STYLE : INTERIORS : Retro Reverie

Among swap-’til-you-drop decorators, mid-century furniture is having a renaissance. Collectors appreciate the quality of ‘40s pieces--the era is often viewed as the last decade of well-crafted furniture--as well as that of the ‘50s, which featured the aesthetic of new man-made materials.

Designer Neil Korpinen has endowed his ‘50s Los Feliz house with mid-20th century ambience: a Vladimir Kagan sofa, Gio Ponti coffee table, Paul Frankel mahogany and cork dining room set. Painted finishes also play a large role--wood stain over white paint evokes the blond-wood finish popular during the period. A dramatic indigo wall in the dining room is stenciled in a gold diamond pattern to evoke brass insets. The living room features an earthy palette of mustard, ochre and olive.

Korpinen covered the green faux marble linoleum floors throughout the house with quarter-sawn oak, which he bleached to a light finish. Carpets in the odd-shaped rooms were a challenge: He cut a 1920s wool carpet into a stylized bear-shaped rug for the dining room, and used a modern wool frieze, cut into organic shapes, for hallways and the living room. “Square carpets simply did not work in this house,” he says.

And where did the designer collect ideas for a mid-century interior? A fan of old films, Korpinen admits watching them more for their period interiors than story content. “I may not remember the plot or who starred in the picture, but I can recall a Paul Frankel chair and the way the furniture looked in the room.”