The Deal: Design Within Reach Annex warehouse sale in Palm Springs this weekend

If you happen to be in Palm Springs this weekend, you may want to stop by the Design Within Reach Annex two-day warehouse sale.

The outlet is offering up to 70% off samples and overstock furnishings, including the Ray Club Chair shown above. The chair, which is made in America with a hardwood frame and top-grain leather upholstery, is normally $2,650; it's on sale for $1,855. Other sale items include decorative accessories and pieces for the dining room, bedroom, patio and more.

Prices vary depending on the condition of the items; some things are customer returns and may have dings or scratches. A sales representative said the best deals will be on hundreds of new chairs at 50% off. Some will be priced as low as $45, he said.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Unlike most DWR showrooms, the sale is cash and carry; delivery for bulky items such as sofas is available for an additional fee. The outlet is at 800 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite F, Palm Springs. (760) 322-8750. 

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Design Within Reach

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The Dry Garden: What's that bug? Expert James Hogue helps identify grubs, beetles and more

Three things happen when you plant a garden. You meet your neighbors, who stop to chat. You meet their kids, who hang out. And you meet the bugs that the kids find. The ability to identify the bugs ensures you heroic status in the eyes of children. Failure to identify them is a crashing experience not to be wished upon one’s worst enemy.

In fact, the sheer pressure of expectation from kids bearing grubs and caterpillars spurred me to return to my favorite bug-ologist for help. Five years ago, James N. Hogue agreed to snoop for spiders with the Home section. This time we asked the Cal State Northridge entomologist to predict what spring bugs kids can expect to hold in their fat little hands.

After deciding that we would start with occupants of branches and work our way down to the soil, the gray bird grasshopper, or Schistocerca nitens topped Hogue’s list. If it isn’t still a larva, then in early spring, it will be a wingless green nymph, Hogue says.

Because many bugs besides the grasshopper go through metamorphosis, one of the most reliable ways to identify them is to have a guide to hand. There is no text better for Southern Californians than “Insects of the Los Angeles Basin,” which was written and illustrated by a man who for 30 years was curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and who was also Hogue’s father, Charles.

Hogue the younger also recommends checking into his favorite online picture bank, BugGuide.net. If you're still wanting more, he will be leading an April 3 workshop on insects at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants in Sun Valley. For more IDs of bugs you're likely to see this time of year, keep reading ...

Lost L.A.: At old Home Savings branches, public artwork ages in peril

Look at some banks and you'll see more than a loss of public confidence. You might see a loss of public art. In his latest Lost L.A. column, Sam Watters writes about the artwork that defined Howard F. Ahmanson Sr.'s Home Savings of America branches across Southern California for about 50 years:

An imposing building along Main Street convinced Mom and Dad that money was safe at Home Savings of America. To this end, Ahmanson paid for marble-clad temples to the once-mighty dollar, decorated with murals, stained glass and sculpture on walls and at entrance facades.

The Leland Means painting at top was the basis for this mosaic mural on a Home Savings branch in Santa Monica, now demolished. Millard Sheets, Susan Hertel and Denis O'Connor worked with Ahmanson's company to create art for other locations. (Images of others appear on the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles website. Scroll down to "Home Savings..." ) Read the full column and check out our growing Lost L.A. archive.

-- Craig Nakano

Photo credits: Denis O’Connor Collection / Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

All things Eames on the block April 8 in Chicago

Eames fans might want to look into airfare to Chicago for an upcoming auction of the Eames Design Archive of John and Marilyn Neuhart on April 8 at the Wright auction house.

The sale will feature Eames classics such as LAX molded fiberglass chairs (estimated between $500 and $700) or the iconic lounge chair and ottoman, ($3,000 to $5,000), as well as unusual ephemera such as a cloud backdrop (estimated between $5,000 and $7,000) and a Herman Miller stock certificate ($200-$300). 

The Neuharts chronicled the work of Charles and Ray Eames for more than 30 years, amassing more than 100 binders of photographs, copies, negatives and clippings. The archive collection (estimated between $150,000 and $200,000) includes: Eames House records, Eames Design records, Eames photo collection, Eames office graphics, Connections exhibition records, Eames films, Mathematica exhibition records and an IBM inventory.

Wright, which specializes in 20th and 21st century design auctions, is based in Chicago, but you can bid via e-mail, phone or fax. For more information on how to bid, click here. 

The collection preview runs March 29 through April 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The auction takes place on April 8 at 10 a.m. PDT. To view the lots, click here.

