Swanky new home

KNOWN for the last decade as the go-to resource for shiny and see-through Hollywood Regency furnishings, Patrick Dragonette recently moved to a grander La Cienega Boulevard space to showcase his own designs. These include, above, his Gable andiron ($1,975 a pair), his Townhouse side table ($1,400) and his Brentwood lamp ($2,800 a pair), based on Hollywood decorator Billy Haines’ museum stand lighting fixtures. “There are only so many great vintage designs, so when I find something I like, I am inclined to do my own take on it,” he explains. With a cache of midcentury Modernist furniture, Dragonette has plenty of other inspiration. The polished nickel and glass Madison table, right, $1,065, has the glamour of L.A. designer Dorothy Thorpe’s platinum-banded cocktail glasses. His white tufted velvet chair ($2,500) has a different influence: It is named Kimber, after a character on FX’s “Nip/Tuck” whose Miami Beach apartment features the swank seat. Dragonette, 711 N. La Cienega Blvd., L.A.; (310) 855-9091; www.dragonetteltd.com

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REDISCOVERED

A revival takes shape

In the 1950s, Malcolm Leland’s organic ceramics and Jetsons-esque genie-bottle bird shelters for Architectural Pottery helped shape the visual vocabulary of much of today’s Modern design. (Go ask Angela Adams or Jonathan Adler.) On Saturday, Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art presents a retrospective of the 84-year-old sculptor who in 1964 created the elaborate cast concrete facade of the American Cement Co. in L.A. That design, a trellis of X-shapes, can still be seen on Wilshire Boulevard, west of MacArthur Park, and has recently been replicated as XOO bookends ($190 to $220 from www.architecturalpottery.com). The show features five decades of ceramics, sculpture (shown here in terra cotta), window grilles, wall reliefs, a 1970s fireplace and the only known fountain designed by Leland, priced at $20,000. 8568 Washington Blvd., Culver City; (310) 815-1100; www.cardwelljimmerson.com/gallery.

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FINDS

Cut a rug with junk art

Clare Page and Harry Richardson are art junkies. Or is that junk artists? Inspired by random rubbish found on the streets near their studio in London, the married designers, who work together as Committee, have created “Flytip,” shown here, for the Rug Co. The luxurious 6-by-9-foot carpet is a strikingly detailed hand-

knotted wool and silk collage of fast food trash, mechanical castoffs, flowers and bits of bling that make a strong statement about conspicuous consumption. It costs $6,995. Committee has two other 6-by-9-foot designs, including “Door,” a graphic interpretation of an entryway and the outdoors. They are available from the Rug Co., 8202 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 653-0303; www.therugcompany.info.

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MADE IN CALIFORNIA

Natural fit for metal

Air, earth, fire, metal and water. All these elements come together in Carolyn Mendoza’s “Living Sculpture,” a series of forged metal works that update the old-fashioned ceramic wall vase with a colorful jolt of simplicity. The Venice-based artist and landscape designer welds steel into 2-inch-deep wall hangings with concealed small planter boxes for air plants and low-water succulents. The greenery grows through cutouts in the metal pieces, which Mendoza treats with heat and chemical agents to create textures in vivid shades of rust and verdigris. “Blue Elegance,” shown below, measures 10 by 18 inches and sells for $800. It’s one of several Mendoza pieces on display at Denizen Design Gallery, 8600 Venice Blvd., L.A.; (310) 838-1959. To view other works, visit www.carolynmendoza.com.

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Reaching the Scout: Submit suggestions to the Home section, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012; home@latimes.com.