Age and Beauty

INTERIOR DESIGNER Brooke Giannetti and her architect husband, Steve, have built a small industry out of the gracefully weathered and worn, the mellowed look of beauty on furnishings of a certain age that flourishes as a timeless design philosophy.Their design boutique and studio, Giannetti Home in Los Angeles, Brooke’s Velvet and Linen blog and their Patina Style tome, all reflect the mix of old-world and industrial design they favor. Giannetti Home sells their own line of upholstered furniture, antiques and accessories. (pictured above: Brooke and Steve Giannetti)

On September 13 at C’est La Vie Antiques in Encinitas you can enjoy an intimate afternoon with them and see what might rub off on your own interior plus get a copy of Patina Style autographed. At present the Giannettis are building the next phase of their design in living projects, a 5-acre property in Ojai called Patina Farm. My guess is that this will make a book, too.

WHEN IT COMES TO DESIGN CELEBRITIES, C’est La Vie Antiques is a favorite shopping destination for Kathryn Ireland and Charlotte Moss among other A-list designers.

SPEAKING OF WEATHERED, Architectural Salvage has had a mammoth vintage canoe hanging from its ceiling in Little Italy. Rumor has it that it’s destined for a new Michael Soriano interior somewhere. Designer and TV host Nate Berkus has shown up to shop. Architectural Salvage also furnished all those rustic architectural elements that Blue Motif worked into the design of the Prep Kitchen interior in Little Italy. Philippe Beltran is scouring the AS dark corners and cobwebs for elements for a new wine bar in Hillcrest. Lunch and dinner are turning into something out of an old movie set.

DESIGN DOES SEEM to be thriving in local food establishments. Bells and Whistles, which turned eyes with its concepts for Starlite, just finished the expansion of The Smoking Goat in North Park and plan to open a Los Angeles office while perhaps working on the Red Bull Recording Studio there.

On the horizon, a bar called Sycamore, location to be revealed soon. 

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, right after I wrote about beds and bedding in our August issue, I got an invite to tour the Rancho Cucamonga factory of a company that makes handmade mattresses — cost: $33,000 for the E. S. Kluft Palais Royale. I was tempted, but no time for a nap. Wondering if that was the ne plus ultra, I looked up the top handmade Swedish mattress by Hastens. Guess, what? They win, springs down, at $90,000.

COMING OUT OF THE CLOUDS (of cashmere, mohair, Joma wool, etc.), it’s Happy Anniversary to both Island Architects and Café 222 who are celebrating 20 years of success. Lift your glasses to Drex Patterson and Tony Crisafi at Island and that modish maven still remembered for her waffle-hat billboard, Terryl Gavré.

WAY OUT OF THE ANNIVERSARY BALLPARK is this year’s 175th birthday for Tiffany & Co. Hatched in Manhattan in 1837 as a “stationery and fancy goods store” by Charles Lewis Tiffany, a cache of diamonds from French aristocrats came next and then the design and manufacturing of their famous silver. Abraham Lincoln shopped here for Mary and the carriage trade and royals stayed loyal. Right, Charles Lewis Tiffany, circa 1841.