts of Pasadena and Altadena.

In the guest room, the wallpaper matches the drapery fabric and upholstered furniture.

The next morning, their house was still standing just five blocks from the burn line, although looters had already been inside. The thieves didn’t take any of their art, which was a relief, since that’s what is most precious to them. “When we first got together in New York, we slowly started curating much of the art collection together,” Poer says.

Besides the art, each room in the home has its own unique feel. In the guest room, the couple paired the wallpaper with the drapes and the upholstered furniture. The first-floor bedroom is now a cozy den with dark navy blue walls, dog etchings by French artist Leon D’anchin and the Hermès dog plates, and an attached bathroom is decorated with Scalamandré’s famous prancing zebra pattern wallpaper.

In the kitchen, where the couple hosted more than 20 people for a Southern-style New Year’s Day party in January with black-eyed peas, ham and collard greens, they added new counter tops and painted the cabinets a shiny Benjamin Moore Marine Blue. Poer installed all the brass campaign hardware himself. “It just takes a steady hand and the willingness to drill a million little holes,” he says.

Poer fondly remembers the “amazing antique stores on Long Island” where they found their dining-room table for just $300. To which Quillian replies, “You make it sound so proper. Those were junk stores.”

Green and white floral wallpaper in the dining room meets up with prancing zebras in the adjacent bathroom.

Four years after buying the house in 2021, the couple transformed the garage into a stylish guest house with a bathroom, shower and a custom cat box for Mr. Kitty, or “MK,” who came with the house.

“Brent went from telling me ‘Don’t feed that cat’ to designing a custom cat box for him in the guest house,” Quillian says, laughing.

Like the den, the walls of the guest house are painted a warm green hue for a relaxing feel. The couple also installed IKEA Pax built-ins and closets and paired them with Billy bookcases with added trim to give them a custom look.

The couple turned the first-floor bedroom into a cozy den with dark blue walls and dog-related decor.

There’s a lot to look at, but the interiors of the home feel cohesive rather than chaotic thanks to the couple’s color choices and how well they work together. Poer likes to joke that he has to get rid of Quillian’s things when he isn’t looking or “he would climb into the trash can and pull things back out.” But their teamwork and shared love of British decor make the home feel sentimental and reflect their long history together living on both the East and West Coasts.

There’s a poster by Lété that Poer and Quillian bought at John Derian in New York when they didn’t have much money, portraits of them and their dogs by Carter Kustera, and at the top of the stairs, the ashes of their previous pets rest in custom-painted dog urns.

On one of their many gallery walls, Poer proudly displays their most prized possession: a recent drawing of him and their three dogs, Selene, Otis and Sister, by fashion illustrator Richard Haines, whom Poer contacted directly on Instagram. “Beau always says the dogs follow me around like a school of fish,” he says. “I gave it to him at Christmas, and he cried when he opened it. He said it’s his favorite thing I’ve ever given him.”

Their friend Georgia Archer says the couple’s home “feels polished without trying to win an argument, beautiful but very cozy and livable, and very much ‘them.’” She recently asked them to help remodel her and her husband Anthony Dominici’s Los Angeles home. “Brent is bolder, and Beau more restrained, which is why they work so well as a team.”

Black Forest antlers on carved wood plaques hang on a wall of the sunroom.

Sister, the couple’s English Springer Spaniel, rests on one of many armchairs available to her in the historic home.

When asked how many items they have in the house, Poer says he’d rather not know, “only because I want to believe there is room for more.”

And if there ever is a major earthquake, he says, they are prepared. Everything is installed on earthquake hangers, “so we aren’t showered in a downpour of porcelain.”

The first time Vivian Tu got “financially naked” in front of her partner — a term she uses to describe “brutally honest conversations” about money — it was out of desperation.

She was just starting her career on Wall Street and living in a roach-infested apartment in New York City. She had to use her savings to break the lease and move out. So she asked her new boyfriend whether she could temporarily stay at his place.

It was an opportunity to get real with him about her financial situation. She told him: “I have no money. I am broke. I have nothing.” That openness ended up strengthening their relationship, she says. Eventually, they got married.

