Los Angeles Shopping Guide for Home Design by Cynthia Rosenfeld
Featured Hotel in Los Angeles
W Westwood
See all hotels in Los Angeles >
When Los Angeles’ notorious traffic jams its serpentine freeways and gridlocks its intricate streets, any exploration really does halt to a crawl. Nonetheless, L.A. boasts plenty of architectural gems and design destinations worthy of the four wheel fight.
Get off to a star studded start at the Pacific Design Center (8687 Melrose Avenue). Designed by Argentine architect Cesar Pelli, California’s largest collection of designer showrooms (130 at last count plus two Wolfgang Puck restaurants and a 380-seat movie theatre) was often referred to as the Blue Whale when the once controversial cobalt blue glass clad futuristic structure opened in 1975. Pelli added an equally untraditional Kelly green section 13 years later but by then, the iconic structure seemed to blend almost naturally into L.A.’s eclectic skyline.
HBO’s hit show ‘Entourage’ has the guys shopping their Hollywood hearts out for minimalist sleek sofa-chaise combinations at Menzie International (Suite B-267), while Brad Pitt has both been spotted outfitting his office space with pieces like the retro-chic Partners Desk in Macassar ebony from Dakota Jackson (Suite G-170) and Reese Witherspoon considered the boudoir beautiful Chateau Settee in shocking pink at Kravet (Suite B-624).
Find inspiration without leaving the neighbourhood by taking a tour of the 1922 Schindler House (835 North Kings Road), considered the first modernist architecture in California. The Vienna-born Rudolph Schindler sought to blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor space in this single-story live-work unit outlined in exposed concrete and hand-hewn redwood and set among overgrown gardens that was originally intended as an experiment to see if two families could cohabitate. Glass walls screened with canvas imply the Japanese shoji effect Schindler picked up while working for Frank Lloyd Wright on Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel.
These days, L.A.’s modern mansions could easily house two families or in some cases as many as twelve! Some of L.A.’s biggest home decorating budgets get spent at Orange (8111 Beverly Boulevard) where the well-edited focus is on vintage pieces by American and European names from the 1930s to 1970s.
The sprawling street level gallery in the heart of West Hollywood attracts the trained eye with George Nelson wood top desks and Charlotte Perriand chrome and leather chairs, but it’s the shop’s own shearling rugs and oversized shearling covered beanbags made in the United Kingdom that customers have been known to redecorate their rooms around.
L.A. has long been known as America’s plastic surgery capital and hence a place where everything is artificial. Turning that aspect into a creative asset, Plastica (8405 West Third Street) feels like a colourful playpen filled with fun, ergonomic designs. Inflatable Rody rocking horses ride the plastic ‘Oriental’ rugs and Swedish wooden display shelves overflow with kid friendly Candaloo nightlights, woven African nesting baskets and rooster shaped egg cups. Russian ‘Never Falls’ dolls are scooped up even by design-savvy singles who want their spaces to smile.
Head west towards the Pacific sunset for dinner at Katsuya (11777 San Vicente Boulevard) where raw talent makes this the sexiest new restaurant in Tinseltown. Okinawa-born chef Katsuya Uechi’s ‘lollipops’ made from tuna sashimi, avocado and cucumber wound atop a bamboo skewer taste sinfully delicious. The restaurant's hemlock wood walls are filled with glowing close-up photographs of a Geisha girl’s luscious red lips and alluring eyelids, chosen by famed French interior designer Philippe Starck for their suggestive innocence.
More likely to inspire home décor is the all-white Dragon room filled with comfy pillow-lined leather couches not normally seen at the dinner table. This California casual vibe gets an infusion of Starck’s dramatic flair with his signature ornate mirrors, but it’s his smooth white ceramic sushi trays and glass pebble chopstick rests that more than a few diners have been sneaking out in their designer handbags.