This is Why

Most of the time I love where I live.   Everyone is curious about Los Angeles, especially if they’ve never been here, but the curiosity is usually tempered with a little bit of distaste.  “Why do you live there?”  is something I get asked quite often. “Isn’t L.A. crowded?  Expensive?  Dangerous?  Don’t you get sick of the pace, the competitive energy, the plastic people?  Isn’t the artifice and excess of the entertainment industry too much?”

Yes.

Sometimes this city is completely exhausting.  I get sick of driving everywhere.  I wait in line almost everywhere I go.  There is crime and violence here.  The very rich live perilously close to the very poor and nobody blinks an eye.  A numbing barrage of advertising and imagery and noise and smells dominate the everyday.  Everyone is hustling for their little bit, and people can be pretty mean.

I often need a reminder.

It is overwhelming. The bigness, messiness, craziness of L.A. begins to take over, and suddenly I find myself thinking that anywhere is better than here.  Why do I live here?

I used to think that I felt this way because I am an introvert or a misanthrope, but now I don’t think that’s why.  I think that what really happens is that I stop seeing what’s all around me.  It is exactly that – all around me -- and I begin to take this place for granted because I DO live here. 

Hope she finds a good home when the building is finished. 

 Nearly a decade has gone by since I first began my life as an Angelino, and some days I forget that not everyone has almost endless sunshine.  I forget that there are places where there are little or no opportunities to do and be whatever or whomever.   I forget that the diversity here, the seemingly infinite combination of cultures, is a challenge (in the best way) and a comfort every day.  I forget how beautiful this place is - the murals and architecture and palm trees and flowers that are endlessly stimulating.  I forget that the  Pacific ocean is a quick bike ride from where I live and work.  I forget that there are people here who live and love and create the way that I do.  I forget.

Then I take a walk around my neighborhood, and I am reminded.  I am inspired.  

I ride my bicycle past this one several times a week.  Its hard not to smile when I see it.

Yes please.

In the alley outside Glencrest Bar-B-Que.  What artists manage to create with spray paint is astonishing.

This is why I live here.  This is why.

The Catalyst

 

I am a sucker for a well designed room.  Its absolutely true.  I immediately begin mentally moving myself in, getting a buzz from the color, light and flow of the space.  All of the pretty stuff aside, good design also comes with a disorienting, wonderful rush of change.  I am a big fan of letting go of old stuff and ideas just to shake things up from time to time.  I'm a bigger fan of investing (some consideration as well as the cash) in a space to make it the best it can be.  I'd like to think that I design from exactly this place.  Let's shake things up.  Let's get inspired by something new.  Plus, its Spring, the season of cleaning and organizing and rebirth. This time of the year always gets me primed for change.  I love it even more when I can be the catalyst for someone else.

I've been crazy busy, and although I spend a good chunk of my time in my studio sending emails, taking meetings, or making endless phone calls,  I’m also out in the world meeting people who make stuff and witnessing the transformation at all of the homes I'm designing.  Three projects are happening -- all at different stages of the design process.  Each home is as different as the cities they're in and the people who inhabit them.  All of them, houses and people, are ready for change.

The living room in Los Angeles is in the final stages, with only paint and art left to happen there. 

This grey suede sectional tucks right into an odd corner of the living room  Its also super-comfy and great for the family that lives on it because it is easy to clean.  My client has a great eye and found a beautiful vintage coffee table (not pictured) on Ebay.  A few more pillows in some cool fabrics are on their way, too.

HUDSON BAY

The paint on both walls will be Benjamin Moore’s Hudson Bay.  It’s a deep lagoony blue that will cool down this really sunny corner.

@ Stansbury Collection in Venice

  

When I'm designing a house near the beach (this one has a view), I like to include some art work about the ocean.  I'm in love with these beautiful large scale surf photos that I found here in Venice.  2 or 3 of these in a couple of different sizes will look great on the big blue walls.  