Tu is now an entrepreneur who runs Your Rich BFF, a media company that teaches people about their finances. She says it’s critical for couples to talk about money as soon as they can.

It’s one of the topics of her latest book, published in February, Well Endowed, which offers advice to young people about making big financial decisions, like getting married or starting a family.

“People think love is enough. It’s not. You need to actually know you can build with this person,” she says.

To do that, couples need to be vulnerable with each other about money, she says, just as they are in other aspects of their relationship. In a conversation with Life Kit, Tu share financial questions to ask your partner at every stage. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Financial educator Vivian Tu is the author of Well Endowed.

Left: HarperCollins. Right: Jenny Anderson

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Left: HarperCollins. Right: Jenny Anderson

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What sort of money conversations can you have when you’re first dating? 

You can start talking about money on the very first date.

Do it from a place of fun. Ask: “If I gave you $100,000 to plan a perfect two-week vacation, what would that look like?”

Somebody who wants to climb Mount Everest and someone who wants to go to the Maldives and lay on a beach for two weeks — these are two very different people.

Having those fun money conversations early on makes it easier to be, like, “How much do you make?” Because if we’re planning on moving in together, I need to know what the rent can be.

What might you talk about before you become exclusive with a partner? 

What are your dreams for your career? Do you want to buy a home? Do you want to live here forever? Are you planning on moving back to your hometown?

These are money conversations that’ll help guide the trajectory of your relationship just to make sure that you’re on the same financial page.

How do they spend their money? If you know they are in a job where they don’t make that much money, but every weekend they’re out blowing money on designer stuff — where is that money coming from? Do they just have crazy credit card debt?

This data-collection period is really when you can be smart and learn something about this person and decide if they’re going to fit into your life. And are there changes you’re willing to make so that you can fit into theirs?

It can be awkward to talk about debt. What’s the best way to bring up the topic with your partner? 

Instead of asking, “How much debt do you have?” — which feels like an interrogation — it’s easier to offer something up.

You might say: Oh, by the way, I may be on a little bit of a tighter budget next month because I’m making a large payment to my student loan or on my credit card.

At that point you can ask, because you’ve now offered something: “By the way, do you have any credit card debt? Are there any months coming up that you might be feeling tighter financially that we should keep in mind together?”

What should you talk about if you are thinking about moving in together? 

If you haven’t had any money conversations yet, this is a good moment. This is now a point where you can no longer lie.

When you submit your information for a rental application, you have to show bank statements, proof of employment and proof of income. So it’s a really good time to talk about what you make, what you have, what you owe in terms of debt and then what your expenses are every month.

If you can talk about those four categories before moving in together, you should be in a good spot and, frankly, it’ll make other conversations a lot easier.

What about when getting married? What do you absolutely need to talk about before you even plan a wedding?

Avoid financial infidelity. That’s when you make purchases and deliberately hide them. We shouldn’t be hiding bank accounts. We shouldn’t be hiding credit cards. It should all be out in the open, and everybody should be OK with it. If they’re not, that’s a conversation you need to have.

A lot of couples don’t know where to begin when it comes to combining finances. What do you recommend?

I like a “yours, mine and ours” strategy and getting those numbers out in the open. You have your money, I have my money, and then we agree to put a percentage into a joint account consistently to fund our expenses together.

What ongoing questions should you have for your spouse or long-term partner? 

Constantly just goal setting. How big do we want our family to be? What’s that going to cost? Where would we like to live long term?

If you want two kids but end up only having one, that changes the calculus. Or if you’re considering moving to where your aging parents live ahead of their retirement, that changes the calculus.

A money conversation is not a one and done. You don’t get to do it and just be done with it. It’s something you have to have throughout life. At the end of the day, this is just a conversation asking: Are you a good partner? Is your partner a good partner? And do you make a good pair?

Not only is Betye Saar a living legend, but the prolific L.A. artist continues to add to her impressive oeuvre day by day.

