CALIFORNIA'S Golden Reign of Glamour - NEXT LEGENDS - DISC INTERIORS
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NEXT LEGENDS
2022
CALIFORNIA’S
Golden Reign of Glamour
From a modern ranch redo in Napa to an Elmer Grey masterpiece in
Los Angeles, America’s illustrious frontier loves a good reinvention. First, meet
NINE DECOR ATING TITANS forging seminal new legacies for the West.
A Southern California
living room by DISC
Interiors channels
the natural hues of
the landscape (with
notes of a chic Paris
cocktail lounge) in
its terra-cotta tiles,
cane coffee table by
Charlotte Perriand, and
curvy velvet sofa in a
deep sunset shade.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SAM FROST.
WRIT TEN BY Ellen McGauley VERANDA 61
TH E CO O L H I S TO RI A N S
DISC INTERIORS
M
I E S VA N D E R R O H E H A D has found enduring inspiration in the
it right in his observation dichotomy of two regional architectural
that simplicity of design is triumphs: Arts and Crafts’ ingenious
the hardest kind, say Krista layering of materials (Pasadena’s Gamble
Schrock and David John Dick. “Restraint House, for example) and California’s early
can be difficult,” says Schrock, “but missions. The latter’s “monastic simplic-
many of our clients come to us because ity—of space and form, of plaster texture
they don’t want something overly dec- and elemental ironwork—has such a
orated.” Since establishing their Los beautiful mimimalism,” notes Dick. Still,
Angeles–based firm, which includes the pair is not pursuing nostalgia. “We’re
forthcoming furniture for Lawson- looking forward. We want our spaces to
Fenning along with the release of their feel fresh,” says Dick. Schrock adds, “Not
2021 book Portraits of Home, the pair of-the-moment, but always current.”
“People are becoming
more intentional in design
DRESSING UP
and materials, on editing
CALIFORNIA
CASUAL and strengthening
“I think ‘California sense of place.”
casual’ can actually
be quite formal when —A MY MEIER
it’s pared-down, less
fussy, with those raw
cottons and linens
mixed with elegant
forms,” says Meier. In
this 1930s Presidio
Heights townhouse,
for instance, she
covered a pair of A QUIET BOHEMIAN BEAT
wood-framed Roman
“I’m drawn to female realist painters, and Paula
Thomas chairs in a
Rubino’s work is beautifully graphic,” says Weiss
linen velvet “that
of the oil on linen she layered atop an Indian
sounds formal, but
block-print fabric in this California guest room.
the texture feels
“There’s almost a Matisse quality. Her coloring is
very relaxed.”
rich and complex, and sometimes odd, so there’s
nothing sweet and saccharine about it.”
TH E N O N CO N FO R M I S T
PALMER WEISS
FROST; AMY MEIER PORTRAIT AND INTERIOR, SHADE DEGGES.
INTERIOR, FRANCESCO LAGNESE; PORTRAIT, PATRICK CLINE.
DAVID JOHN DICK AND KRISTA SCHROCK PORTRAIT, SAM
TH E P O LI S H ED N AT U R A LI S T Fe 12 years ago, where her eponymous vil-
T
lage boutique exudes the same classically W I C E T H E F O R M E R invest- South Carolina, designer Kathleen Rivers,
AMY MEIER
BACKGROUND, PAKIN SONGMOR/GETTY IMAGES.
modern ethos as her interiors and product ment banker enrolled in courses who modeled their childhood beach house
designs (look for new launches of window to study color theory—and twice on the tenets of the late California designer
O
N E C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H and wallcoverings with Hartmann & Forbes she dropped out within a week. Michael Taylor. Today, one could argue Weiss
the native Midwesterner and it’s this spring, along with a Jonathan Nesci But something about this felt purposeful, is swimming in the other direction than
hard to imagine her anywhere lighting collaboration). “I like things that look says the San Francisco–based designer. “I Taylor did, weaving Southern and English
but Southern California. “There authentic and real, like they came from the didn’t want to learn rules. I wanted to train influences into the West Coast vernacu-
is something so peaceful about what sun- land a house was built on. I’m in love with the my eye to what is relevant and important lar. “California offers sort of a wholesome
shine can do to wash out a landscape,” says palette here, the myriad subtle shades of the to me.” And she wasn’t starting completely approach to contrarianism—there are so
the designer, who moved to Rancho Santa same colors. This is what excites me.” from scratch: Her mother is the Charleston, many productive ways to be rebellious here.”
62 VERANDA VERANDA 63
TH E E X PERI M ENTA L CL A S S I CI S T
LANDED INTERIORS
T
H E J OY O F B E I N G a classicist on the West Coast is that there’s an inherent
understanding of its foundations and principles, says Landed Interiors founder
Lynn Kloythanomsup, “but it remains open to interpretation, which is so Califor-
nia. You can play with proportions and create new languages.” The Los Angeles
native, who heads up the Berkeley-based firm with lead
designer Heather Menegat, credits frequent cross-country
trips of her youth with fostering a deep appreciation for
THE FALL OF BEIGE classic American design. “In the Bay Area, there are so many
“My design friends around fine examples of Victorian, Craftsman, farmhouse, and mid-
Europe used to refer to century modern homes, and we are proud to be a part of the
California design as simply
‘beige’—a desert land, they movement to enhance and preserve this architecture while
called it,” recalls Baradaran. making them work for modern families.”
