Home Is Where the Store Is? A Welcoming Retail Trend in Los Angeles

What design aficionado hasn’t admired the wallpaper, furniture, or cabinetry in someone else’s home?  

Compare the intimacy of that encounter with the sensory overload of confronting an entire warehouse of potential pieces. There’s an undeniable appeal to seeing the articles in situ rather than in a showroom. “It’s a lot less clinical,” says interior designer Nina Takesh, who used furniture from her eponymous collection to stage an abode in the hills above Los Angeles. “You can experience the pieces the way they might actually appear in your home.” 

Little wonder, then, that some of the city’s most elevated showrooms have chosen to roost inside luxurious dwellings discretely tucked into residential neighborhoods. Three years ago, the Future Perfect, a collectible furniture and accessories emporium often credited for jumpstarting the trend on the West Coast, relinquished the roving aspect of their business model, settling into the Samuel Goldwyn house, a neoclassical estate near Runyon Canyon that doubles as the home of the company’s founder, David Alhadeff.

Furniture designer Kimberly Denman and her business partner Laurent Rebuffel spotlight Denman’s compelling designs in a sprawling apartment at the Talmadge, an elegant Renaissance Revival building in Koreatown. Interior designer Trip Haenisch has reimagined the small bungalow just off trendy Melrose Avenue (formerly his office) as Galerie 658, a showcase for globally-sourced vintage décor. “Seeing things next to each other allows clients to understand how different pieces might fit together,” Haenisch says. 

Other appointment-only spaces ensconced in private homes around town include French wallpaper maker De Gournay’s 11-room pied-à-terre in the Hollywood Hills, an immersive exploration into its hand-painted designs; interior designer Huma Sulaiman’s Thús Huma, an experiential cottage in West Hollywood christened after the Frisian word for “home,” showcases a rotating display of contemporary artwork alongside pieces, like her Chandigarh chair, that seamlessly integrate her modern sensibilities with her Bangladeshi heritage; Stroll Garden, which recently presented a show of ceramic works by Diana “Didi” Rojas at a Spanish-style residence in the Hollywood Hills; Una Malan’s intimate Una Casa Privada, located above the Sunset Strip, featuring furniture, lighting, and textiles. “It’s my personal stage,” says Malan. 

The house, as they say, always wins.