Luxury Home: Los Angeles
March 1, 2008
Moss: New York’s famed design emporium expands to the West Coast with its second store, located in the heart of the city’s design district on Melrose Avenue. Where Moss’s New York shop is famous for its towering stacked glass cases full of everything from pens and alarm clocks to Tom Dixon chairs, the minimally designed L.A. outpost functions more like an art gallery, offering limited-edition pieces set against a white backdrop and scattered throughout the 3,500-square-foot space. Upcoming installations include the comic book–inspired furniture of Italian designer Guido Crepax and porcelain figurines from German company Nymphenburg. 323.866.5260, www.mossonline.com - Samantha Brooks
Downtown: Co-owner David Serrano mixes color, shape and time throughout his La Cienega Boulevard store: The entryway reveals hot pink Shiro Kuramata vases atop an 18th-century Italian painted cabinet. Even more provocative are the 23 antiques that make up the Downtown Classics collection, including the Muirfield Bench in hand-carved alder wood and the Scallop Shell Mirror in antiqued glass. 310.652.7461, www.downtown20.net - Skye Mayring
Bisazza: The famed tile company’s new showroom on Melrose Avenue takes visitors through a series of rooms designed to demonstrate the multitude of uses for mosaic tiles outside the bathroom. Just beyond an entryway of striped mosaic columns rests a black-and-white study featuring walls adorned with the Winter Flowers Collection and the dark tile and ebony wood library housing the Italian company’s entire tile collection, which ranges from richly saturated monochromatic mosaics to vibrant floral motifs, fabric patterns and geometric compositions. Also on display are pieces from the recently launched Bisazza Home Collection, which includes tables, chairs, mirrors and lamps. 323.782.9171, www.bisazzausa.com - Samantha Brooks
Portera: Not many people can say that their entryway once adorned a 17th-century castle in Spain. Portera, a Pasadena company specializing in antique Spanish doors and portals, offers nearly 2,000 one-of-a-kind entryways and interior doors, each restored by hand down to the original hardware and door straps. Antiques range from rustic and ornately carved Moorish entry portals to original 15th-century sacristy doors from a convent near Seville. $10,000 to $300,000. 626.639.2130, www.porteradoors.com - Robin Lee
JF Chen: After 35 successful years on Melrose Avenue, Joel Chen has relocated his rare antiques and vintage modern emporium to a 10,000-square-foot space called the JF Chen Loft in Hollywood and to a 14,000-square-foot space in Culver City called the Chen Vault. "I like to go against the norm," says Chen, who juxtaposes his 200-piece custom furniture line with items such as Ruth Asawa wire sculptures and original leather Pierre Vandel rib chairs. Hollywood, 323.466.9700, Culver City, 310.559.2436, www.jfchen.com - Skye Mayring
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