Missionary of Modernism
When Belgian-born Guy Cnop opened Linea Inc. on Beverly Boulevard in 1985, most contemporary furniture showrooms were secluded in the Pacific Design Center and available only to professional decorators.
“I wanted a street-level store open to the public because I was promoting contemporary furniture as lifestyle, the way it was used in the European market,” said the urbane Cnop (pronounced kuh-NOP), who acknowledges that some of the local interior designers thought he was being too democratic by allowing the public in.
But his intent was to do some missionary work on behalf of modern furniture, which he felt was too often dismissed in the U.S. as sterile and uncomfortable.
Cnop, 48, who was attracted to California by the sun and the laid-back lifestyle, wanted to convey those qualities in his store, along with a personal touch.
He filled the open, airy showroom with exclusive European furniture that he likes to describe as “playful and adult at the same time.” Sofas and chairs in reds, blues and greens worked together “like a rainbow in the sky.” People walked in and either loved it or walked right back out, he said. “I was sticking my neck out.”
His instincts were right. His own Linea look is starting to appear in national publications--one of his installations at Los Angeles’ trendy Standard Hotel was recently featured in Vanity Fair. And his showroom shares a sleek stretch of Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood with a clutch of other contemporary furniture stores, including Jules Seltzer Associates, SEE Inc., Diva Inc. and Modern Living, which moved into the neighborhood in March to be part of the action.
And it’s paying off. Cnop plans to enlarge his Los Angeles presence and open showrooms in the Orange County-San Diego area in the near future.
“They’re a great company,” said Linea neighbor Grant Seltzer, who runs the neighboring Jules Seltzer. “They have a good feel for the marketplace and what people are looking for--sophisticated furniture that’s fun, not stuffy.”
Seltzer and his wife, Linda, who are building a new house, bought some of Linea’s little hippopotamus ottomans, he said.
“They’re like sophisticated little art forms and great to sit on,” Seltzer said.
His Own House Featured in Metropolitan Home
Cnop’s own Linea-furnished house, perched just below Mulholland in the Hollywood Hills, is featured in the current issue of Metropolitan Home magazine. The editors liked the idea that an ordinary ranch-style house could be decorated with Linea’s “fashionably forward” designer furniture.
“The old cliche about contemporary furniture being cold and sterile is outdated,” said Metropolitan Home editor Donna Warner. “Modern furniture has evolved and grown up, and there is so much more of it, even in what we would call the mass market.”
Warner said she sees a growing willingness to mix furniture styles today.
“It’s the same thing that happened in fashion,” she said. “You wear the Gap T-shirt with the Armani jacket. People today are just more comfortable about design styles.”
The magazine cover, photographed by Tim Street-Porter, epitomizes Cnop’s ideal for lighthearted modernism. On the cover from his dining room, a jaunty Philippe Starck table and molded plastic dining chairs in orange cotton slipcovers are appealingly fresh.
That’s the message Cnop brought to California 14 years ago.
He Loves the Southern California Lifestyle
An unabashed booster for the Southern California lifestyle, he said he is still overjoyed to wake up to another beautiful day and loves the luminosity of the area’s filtered sunlight. And he finds the city itself to be “simulating, dynamic and hard-working--exactly the opposite of what people outside think.”
He and his wife, Pasadena-born Cindi, who’s involved in the administrative part of the business, have two children, Katia and Enzo.
“I married late, and my family is the center of my life,” Cnop said. “We love family hiking--the kids are real troopers.” He’s also a jogger and tennis player and thinks it’s a great luxury to combine everything with the intensity of running a business, which is only a 25-minute drive from home.
Their recent remodeling job--they opened up the rooms and added skylights--proves his point about the livability of the contemporary look, he says.
“Our children are ages 5 and 9, and most of the furniture in the dining and living is white,” he said. “But everything is washable.”
The California transplant grew up in Brussels, the son of an architect, and graduated from the University of Brussels with a degree in commercial translation. He was traveling as a freelance translator when an interior designer friend enlisted his help organizing his business.
“I enjoyed the process of finding out what people wanted and finding the things that worked,” Cnop said. That led to opening his own contemporary showroom and interior design business in Brussels.
He moved to Los Angeles to escape the “gray, wet weather and the gray, wet politics” of his home country.
“What I’ve been doing here is to push people to a more accepting approach of what modern furniture is about,” Cnop said.
Modern Furniture Was Considered Intimidating
Modern furniture, developed after World War II and noted for its functional simplicity, was generally considered artistic but intimidating, associated mainly with office furniture.
“People thought it was too cold,” he said. Much cozier was the prevailing affection for European tradition, which resulted in a lot of “pseudo antiques and Laura Ashley interiors,” Cnop recalled.
His idea was to market modern design as a way of living, not a time period. He refers to his store as “modern-contemporary.”
Focuses on Several European Lines
From his original furniture line by French manufacturer Ligne Roset, Cnop has expanded to focus on several European lines, including Driade, Baleri and MDF, whose furniture and accessories are created by top designers.
Over the years, his interior-designing interest has snowballed into multiple roles, he said, describing himself as “a mixture of designer, merchant, space planner and interior architect.”
And always a missionary. He led a tour of the showroom with its sleek white sofas, versatile small tables, stylish lamps and whimsical accessories with the zest of a super-salesman.
“Every element has so many possibilities--that’s what is unique about contemporary furniture,” he said, pointing out Linea’s selection of elegant sofa beds. They double as a chair, love seat or sofa and sometimes all three, and are designed with options such as arms or side tables. Some snap open like a book, to form a bed.
“Furniture must not be an obstacle,” Cnop proclaimed, as he demonstrated tables and stands with adjustable shelves and doors to accommodate computers, televisions or wardrobes. Everything seems to be on wheels. A coffee table can rise and expand to become a dining table or desk.
And ever-improving materials, in the hands of good designers, have given the field an artistic boost in recent years, he said.
Although prices are upscale, (sofas can range from $3,200 to $5,000), one of their hottest items recently was an $89 outdoor-indoor chair designed by Philippe Starck for Driade.
“It came in four colors, is stackable, and you can use slipcovers to dress it up indoors,” Cnop said. “We sold out all our stock.”
Not only does Linea promote furniture as useful and not merely pretty, it also insists that the sales staff be able to demonstrate the versatility, said Amy MacVean, showroom manager. “We try to find out the specific needs of a customer before they buy anything,” MacVean said.
Cnop calls it “seducing them into this lifestyle.”
Maryann Wasik of La Quinta chose Linea to furnish her new house.
“Linea was just like going to a design house,” she said. “They really helped us, in terms of lines and fabrics.”
Wasik and her husband, Dick Sanders, who run a direct-mail advertising business from home by computer, wanted to make a change.
They recently moved into an open California-style house with high ceilings, blond wood floors and lots of glass, and are filling it with white sectional furniture, square steel tables and “really cool steel and pear wood bar stools.”
At first her husband had been hesitant, fearing that modern design would be too cold, Wasik said. “But I had done a lot of research on 20th century modernism. It’s very hard to define, but it was about creating something simple and uncluttered.”
She understands why modernism is enjoying a consumer revival. “We have a modern business,” Wasik said, “and we wanted a modern house--one that was lighter and unencumbered--for the new century.”
Connie Koenenn can be reached by e-mail at Connie.Koenenn@latimes.com.
