At Once Fresh and New
By Steve Miller • Category: Featured Articles, TastemakersBy Steve Miller
Every year in cities where tastemakers collide with trendsetters, buyers by the thousands flock to furniture fairs and design expositions such as Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan and Interior Lifestyle Tokyo to find what’s innovative, inspirational and accessible. Until recently most people wouldn’t have included Los Angles on a select list of world cities that attract fine furniture artisans and manufacturers. The city known more for Paris, Britney and Kobe, has transformed itself from a vacation playground into a city where contemporary art, renown chefs and bespoke furniture lines have caught the imagination of shelter magazines and in turn the buying public and cognoscenti worldwide.
Los Angeles antique dealer, Richard Shapiro, manufacturers his much heralded STUDIOLO line of Moderne furnishings (www.richardshapiro.com) that his company’s website states is, “conceived to compliment and heighten the beauty and interest of any setting while effortlessly paired with pieces from many periods.” The thirty plus pieces that he currently produces range from luxurious upholstered seating and architecturally designed tables made from various stones and woods to a very popular antiqued glass mirror with a contemporary cold rolled steel frame. The juxtaposition between old and new as well his carefully crafted aesthetic is often times aspired to by designers and non pros alike, and is what keeps Shapiro’s clients returning to his gallery in West Hollywood.
Regardless of whether you buy your furniture from an artisan, chain store or a fine furniture house, your furnishings and objets d’art should last through many homes and evolutions of change. So ultimately, it is about choosing pieces within your budget that make you smile and that add something positive to your environment. A great place to take a peek at the latest designs is at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. With over 130 showrooms and 2100 product lines, there will be no problem in piecing together your own design aesthtetic.
Richard Shapiro Antiques: 8905 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90069
www.studiolo.com 310.275.6700