Shack turned into a vintage modern retreat

( Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times )

Steigelman, left, and Halterman sit in the dining nook of their wood-paneled 1970s kitchen. The school library table was found in an alley off La Cienega Boulevard in L.A. The plastic yellow Plia chairs made by Castelli were found at a Yucca Valley yard sale. The Martz light pendant was bought on EBay for $125. On the wall behind Steigelman, a wood carving incorporates multiple portraits of E.T. -- a testament to the pair's pop-culture-influenced tastes. In the foreground: A bowl by Midcentury ceramist Robert Maxwell sits under a painting of a mountain lion that once hung in Twentynine Palms City Hall.