Natural Fashion

Showing posts with label Modernism. Show all posts

Modernizing A Piece of California History: Before and After in this Hollywood Regency Style Estate

A lot of people have asked us what the East Mountain Drive Hollywood Regency Estate looked liked before we got our hands on it. We collated a few photos here to show you the dramatic way that we blended this authentic mid century style with current technology and more environmentally sustainable ideas 21st Century design.

The pictures above represent the Living Room shot from the exact same location. If you look closely at the center of each photo you will see that we moved the fireplace and expanded the window wall to take advantage of the Spectacular view. We selected the fireplace mantel in London at Chesneys. The Chandelier is Murano Glass from Donghia. The coffee table is Vintage Charles Hollis Jones. The Sconces are peridod "Dorothy Draper in style and from the Palm Springs modernism show. The sconces were literally the first thing we purchased for the house. The Mirror is a Vintage Donghia Furniture piece. We purchased the mirror at a gallery in Los Angeles, but is was designed in the time that I worked in Angelo Donghia's Design Office in New York before he died in 1985. We used Farrow and Ball paints throughout the residence. I am very happy that F & B is now using producing Low VOC paints and papers.

The Dining Room after we opened the window wall with Hopes Doors. We designed a wonderful waterfall and fire place that spans the water pool The draper fabric is Bergamo. Again, a grey colored hand blown Murano Glass Chandelier from Donghia and Farrow & Ball wall paper. The Dining Table is mid century Harvey Probber, vintage Dining Chairs upholstered in Bergamo Silk Velvet and a vintage Regency style Bar Cabinet.

Holiday Decorations: The Aluminum Christmas Tree and My eBay Remorse!

Here's a Link for this Cool Book "Seasons Gleamings the Art of the The Aluminum Christmas Tree"

The story is this. Gregg and I live in a Modernist House in Montecito, Ca. We have decorated this home with all collectable modernist furnishings and art from galleries ranging from Paris, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Palm Springs, and Santa Barbara. All of the furniture is collectable mid-century modern furniture. Sooo, I got a bug this year to get a vintage "Silver" christmas tree with rotating color wheel et all. Honestly, because I really don't have the energy or vibe to decorate a 10' tree this year, plus I'm a Mad Men freak which is spilling over into my design cravings. I go to check it out on ebay and sure enough some gal had just bought a vintage aluminum tree with a real authentic color wheel from 1960, it was in perfect condition. She stated in comments on ebay that she had purchased it earlier that day at an estate sale (garage sale) somewhere in Ohio. She was selling it on ebay because her husband was harassing her about it so she was willing to to "give it away" for $250.00, just to shut her husband up. She stated it was too late for her to list it with the BUY IT NOW option. I bit her bate and put in a bid just below $250. There was only 20 minutes left the auction, so I brought my laptop to the dinner table.....big mistake. Evidently the bidding was non-existent until I put a bid in, needless to say, while I ate a beautifully prepared, um, whatever it was, with my nose in the bidding war that ensued, I turned to Gregg, who had the made the beautiful prepared dinner, whatever it was, as asked him if I should go over $425...he said I should do is just go away. It sold for $423 and not to me. This was a total cart before the horse scenario for me, I was into buying this on instinct based on this gals story (which I totally believed) and my instinct that this color wheel was rare. Subsequently I have done a bunch more research and boy, were my instincts correct. I'm sure some hipster in Palm Springs is going to be very happy with his Gleaming Pink, Blue and Green Tree!

The Cinerama Dome & Michael Jackson

We're going down to LA to see Michael Jackson's "THIS IS IT" but the really exciting thing is that were going to see it at the Cinerama Dome.

The Cinerama Dome 1963 by Welton Becket, 6360 Sunsent Blvd. Hollywood, Ca.

Photo courtesy you-are-here.com.

A geodesic dome built for the Cinerama format, this mini-Epcot like structure is a wonder of 1960's showmanship. Featuring an enormous curved screen and ample seating underneath the large dome, the Cinerama Dome is famous for blending first run films with the occassional revival classic. The Cinerama Dome opened November 17, 1963 with 937 seats and the World Premiere in 70mm of "Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Additional 70mm films included the West Coast premiere of "The Greatest Story Ever Told" on February 17, 1965, the World Premiere of "The Battle of the Bulge" on December 16, 1965 and the World Premiere of "Ice Station Zebra" on October 23, 1968. In 1999, The Dome exhibited an exclusive week long showing of the original "Blade Runner" answer print.

For more information about historic cinemas go to Cinema Treasures.

Michael Jackson's "THIS IS IT".... here's a link to the trailer.

I'm a Tubehead

I always try to avoid seeing any components that drive the media in any room. In this Family Room / Theater. We used two 65" Panasonic Professional Plasma monitors, the same used by NASA! Tucked away in the "Media Closet" is a stack of equipment to run Cox HD Digital Cable, DVD, and Apple T.V. Two Monitors works great whether you watching the game on one monitor and a Sleepless in Seattle just downloaded from the internet. With Apple T.V. you can edit and create great slide shows. The parallel activity not only looks cool, it is a fantastic way to expand the functionality of this room. By the way the lighting and Drapery are controlled from the Phillips Pronto Universal Remote Control.

In this Master Bedroom we created a custom installation for the Panasonic Profesional Plasma Monitor and installed it behind a specialized mirror and created a custom silver leaf frame around the whole ensemble over walls that are upholstered with Calvin Fabrics linen. The mirror glass is very expensive as were the custom picture frames..so yes, we installed two mirrors, one for the T.V. and the other mirror simply to match because of the symmetrical arrangement of the dressers.

We did the same installation in a sitting room off the Master Bath.

Modernism & Glamour in Montecito,California

We meticulously restored and rebuilt this John Elgin Woolf estate in Montecito. The home was originally designed and built in 1959 for the Huntington family and was teh scene of many Hollywood parties when the estate was purchased by Joan Cohn Harvey. In rebuilding the property we completely respected the glamourous era into which the house was originally built. The modernity of the mid-century was blended with the technology of the 21st century, resulting in an unparalleled sophistication. John Woolf was the creator of the Hollywood Regency Style and had who's who in the film industry client list 1930's-1960's.