habité l.a.= tres chic, vintage & antique!

a vintage modern sarfatti chandelier hangs in front of a spectacular 1930's french carved plaster and gilt screen at the new habité l.a. showroom.

yesterday, maison21 posted pictures from his new favorite antique store, habité l.a.'s lavish booth at the los angeles antiques show, and today he is following up with photos from habité's glamorous new los angeles showroom on la brea...

white leather deco armchairs surrounding a chinoiserie coffee table, on a zebra skin rug- does it get better than that?

antique conisseuers might be familiar with the habité name, as habité l.a. co-owner, laurent rebuffel, has operated a well-known store of the same name in san francisco for years (laurent is shown as a tiny dot at right rear of the above photo). laurent comes from a family of french antiquarians, so antiques are in his very french dna, and for the new los angeles store, he's joined forces with partner kimberly denman (a los angeles interior designer extraordinaire) who brings her own chic, moderne viewpoint to the antique eupopean style that habité is known for.

vintage murano urn form lamps on an antique swan-base console, flank a 1960's italian gaetano sciolari chandelier.

maison21 first met kimberly several years ago when she was furnishing her los angeles pied a terre, and purchased several pretty items from him. maison21, always eager to peek into his fellow designer's homes, hand-delivered her purchases, and immediately knew he had found a kindred spirit after spying the chic tommi parzinger arm chairs in her living room and an equally chic pair of maison charles lamps on an antique sideboard in her dining room. m21 and kimberly proceeded to bond over an excellent bottle of white wine, and shared their love of interior decoration (her hero is john saladino, whereas david hicks would be tops for maison21, and they both agreed on the genius of albert hadley).

karl springer tessellated bone dining chairs around a 70's modern french table

the habité shop is filled with the greatest names in american and european 20th century design- like fontana arte, gio ponti, jules leleu, andre arbus, karl springer, charles hollis-jones, ercole barovier, bagues, maison jansen, etc., all mixed with an eclectic selection of 18th and 19th century antiques, and as you can see from the photos, the end result is pretty spectacular.
kimberly has also incorporated her love of vintage textiles into a line of custom pillows for habité- like the two 1960's pucci scarves she turned into pillows on the above t.h. robsjohn-gibbings armless settee.

deco lounge chairs around a lucite and elephant tusk table, with a pair of rougier lamps. chic!

as well as scouring the united states for their chic and unusual finds, kimberly and laurent make at least 4 trips a year to the antique markets of france, and laurent's family antique business in france keeps habité well-supplied with the best of european antiques in between buying visits...

an incredible (and incredibly long) 1960's rosewood enfilade by alain richard.

kimberly also operates her own interior design practice, denman design, out of an office in the habité showroom. maison21 just about cried when he returned to work in his own design office- somehow his vintage 1980's laminate over pressboard desk isn't looking quite so chic when compared to kimberly's antique french marquetry and ormolu extravaganza! and how chic are the lacquered walls and the 20 gazillion light french 1950's chandelier? nice work environment!

kimberly was worried that her desk was messy- when you work in an office as glamorous as this, who notices a little mess?


Habité LA
145 N. La Brea Ave., Unit D
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel: 323-692-0023
Fax: 323-692-0024
info@habitela.com
www.habitela.com

teaser (new l.a. retail crush)

maison21 is working on a new post about his favorite new los angeles antique store, habité l.a., but until he has the post ready, here's a few photos from habité l.a.'s over-the-top booth at last week's los angeles antiques show. isn't the boiserie amazing? wait 'til you see the treasures at their new store...

faux leather flooring (reader input needed!)

maison21 is thinking of using this faux leather rubber flooring, from robin reigi, in a client's entry. rugs, even of the outdoor variety, are out of the question due to a uncooperative family member with four legs and tail, but the current black and white ceramic tile has gotta go! m21 needs something with a bit of sound absorbing quality, and a softer feel, so stone or wood are out as well...

the picture doesn't look so bad, and sample is on the way, but maison21 has no experience with the product, so he thought he'd turn it over to his intelligent and resourceful readers for their valuable input. anybody got anything for me?

thanks in advance!

a great idea (from an unexpected source)

maison21 finally made it to the post office this last week to mail the pretty coral stone box won by studio annetta- sorry it took so long, suzy! his tardiness in mailing was based upon the fact that he dreads visiting the post office- going there is akin to going to the dmv (department of motor vehicles for those in far off-lands). long lines, rude employees and typically inept bureaucratic procedures. my recent visit went something like this:

you need to fill out the GREEN customs form, not the white.

but the sign says tracking is only available with the white customs form, and i'd like tracking on this package.

