Here we are folks, Exotic Contemporary Comfort. All pretty pics by Mark Champion. Every time i say his name the song starts up…..
Michael Reisz is a writer (Boston Legal and In Plain Sight) but you might recognize him from Star Trek Next Generation and Days of Our lives. Just dropping names. What? what do you want? for me to not tell you how cool my clients are? I live in Hollywood, baby, this is just how it happens here. But i remember the Marlena being possessed years and totally recognized him. He’s totally rad, hilarious, adorable, and we got along super well.
He also has really good taste, but his house before was small, so all his furniture was way out of scale for this new extremely large house. Making a living room feel this cozy is a total challenge, not gonna lie. Everything has to be big, and big is spendy, my friends. So I went for vintage, but reupholstered. i found the navy blue sofa for $75 at Good Will, but i saw the lines and the scale and I was all, ‘yup this is actually a designer sofa with insanely awesome architecture that just needs a facelift’. I don’t know who made it but trust me, somebody good.
It cost $500 to redo and $150 for the fabric so the entire sofa cost $725. Not too shabby my friends.
And when you reupholster you should know that it comes standard to strip it down to the bones, get rid of all fabric and foam, so don’t worry, its all clean and new and fresh.
This sofa was also a deal. $750 for the whole sofa and huge chair in the corner INCLUDING reupholstery. We bought it from Pepe’s on Sunset and he said if he we hired him to reupholster it he would sell the whole thing for $700, although if it was anything complicated i would NOT have hired him because he’s burndt us in the past. (his ‘lacquering’ job is always just spray paint, i swear to god) But this was a deal we couldn’t say not to especially since it was so simple (no tufting, etc).
Let’s talk awesome rug-age. From West Elm, $799 for an 8×10 and its super cozy. Buy it HERE. The lamp is from Crate and Barrel, for $399, (I know, a splurge, but its a good lamp) Buy HERE
Little stool was from the flea market, $80. He’s so cute. I think his feet are coming out of his throat.
Alright the drum and those three dressers that i put together to make a credenza came from Lankershim blvd, (there are four stores in a row there, all awesome). I think the dressers were $250 each and they are kinda awesome. They are plated with metal and then at places scraped down and rusted. I think they were used on a film, meant to look super old and industrial, but i loved how they looked – although since they aren’t that old they actually are just super functional. The drum was $100. The scale on top is from Wertz Brothers Antique mall for $160. The dining table is from HD Buttercup, on sale for $1500 i think…..still pretty great deal considering how genius it is (watch the episode and you’ll know what i mean).
Orlando made the pendant and how now posted on his blog how to make it, learn how you can yourself by clicking HERE
I LOVED this crazy painting that he had. I don’t know much about it except that its huge and looked like bubble gum. and i love bubble gum.
Baskets get a bad rap. And sure they can be totally dusty and gross, but Michael had a pretty good collection of antique handmade japanese baskets that are really beautiful, and we added to them.
Alright the drum and those three dressers that i put together to make a credenza came from Lankershim blvd, (there are four stores in a row there, all awesome). I think the dressers were $250 each and they are kinda awesome. They are plated with metal and then at places scraped down and rusted. I think they were used on a film, meant to look super old and industrial, but i loved how they looked – although since they aren’t that old they actually are just super functional. The drum was $100. The scale on top is from Wertz Brothers Antique mall for $160.
I LOVED this crazy painting that he had. I don’t know much about it except that its huge and looked like bubble gum. and i love bubble gum.
Baskets get a bad rap. And sure they can be totally dusty and gross, but Michael had a pretty good collection of antique handmade japanese baskets that are really beautiful, and we added to them.
The coffee table was from HD Buttercup and I think it was on a massive sale for $250. Insane, i know. Normally i think was around $600.
Let’s talk drapery. So here’s how i keep it from being 10, 000$ because as most of you know, custom drapery (or even Pottery Barn) is super expensive. I use this company called ‘Grey Lines Linen’ in New York. I have their swatch books and i order straight from them and ship it to my seamstress. Most of their linens are 7$ a yard, and in this case i think we needed 4 double panes at 25′ each = 200′ = 67 yards, and then you have to include at least an extra yard per panel for double hemming on the top and bottom. So i think we had around 75 yards. So that is $525 already, plus labor and hardware and lining? I don’t remember what it was but i think we kept it under $2000. In a space like this though, unless you have filtered windows, make sure to get a light colored fabric, because the sun is going to bleach it out on the edges. This light grey had a lot of texture and color variance in it, so even if it does fade, i will look natural and organic.
While the drapery looks kinda thin here, it wasn’t. Each panel was around 10 feet, its just scrunched a bit too much. Huge tray was from Pottery barn.
God i love that sofa. 1970’s chunky, comfy goodness with arms you could rest a plate on.
With Exotic Contemporary Comfort basically means that its clean lined and masculine in shape. But mixed with some pieces from around the globe and making sure that its totally comfortable at all costs.
So heres’ a funny story: I had planned two huge custom sisal rugs for this space, for a couple of reasons, 1. i love a sisal, i love the way it feels under my feet, i do. 2. It brought in that warm but ‘exotic’ thing. 3. its affordable for a space this big. I think we got 1 that was 10×12 and 1 that was 10×10 and they were each around $350 with binding. and 4. i hadn’t done them before so it was showing the audience something different.
I normally have one final meeting or at least a phone call with the homeowners about 10 days out as a ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ on ANYTHING they might really want or really not want. They don’t have much of a say in the end, but of course the happier they are the more fun it is and the better the show. We had this convo, nothing came up.
Then during the diagnostic Michael said, ‘Oh i learned that i HATE sisal rugs. I hate how they feel, look, everything’. I was all, ‘uh huh, sure’, but the look on my face told him everything. When you customize rugs, there is no way to return them. (oh and did anyone notice how i said i was getting the binding that was the same color as the sisal and then it came white? yeah….a total bummer, their mistake).
Anyway, we both started laughing and it was a running joke all week. I ended up keeping the sisal under the dining table – because obviously no one really lays down on the ground under the dining table – at least not til they are drunk enough that they won’t care that its scratchy. But West Elm saved the day with the other rug. They shipped it in in two days and he loved it. We sold the other sisal on Craigslist for $200 i think.
And that amazing orb pendant that ‘Orb-lando’ made will be explained (is now explained, step by step) on his blog this week. He made it from scratch, it was awesome, but he can give you all the details. Check his blog, yo. www.hommemaker.com Click HERE for that very detailed post
The only thing that i’m on the fence about is the custom art piece that we made. In my mind it was going to look rad, but we ran into many problems. What did you guys think?