A Hollywood Remake

Two years ago, interior designer Kelly Wearstler’s Hancock Park apartment was all mid-century Amer-ican and Danish. The theme today: China-town meets Old Hollywood. “I had been doing so many mid-century modern projects that I just wanted to go in a completely different direction,” says the 30-year-old South Carolina native. “I also wanted to create something chic and glamorous in my small space.”

The new decor pairs Chinese and vintage furniture with her own unique designs. “I’ve always loved Asian pieces--their clean lines, sense of detail, rich colors. It’s furniture with an old soul,” she says. Several Chinese trunks provide extra storage space and mingle with other Chinese accessories, including Buddha statues, bamboo blinds and ancestral portraits painted on glass. Vintage pieces have been tweaked with silver leaf and paint or reconfigured for entirely new uses. Wearstler split up a 1930s Chinese folding screen, painted it orange and lined it with mirrors for her 9-by-10-foot dining room. “The panels add depth and height to the room,” she says. “They also make it more dramatic.” She fashioned the dining table from a lotus-shaped garden table base, topped it with glass and then flanked it with vintage love seats. In the bedroom, calligraphy paneled sliding doors hang on the wall as a headboard. “It’s a poem about waterfalls and peaceful mountains. I find it very restful.”

Wearstler, now working on a remodel of the Beverly Carlton Hotel, an old celebrity hangout in Beverly Hills, also found ways to inject a bit of Hollywood at home. She stained her light oak floors a darker walnut, then went to town with paint. Walls range from slate gray and chocolate brown in the dining room and bedroom to more upbeat shades such as cat’s-eye-green and peach in the living room and den. “I wanted each room to have a different mood,” she says. Other touches add even more panache: In every room, there’s a chandelier set on dimmers and mirrors show up in various guises--on the fire screen and on the front of the bedroom armoire.

As happy as Wearstler is with her Chinese-Hollywood interiors, it’s a safe bet she won’t be repeating them in the house she recently purchased in the Hollywood Hills. “I always like to try new things. Besides, my mother was an interior designer and changed every room in the house at least once a year,” she says. “I think I’ve got a little of my mom in me.”