The home I'm working on in Las Vegas has just begun its transformation.  Paint is on the walls, rooms have been defined and new furniture, lighting and art are on the way.  We've begun to fill the house with the client's personal things, re frame his family photos and hang some of his art.

The Library as it looked before.

The Library as it looks with velvety chocolate brown paint and some of the client's exiting furniture and art.  Soon it will have draperies, lighting and floating shelving on both sides of the fire place to turn it into a proper library. 

A couple of the client's beautiful pieces of art in a red niche opposite the formal dining room.  We've had one of the walls in the dining room painted this same yummy color.

In 2010, I designed a guest apartment just outside Philadelphia.  It has a slick and efficient little kitchen that is filled with beautiful surfaces.

Pretty and functional apartment kitchen.

Quartz counter tops and recycled glass tile back splash.

 

Wide bamboo floors and glossy smoke-colored cabinets with brushed metal hardware.

I'm happy to say I've just begun doing a little work on the big house attached to the cute little apartment.  First task is choosing the same sort of surfaces for some other spots in the house.  I love the beginning of this process almost as much as the final result.  So looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.  

Embrace the change.  Happy Spring!


Melissa

Yes, We Have Christmas Here

A couple of years ago, I was visiting family in Pennsylvania and the subject of the weather here in  Los Angeles came up.  My five year-old nephew was shocked to find out that it doesn't snow here.
His first question was: "Do you have Christmas?"
"Of course we do", I said, "It just looks a little different."

Despite the lack of snow, there are no shortage of giant, inflatable lawn Santas, icicle lights, blinky stars and mechanical reindeer all over my neighborhood. Its also absolutely true that the norm around here is a little more offbeat.  Here are the 2011 highlights:

This year, as with many years past, my favorite Christmas tree is at the entrance to the parking lot at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica.  The tree is made entirely from shopping carts and is super fab, especially at night when it is all lit up. Every time I drive, ride or walk by this tree it makes me happy.  Turns out that it is the scaled-down version of an installation created by artist Anthony Schmitt a few years ago.  You can see some photos of the big tree here http://shoppingcarttree.com/. 

Runner up goes to the giant orange wreath that hangs on the Venice Canals home of architect Whitney Sander and designer Catherine Holiss.   From a distance (say, across the canal) it is a great size and lovely modern color and it looks really soft.  Not until I was close did I notice that the wreath is made entirely of plastic construction site fencing.  It is perfect on the glass and steel house and such an unexpected material.  I love it when people manage to surprise me!

There is nothing groundbreaking about the little tree in the row boat, but I absolutely had to include it.  To me, it embodies the spirit of living in Venice as well as the sense of humor that most of us have to have to live here.  I hope it makes you smile, too.

Happy Christmas. 

Honey, I'm Home

It has to start somewhere.  A life, a journey, this blog.  For far too long I have been tiptoeing around the idea of writing what I see and live everyday.  No longer.

            My work as an interior designer allows me a pretty thorough exploration of Los Angeles.  People who don’t live here ask me about the good weather and movie stars – and we certainly have those things.  But what’s really exciting are the ocean and the mountains, the intense metropolis with one of largest creative communities on the planet, all of the art and music and architecture and design that a nerd like me could want, millions people from everywhere on the planet (and their languages, food and cultures).  It is easy to be inspired almost daily as I hunt for good design and beautiful things, seeking out the pioneers who are doing it differently, better.   I’m hoping to use this space to examine what I see on a regular day, to show you what’s being created and to talk about the good work and good life all around us.  I hope you’ll find it interesting, Los Angelino or not.

When my husband was 9 years old, he made this drawing of his family home in Seattle.  He drew it all from memory, from the keyhole windows to the VW bus in the driveway.   I’ve had it hanging in my studio for years, and each time I look at it I am reminded of the power of home.  I am lucky that my job is to help people to create the places where they live and work.  It is incredibly fun, but I take it seriously.  These are the spaces where we spend the most time, the spaces where we gather with our tribes, the spaces that serve as refuge and retreat.  Each time I design, my mission is to transform what I see into a home that can be drawn from memory.