The ‘oomphy’ life
AN aluminum and white Poggenpohl kitchen, a Barclay Butera revolving lounge with a circular red velvet settee and a $10,500 white antler chandelier, plus a plasma TV in every room. This, says Movieline’s Hollywood Life editorial director Anne Volokh, “is not what young Hollywood needs, but it is what they want -- something oomphy.” To celebrate its Hollywood Style Awards, the L.A. magazine is sponsoring the Young Hollywood Home showcase at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The exhibition features nine room settings furnished by PDC tenants, including the glam Butera living room, above; a screening area with stately Baker chairs; and a young Hollywood must: a $50,000 mahogany-and-leather custom dressing room from Troy Adams Design. For a tad more oomph, check out Marcelo Pizarro (www.pizarrostudio.org), who outfitted the hotspot Tao in Las Vegas. His innovative designs include a $3,300 leather cube chair that swivels and rocks and a $6,200 love seat that flips out into a round bed. Young Hollywood Home is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays through Nov. 11 at the Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., Suite B219.
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SEEN
From the floor up
From the damask print painted on the exterior of the building to the columns of rolled-up carpets flanking the walls, the Rug Company is redecorating the typical cover-your-floor store. The newly opened Melrose Avenue location of the London-based custom rug firm is designer Suzanne Sharp’s hip twist on Hollywood Regency, with a 13-foot velvet Chesterfield sofa in fashionable teal and coordinating tufted chairs in silver leather by George Smith. Customers can roll up their sleeves, and roll out their floor plans and swatches at sleek Hans Wegner dining tables, then look through piles of rugs by fashion designers including Marni and Paul Smith in a sunlit anteroom. Says Rug Company cofounder Christopher Sharp: “It has built-in banquettes for comfortable viewing -- and weary husbands.” 8202 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 653-0303.
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FINDS
Cozy as a pullover
Which of these pillows not only looks like a sweater but actually is one? As bedrooms cozy up for cooler weather, local stores are sporting sportif knit cushions. Woolrich’s Fair Isle rectangular boudoir pillow, front, ($17.99 at Target) a chunky stitch ice-blue Euro sham cover, top, by Nate Berkus and a black-and-white rugby striped pillow, right, by Nautica ($49.99 each at Linens ‘n Things) inspire a little do-it-yourself decorating. To earn this week’s homemaking merit badge, the Scout sewed shut the crewneck of an old gray cashmere Lacoste that ain’t what it used to be, creating a pillowcase that’s luxe for less. Sleeves can be tucked inside, or hacked off and transformed into a pair of mini-bolsters.
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HAPPENING
Mr. Wright, in the flesh
Scholars and architectural buffs gathering in L.A. for the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s annual conference can question the man behind the Hollyhock and Ennis houses in person. Well, almost. In “Meet Mr. Wright,” actor John Crowther, above, throws on the architect’s trademark beret to recount the drama-filled life of Wright, below, in a lecture and Q&A.; “He was very curmudgeonly, which is always very entertaining,” says Crowther, 66, a volunteer docent at the Ennis House who met Wright when he was 13. “One of his best lines was, ‘If you turn the country on its side, everything loose winds up in Southern California.’ ” 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre; tickets $20. Call (310) 471-3979 or e-mail frankent1@ juno.com. The conference, “Wright in Hollywood: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Los Angeles Progeny, 1917-1941,” runs through Sunday; www.savewright.org.