if you need tracking then you need to send it global express mail, not global priority mail. we don't offer tracking with global priority mail- not with the green form OR the white form.

ok, let's send it global express, then.

i can't do that sir, it's in a global priority box.

ok, then let's put it in a global express box.

we don't have any global express boxes that will fit your global priority box. you would have to repack your item in order to send it global express mail.

so i'd have go home, repack the damn thing and come back to wait in line for another half hour?

i'm afraid so, sir, if you want to send it global express mail.

but i don't want to send it global express mail! i just want tracking! the sign says "if you wish your package to be tracked, please fill out the white customs form" it says NOTHING about express or priority or whatever!

regardless of what the sign says, we only offer tracking with global express, sir.

fine- just mail it as is! no tracking!

then i'll need you to step out of line while you fill out the green form. next customer in line, please!

maison21's head was about to explode after that exchange, and that's why he was so shocked to discover on the same visit this nifty FREE recycling program for small electronics, offered by the united states postal service! how can a bureaucracy be that inept, yet come up with such a good idea? little plastic postage-paid envelopes for you to mail back your old broken or outdated cellphones, ipods and other small electronics for recycling. completely easy and completely free- what a great solution to those old cellphones squirreled away because you didn't know what the heck to do with them! maison21 can't be the only one with a junk drawer full of outdated technology, can he? currently the program is offered only in l.a., washington d.c., chicago and san diego, but will hopefully soon be expanded nationwide.

a great idea from an expected source- who knew?

ps- while he might dread encounters with the employees at the post office, maison21 LOVES his mail carrier, and several of the employees at his post office go out of their way to be friendly and helpful, so certainly not all (or even most) usps employees suck. just some of them...

p.s. i love you (new retail crush)

last sunday, maison21 and his friends took an early morning stroll down palm canyon drive in palm springs (ok, it was around 11:00 am, but for m21, that's early! especially on a sunday). and boy, is he ever glad he was dragged out of the house for that early bird walk! otherwise he never would have wandered into the wonderland that is house 849, his newest palm springs retail crush!
m21 had driven past the house 849 building scores of times while zipping from one consignment shop to the next, and he had always studiously ignored it. he saw the large scale stainless steel sculptures out front and assumed it was one of those resort town art galleries- you know stores that fancy themselves "galleries", and sell over-priced "art" to over-privileged tourists with more cash than taste. well, this just goes to show that you can't judge a book by it's cover, or a store by the sculpture out front, because the minute he crossed the threshold into house 849 and saw the ginormous cascading crystal chandelier hung over a table piled with buffalo horn obelisks, well, maison21 knew this was a store for him!
his initial shock and awe grew, rather than faded, as maison21 explored the mammoth store- it is truly a modern day version of ali baba's cave- treasure stacked upon treasure, as far as the eye can see! literally, room after room, all bursting with pretty things.
the owners have amassed a stockpile of antique, vintage and brand new pieces in a variety of styles- styles so diverse that there should be no way they can meld together, but somehow house 849 has made it all work...
look at the above picture with the pair of super glammy 1970's lucite lamps on top of a dark wood antique italian commode. then check out the 4 foot porcelain greyhounds peeking behind it, who flank a giant concrete grecian statue. all this in front of silver-leaf chinoiserie wallpaper screen, which in turn is in front of a wall of antique paintings. this mish-mash of over-abundance shouldn't look good at all, but it does...maison21 fell for these black lacquer klismos chairs- and the black lacquer deco console behind the chair and the cast aluminum grape vine candelabras on the console, and on and on... this polished steel mirror with a horn frame is spectacular...
a pair of chic parchment chests- maison21 doesn't know if they are vintage pieces, or newly made reproductions, and he doesn't care. he just wants them...

m21's favorite items were probably these vintage phyllis morris-esque gilt and carved stools, which house 849 has updated by covering them with antelope hide- from gaudy to fabulous with one simple animal hide! (of course, it helps if you don't think of bambi while looking at them- cruella de maison21 wants a pair anyway. sorry, bambi). oh yeah- loving the lacquered goatskin console the stool is perched under, too!
this giant porcelain tiger is part of a pair- maison21 LOVES them (the pair- flanking an entry? perfect!). he also thinks they would be ideal for his good friend anonymous' home! we know how anonymous loves an animal figurine! should maison21 place them on hold for you, anon?last photo- this is just one room in the store, of which there are many- 8 rooms? 10 rooms?- all overflowing with finds. much too much muchness! really, house 849 is rather overwhelming, but then, maison21 lives to be overwhelmed by fabulousness, and can't wait for a return visit on his next trip to the desert!