What makes for a specifically Angeleno interior? Design writer Anthony Iannacci surveys 19 homes from Malibu to Silverlake in “Hollywood Interiors: Style and Design in Los Angeles.”
What makes for a specifically Angeleno interior? That’s a question design writer Anthony Iannacci asked himself as he assembled a survey of 19 homes from Malibu to Silverlake for a new book called Hollywood Interiors: Style and Design in Los Angeles.
The answer, he says, lies in designs that reflect a “seduction with Los Angeles. . . and in some cases that means continuing the Southern California tradition of breaking down the distinctions between indoors and out.” In other cases it’s about “creating highly theatrical environments in the spirit of Tony Duquette,” while others create “really interesting narratives and design around those, much the way one would if they were working on a set design.”
He cites as examples Melinda Ritz’s house for a client with a passion for all things Italian from the ’70s and ’80s; an interior by Kelly Wearstler that “demands your attention,” with every aspect screaming “look at me,” and that “places visitors in a whole other world;” and Rose Tarlow, who literally connects inside and out by having the ivy creep from the exterior wall to the interior.
Other designers in the stellar line-up featured include Courtney Applebaum, Andrew Benson, Linda Brettler, Jamie Bush, Commune, DISC Interiors, Brad Dunning, Clifford Fong, Paul Fortune Chu Gooding, Mark Haddaway, Trip Haenisch, Nickey Kehoe, Kay Kollar, Mike Powers and Olivia Williams.
A house, designed by Courtney Applebaum, filled with contemporary art and midcentury furnishings begins with a living room featuring an ever-changing Elliptical Wide Glass piece by James Turrell and a wall-mounted shelf sculpture by Haim Steinbach. Armchairs by Jean Prouvé and Hans Wegner with a coveted vintage “patina,” combined with occasional tables by Charlotte Perriand and a Jean Royère–inspired sofa sit atop antique rugs. c. Shade Degges
We also asked Anthony to define for us what a successful interior should possess. His answer? “A sense of place.”
“I’m sure you’ve been in a hotel room before where you thought, my shoes need a polish, I’ll use the bedspread. And then other hotel rooms where you’d think, this is so beautiful I’d never do anything like that. So the space actually teaches us how to react with it,” he said.
Anthony himself lives in a 10th floor apartment in a 1960s tower in Los Feliz. Does he have single family home envy? Yes, sometimes, he says, when he returns to his apartment from a photo shoot in a particularly fabulous house. But then he gets over it “when I hear the leaf blowers.”
Plus, he says, his home, designed by his life partner Mike Powers (who has another project in Hollywood Interiors), expresses one of his interior design priorities: that its contents should be “important but none of it is precious. . . while having everything be precious and nothing be important is as bad as it gets.”
Anthony Iannacci will sign copies of Hollywood Interiors: Style and Design in Los Angeles this Thursday at two events, one public (at Mecox Gardens), one ticketed, during Legends of La Cienega, a three-day gathering in the showrooms of West Hollywood’s La Cienega Design Quarter that starts Tuesday.
Listen to DnA’s interview with him here: