3 shows, 4 days, 501 ideas
Glamour and glitz at WestWeek
Even at peak hours, it was sometimes hard to tell that WestWeek, the L.A. interiors equivalent of a fashion collections week, was underway last Wednesday and Thursday at the Pacific Design Center. Chalk it up to the cavernous space -- 1.2 million square feet -- which even when well-trafficked still seems eerily empty. Though dozens of furniture and home accessories showrooms showed off new wares, the annual gathering of interior designers, architects, shelter magazine editors and corporate buyers in the PDC, commonly known as the “Blue Whale,” left some visitors feeling as disoriented as Jonah.
Like every Hollywood production, there were guest stars. New York designer Todd Hase flew in to unveil a furniture line that mixes ‘40s Hollywood glamour with Asian antiques. His clean-lined tables and chairs are Regency remakes with lacquered finishes in orange, yellow and green -- inspired by the deep, saturated colors he found in a book about Pompeii frescoes.
Although his headquarters is in New York, Hase declared his third-floor PDC showroom the perfect place to display the new pieces. “I really wanted the whole Hollywood Regency look,” said Hase, who created the sophisticated penthouse set in “A Perfect Murder,” which starred Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow.
At Janus et Cie, Merle Sheridan, a mosaic artist with her own 10-year-old firm, Mosaix Studio in North Hollywood, displayed her latest creation: a large outdoor glass tabletop that’s etched with an intricate lace pattern. The piece, which retails for $9,867, is modeled after patterns Sheridan spotted while traveling through Turkey and Tunisia. “I will take several designs from different parts of the world and adapt them to one table,” Sheridan explained.
And at the A. Rudin boutique, nine colorful collage pieces -- resin on wood with a surfboard-like finish -- by San Francisco artist Rex Ray were effectively displayed on a bright orange wall, complementing the showroom’s contemporary furnishings.
Staff members at the Christopher Norman showroom, meanwhile, fielded questions on their most unusual piece of furniture: the Cocoon Chair, a large, steel-wire creation made at a jewelry production factory in the Philippines. The egg-shaped piece, designed by Anne Pamintuan, is welded by hand and then dipped in a vat of nickel. It retails for $4,000. “People are always wondering if it’s comfortable,” said sales associate John Allendorfer. “It really is.”
Tina Daunt
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A tale of excess, with plenty of chocolate
Orange COUNTY decorators and other style stewards who gathered at the Spring Market at the Laguna Design Center last week showed they could laugh at their reputation for excess. In fact, they howled when House & Garden design editor Mayer Rus, who writes a column called the Testy Tastemaker, poked fun at the South Coast’s affliction with “house elephantiasis,” where furniture-filled bathrooms are large enough to host neighborhood socials and “remote-controlled toilets have seats that flip up and say, ‘Hel-looooo!’ ”
They quieted down, however, during Rus’ spirited give-and-take with Newport Beach-raised, L.A.-based interior designer Michael S. Smith. The hundreds of decor pros searching for what’s new were eager to hear how Smith makes life homey for his celebrity, CEO and society clients.
“Even formal rooms should be relaxed in California,” announced the designer, a purple sweater tossed loosely over the shoulders of his charcoal suit. “The days when all the sconces matched is past,” said Smith, who has created coordinated kitchen and bath fixtures -- from stark loft chrome to cozy country brushed nickel -- for Kallista.
Eccentric combos make rooms inspiring because they reflect owners’ varied interests, said Smith. For unpretentious luxury, he mixes fine antiques found on European treasure hunts or on www.1stdibs.com with “paisley hippie” bedspreads from Urban Outfitters that he cuts up and drapes on windows.
Most of the 40 showrooms’ textiles focused on traditionals such as Nancy Corzine’s European fabrics in the newly expanded Blake House.
New York-based designer Thomas O’Brien said he found inspiration everywhere for his vintage-modern Groundworks fabrics at Lee Jofa. A leaf motif from an old Indian sari was updated on chenille, and he studied oval labels on 1960s spice jars and reproduced their shape in cayenne red on a straw-colored cotton woven in France.
The local love of patio entertaining brought attention to new outdoor-furniture resources. Inside the Century Designer showroom, Richard Frinier, who designs in his Belmont Heights studio in Long Beach, was showing his cushy Andalusia chaise longue with a canopy. His line for Century’s new Leisure Division is made from teak and sand-cast aluminum and wrapped in a canvas-looking acrylic to withstand sun, rain and overzealous pool-party guests.
Throughout the day, the talk centered on luxurious, decadent chocolate. The color, that is. Convinced that deep brown goes with everything, decorators approved its pairing with mineral-blue bubbles on Robert Allen’s upholstered pieces in Lee Lawrence Ltd. It was also seen in Adriana Hoyos’ dark cocoa bench with a raw silk cushion in the Island Bay Trading Co. and Belgian faux fur throws at the Austin Horn Collection.
“Match it with dramatic pink,” says Cherie Hemphill of Kravet/Lee Jofa, as she touched a swatch of soft chocolate mohair.
Mohair? Nothing says tradition more than that.
Janet Eastman
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The shape of things to come in the office
Most office furniture is about as fresh as the magazines in a doctor’s waiting room and as comforting as a trip to the dentist -- before the nitrous starts to flow.
At last week’s NeoCon West, an exhibition for commercial interiors at the Los Angeles Mart, “contract furnishings” (as they are known in the trade) looked ready to inject a jolt of 21st century style into even the most modern L.A. homes.
There were futuristic office chairs and shapely upholstered pieces with all the curve appeal of high-end Italian contemporary design, as well as innovative accessories and building materials. Finding these resources isn’t as easy as a trip to the mall, but most of these products can be purchased directly from the company and its authorized showrooms and dealers or ordered through contractors.
Updating Florence Knoll’s metal-legged office furniture, Bretford’s Plus line (as shown on Page 1) includes upholstered benches and tables with sensuous “S” curves suitable for minimalist living rooms. (Bretford’s local rep is Mark Bayley, [661] 287-9743.) As a complement, Leland’s midcentury inspired line of bentwood chairs features the Hi-Fi, a maple veneer high-back lounger ($1,650 and up, from the Scheffey Group, [310] 657-8922).
To dress up your desk, Global Industries’ Ride chair (around $1,000, call [562] 906-1680 for dealers) pairs sleek Rollerblade-style wheels with Mod upholstery.
For nearly every occasion, be it drinking, dining or watching the sunset, www.aceray.com has more than 100 seating choices -- from rattan bar stools to wooden armchairs to stacking outdoor metal seats powder-coated in more than a dozen colors.
Need a fashionable fix for floors? For high-traffic areas, ask a flooring contractor to show you Gerflor’s newest vinyl tiles and sheets (from $4 per square foot) that come in a variety of patterns. Some resemble ‘50s linoleum; others have metallic speckles and blue and silver swirling designs that look like marbled end papers in an old book.
If you prefer something warmer underfoot, Bentley Prince Street has launched a home collection made to the same durability and wear requirements of its commercial carpeting. Woven in modern geometrics, from raised oversized dots to overlapping squares and rectangles, the Prince Street House and Home collection (from $3 to $7 per square foot) is composed of 14 patterns that are available in 72 colors, available at fine floor covering specialists such as Eddie Egan & Associates in Culver City ([310] 278-0370).
-- David A. Keeps