She’s been creating powerful, thought-provoking artwork since the ’60s and her pieces have been shown at the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and LACMA, as well as museums and galleries around the world.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

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As her centennial birthday approaches this July, Saar shows no signs of slowing down. She still routinely creates art and continues to garner headlines and accolades. Last year, she was honored with the distinction of “Icon Artist” at the Art Basel Awards. During the upcoming Frieze Los Angeles art festival, which opens Feb. 26, she will be the subject of the photography installation “Betye Saar Altered Polaroids.” And this May, “Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar” will debut at Roberts Projects, the gallery that represents her. The exhibition will feature pieces from her early career as a costume and jewelry designer.

Though she’s skilled at painting and photography, she’s most widely known for assemblage, the art of juxtaposing miscellaneous items to form a single cohesive work. Her dioramas, sculptures and large-scale multimedia installations explore the legacy of American slavery, confront racial injustice and celebrate the strength and resiliency of African American women.

“I work with found objects that had another purpose before they came to my hands,” Saar says while seated at a patio table in her succulent-filled tiered garden. “The hardest part of it is going to a flea market, secondhand stores, an estate sale or even just going behind a store to see what people throw away.”

Over the years, she’s traveled by plane, train and automobile in search of usable materials. Meanwhile, admirers, colleagues and gallery workers have sent her curios from New Mexico, Tennessee, New England and beyond. Her daughters — artists Alison and Lezley, and writer Tracye, their mother’s studio director — also stay on the lookout for objects that might catch her eye.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I have quite a collection,” she says.

Indeed, Saar’s multi-level home studio in Laurel Canyon is bursting with dozens of old empty picture frames, discarded window panes, wooden chests, antique chairs and vintage clocks. But there’s always room for more.

Her idea of a perfect Sunday includes foraging for new items (or old ones, as the case may be) to use in her daily art practice. And she’d return to her roots to do it.

“Pasadena is my hometown and I still have a few relatives that live there,” she says.

While visiting her old stomping grounds, she’d embark on a multi-stop shopping spree and wander through a longtime favorite San Gabriel Valley attraction (where her work just so happens to be on display).

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

10 a.m.: Search for hidden treasures

Pasadena Community College Flea Market is something that’s part of “the hunt.” Alison usually drives, sometimes Tracye. Some people are there early to get the deals; we’re not like that anymore. I like to look around and sometimes I find interesting fabrics, scarves to wear and strange-shaped succulents for my garden. I hardly ever find really good antiquing things there, because those are at antique stores and they’re usually pretty pricey. But I bought an old, rusty metal birdcage the seller said was from France. I like rusty stuff for my art. I also found an indigo blue kimono to wear at an art event later this year.

1 p.m.: Replenish with Thai food

I’d go down Fair Oaks Avenue — there’s some secondhand stores. Usually, it’s nothing I can use, but I still can’t say no. I have to go see for myself. Then, lunch at Saladang Garden. I always order chicken sate and the green papaya salad. Last time I went, we tried the Thai corn fritter which was really good and crispy. If food is too spicy, I can’t eat it. But somebody in my party would always have something spicy and I can have a spoonful to add to mine.

2:30 p.m.: More shopping

I am attracted to all the odd things at Gold Bug. Notepads and trinkets, curious vintage-y things with animals or interesting patterns, strange candles. Sometimes I surprise myself by buying something. They have a mixture of things that — whether it’s for the color, or the texture — I feel that I can recycle and fit into an art object that I’m making.

3:30 p.m.: Visit a childhood haunt (with a side of more shopping)

I really like the Huntington’s gardens. I remember the first time I went there was with my mother and a friend of hers, and we walked around. All the paths were dirt, you know, they hadn’t even gotten around to paving it yet. But I just fell in love with it. And I really like their gift shop.

6 p.m.: Head west for a culinary classic

If I go someplace to eat for lunch, I usually have leftovers to warm up. Nothing wrong with leftovers — if you liked it the first time, you’ll like it again! But if I had to go out to dinner, the Apple Pan. I would go there in the ’80s with my daughters. I like their sandwiches, or the hickory burger with cheese, and there’s good French fries.

8 p.m.: Tuck into some wind-down watching

Before bed, I like to watch the news because, otherwise, I don’t know what’s going on. I also like a lot of shows on PBS. “Finding Your Roots,” or dramas like “Sister Boniface Mysteries” and “Call the Midwife,” which has been going on forever!