“But now everything has
changed, and today’s design
places much more focus on
materiality and color.” In
this 1929 Spanish Revival
home in Brentwood, a
layered, neutral palette
serves as a splendid stage
for vibrant hues: in original
hand-painted tilework,
vivid art (left, a Robert Min-
ervini acrylic; right, a David
Korty silkscreen), and an
aubergine velvet sofa.
TH E M A S TER O F CR A F T
NATASHA BAR ADAR AN “There is so much
INTERIOR, ROGER DAVIES/OTTO; PORTRAIT, STEPHEN BUSKEN.
F E E L M O R E T H A N ever that side—the workrooms, the third-generation innovation in craft
PORTRAIT, SEN CREATIVE; INTERIOR, HARIS KENJAR.
Los Angeles has become an artistic upholsterers and woodworkers, the facto- happening right now,
melting pot of natives and trans- ries with new, cutting-edge innovations.” new possibilities that
plants coming together to create a They were, it turns out, powerful spring-
unique voice,” says Natasha Baradaran. And boards for her own furniture collection, are in our grasp.
she should know: Her residential design which in the seven years since it debuted I see this and think,
business morphed out of an early tenure on has expanded into textiles, from perfor- ‘OK, what can I do CHASING THE LIGHT a strategy that not only expanded access to
the hospitality side, which yielded a valuable mance velvets to a forthcoming line of vegan with this?’” “I always try to bring in the light,” says Kloytha- sunlight but also allowed for a generous book-
perspective on innovation and craft. “When leather. “Creativity here is especially abun- nomsup. “Here, we’re obsessed with it. It’s the case-lined pantry hall. An historic William Morris
— NATA SHA BAR ADAR AN most important thing.” In this Arts and Crafts wallpaper and Harlequin-style checkerboard
you have a 1,000-room hotel, you don’t dant because of an openness, a tradition of home in San Francisco’s Richmond district, wood flooring help make the space feel as if it
start in a showroom. You go to the creative working together rather than competing.” she moved the kitchen to the rear of the house, existed when the home was originally built in 1914.
64 VERANDA VERANDA 65
TH E CIN E M ATI C A LCH E M I S T
REATH DESIGN
F Y O U C A N create The Wizard of Design. “I love taking that imaginative ethos,
Oz on a soundstage, then there really then adding quality to make it last and feel
are no rules.” Beneath Frances Mer- good to live in.” What she calls “breaking the
GOLDEN ERA rill’s warm, multicolored originalism story”—unlocking the livability challenges of
OUTDOOR lie strong crosscurrents of old California: a house—feels like an extension of this exper-
LIVING a prospector’s spirit with strong shades of imental algorithm, as is her embrace of craft
On a veranda in 1930s architect Julia Morgan, and indeed, and workmanship. “I love the tactile, human
Hancock Park’s
historic Fremont the boundless innovation of Hollywood’s feeling in things that are handmade,” she says.
Place, Woodson early days of cinema. “Those set designers “If someone spent an absurd amount of time
and Rummer- left a mark, a legacy that anything is possible,” making something with their hands, then
field capture the
essence of the
says the Los Angeles–based founder of Reath I am probably going to love it.” ✦
home’s early mid-
century DNA with a
Regency barkcloth
from the same
era and a vintage
Salterini garden
dining set. “The
home was built by
1940s architect
Clarence J. Smale,
who was known for
WOODSON & RUMMERFIELD EXTERIOR, KARYN MILLET; WOODSON & RUMMERFIELD PORTRAIT, MICHAEL ALLEN; FRANCES MERRILL PORTRAIT AND INTERIOR, LAURE JOLIET.
his brickwork and
plaster-finished
estates and movie
theaters, including
the Loyola Theater
on Sepulveda
Boulevard,” says
Rummerfield.
TH E N E W PRE S ERVATI O N I S T S
WOODSON & RUMMERFIELD’S
HOUSE OF DESIGN
H
I S F A T H E R W A S a jazz bassist who played with Sammy Davis, Jr., and
Ella Fitzgerald, among others. She’s a descendant of Lucky Baldwin, best “This is Hollywood, and there
known for establishing the early agricultural town of Monrovia and Santa is nowhere else like it. You
Anita Park. But Ron Woodson and Jaime Rummerfield stand at the prec- can turn the volume up or dial DECORATING IN TECHNICOLOR
ipice of their own seismic legacy. Atop a portfolio of design projects from Malibu to it down, but there is room for “My recipe is test, test, test, try, try, try...then take a flying leap,” says Merrill, who
London, in 2016, the pair launched the nonprofit Save Iconic Architecture (siaprojects grounded this Altadena living room in a warmly exuberant berry shade (custom rug,
eccentrics and creativity. And Stark) that deepens in the trim. “There has to be a moment when you try it. Otherwise
.org) to help stymie a rash of demolitions across their native Los Angeles. With support everyone ends up with the same, safe thing. There’s a lot of hard work that comes
from the community, they’ve saved notable structures by Richard Neutra, Donald if you don’t tap into that, before it, but ultimately, you have to take that leap.” The sofa is by Nickey Kehoe,
Wexler, and Robert Farquhar. “We’re creating awareness, education, and landmarks you’re missing out.” and a custom chaise is covered in a golden yellow linen floral by Rose Cumming.
for these important spaces so they are here for generations to come,” says Woodson. —JAIME RUMMERFIELD
66 VERANDA VERANDA 67
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