An elegant Hollywood Regency chairs, evocative of the 1940s designs of Billy Haines, was found at Little Paris Antiques on La Brea Avenue.
If you haven’t recently perused the antique, furniture and interior design stores along La Brea Avenue, you have a treat in store for you!
You could easily spend a day getting lost in a wide range of stores that hold everything from 19th-century bookcases to mid-century modern lighting fixtures on a stretch of the thoroughfare from Wilshire to Melrose.
Many La Brea businesses suffered during the recent recession, with boarded-up retail spaces, but the avenue is making a very nice comeback.
On a recent visit, I found myself admiring a peacock lampshade, Art Deco club chairs, gorgeous chandeliers and much more. Though the outing was brief, there was enough visual stimulation to give me interior design ideas for weeks.
I started with an excellent breakfast with friends at the new La République, a café bakery/bistro at 6th Street that is getting a good deal of buzz.
A Billy Haines hostess chair was originally designed so that proper ladies of the time could sit properly with ankles delicately crossed.
From there, we wandered into the next-door Little Paris Antiques, which is crammed with an assorted variety of furniture, wall decorations and much more. I felt like a kid in a candy store with such an eclectic mix of French goodies! Upon entry my eye was drawn to a beautiful chandelier that reminded me of one I had seen in Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment a couple years ago.
And then I also loved some white Hollywood Regency chairs, evocative of the 1940s designs of famed Billy Haines, that were as glamorous as the movie stars of that period. Hollywood Regency was seen as a post-World War II antidote to some of the utilitarian and spare modern designs of the time.
At heart, I am an old-fashioned girl, so I also very much appreciated examples of a Billy Haines Hostess Chair, which had been designed so that proper ladies of the time, who always wore dresses, could sit properly with ankles delicately crossed.
A couple of stylish Art Deco club chairs sit among an eclectic mix of furniture, wall hangings and more at Little Paris Antiques.
We also spotted some elegant Art Deco club chairs (reflecting one of my favorite historic styles) and a cool Sputnik lamp at Little Paris Antiques (I never get tired of such space-age lighting fixtures).
Moving north a block, we came upon Mortise & Tenon, an interior design and custom furniture boutique that had a different style than its Little Paris neighbor but was just as much a treat.
A collection of beautiful white Regency side chairs evocative of British designer T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings’ style brought to mind its interesting history. Regency-style chairs are influenced by the ancient Greek Klismos chair, which has been depicted on vases of the period. Later, France’s Napoleon and England’s George IV took a fancy to the chair’s design and had it modified to their liking. Robsjohn-Gibbings, in his Art Deco version, took away the bright Empire colors in favor of white and muted colors.
A fabulous Sputnik lamp.
I was also attracted to a modern take on a mustard-colored shield-back chair that evokes the designs of George Hepplewhite, a British cabinetmaker of the late 1700s.
You can see how rewarding our La Brea excursion – as brief as it was – turned out to be. I hope you’ll put aside a day and enjoy the riches to be found on the avenue.
 A beautiful Regency side chair evocative of British designer T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings’ style shows its historic roots in the ancient Greek Klismos chair. |
 A modern take on a mustard-colored shield-back chair that evokes the designs of Briton George Hepplewhite was found at Mortise & Tenon. |