Wright is also accepting consignments of other Eames items for this sale. Contact consign@wright20.com or call (312) 563-0020.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Wright

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The Deal: Vintage JL Moller teak dining chairs on sale at Lushpad.com

Priced at $200 each on Lushpad.com, this set of four vintage model 71 dining chairs by Danish designer JL Moller is a great deal. (I found a similar set on sale for $1,100 per chair at 1stdibs.)

The teak chairs, from a Philadelphia estate, are listed in "mint" condition and available at Lushpad, an online buy-and-sell marketplace for midcentury modern furniture. While the site has a pair of Olivier Mourgue's Djinn chairs listed for $5,000, most Lushpad items produce less sticker shock. Registration is required (and simple) to view and place ads.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Lushpad.com

The Recyclist: Readers' questions answered

Do you need some motivation to stop buying potato chips? I sure do. So here goes: Most snack bags cannot be recycled. They're made of a compound material called paper foil -- you can tell by the shiny silver interior -- and they must be thrown in the trash.

I learned that while talking to Lisa Harris, Long Beach's recycling expert, who answered your questions (and a few of mine) about what can and cannot be recycled. I hoped for black-and-white answers, but quickly learned that recycling is complicated. It made me appreciate even more the comment that one reader, TC, made on the earlier post: "Remember that with the three R's -- reduce, reuse, recycle -- reduce and reuse come first. Buy disposable/recyclable products as your last resort."

Before we get down to the nitty gritty of your questions, just remember that Harris can speak only to residential curbside pickup within the city of Long Beach. There are other recycling avenues, such as the L.A. County Materials Exchange.  Harris urges everyone to locate (and bookmark) their city's recycling rules online, or call your city's recycling point person with unanswered questions. 

Can wine corks, Ziploc bags or water bottle caps be recycled? Answers to these questions and many, many more after the jump.

The Deal: Burkard Nurseries spring kickoff sale offers 25% off all items

 "We specialize in specializing," says Frank Burkard Jr., the third-generation owner of Burkard Nurseries in Pasadena. Case in point: From Friday to Monday, the nearly one-acre garden center will offer nearly 100 varieties of tomatoes and dozens of vegetables, herbs, melons and citrus -- all at 25% savings.

The spring sale also marks the introduction of a new line of organic vegetables. For those who prefer flower cuttings to a victory garden, there will be a dazzling display of perennials and annuals, including one of Burkard's favorites, the speckle-leafed Angel Wing begonia.

The discount also applies to soil, plant food and other supplies at the 73-year-old nursery. "Everything except for gift certificates," Burkard says.

Burkard Nurseries, 690 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena; (626) 796-4355 or www.burkardnurseries.com. 

-- David A. Keeps

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Photo credits: Burkard Nurseries

Set Pieces: Eye-popping Deco and Pop interiors of Almodovar's 'Broken Embraces' now on DVD

Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces," which made its DVD debut on Tuesday,  weaves a complex tale of love, betrayal and regret. For design fans, it's simply another example of the Spanish director's brilliant eye for interiors.

Penelope Cruz, above right, stars as Lena, an aspiring actress stuck in an unhappy love affair with a wealthy film producer. He tries to squash her ambition by telling her their mansion needs to be redecorated.

It so doesn't. It has grand 19th century rooms filled with Old Masters and Warhol-style paintings of guns, and a fantastic boudoir inspired by the Paris-based early modernist designer Eileen Gray. The dressing room is complete with a French Deco vanity and a keyhole-back chair found in Madrid, says Antxon Gomez, the production designer for "Broken Embraces."

Lena becomes the star of a film-within-the-film, a comedy set in a bold apartment filled with primary hues and angular contemporary furnishings. "The colors are habitual in Almodovar's film," says Gomez. The seating area, pictured right,  uses a reissued Utrecht sofa and chairs (a 1935 Gerrit T. Rietveld design) and Pop art accents such as the Enzo Mari red apple wall hanging.

Gomez used pieces by contemporary designers, including the Spanish-born Patricia Urquiola. "Almodovar likes her work," he says. "It's interesting and she was delighted." 

See Urquiola's pieces and more of the apartment after the jump.

The Deal: New Copenhagen chair reduced at Restoration Hardware

Restoration Hardware's new 1950s Leather Copenhagen chair isn't available until June but it is already on sale. Normally priced between $1,695 and $1,995, the chair is currently offered at a "special pre-season savings" price for $200 to $300 less.

A reproduction of Arne Jacobsen's iconic Egg Chair, this version by London antiques dealer and furniture reproductionist Timothy Oulton is wrapped in hand-distressed leather. Think of it as curling up in a baseball glove. It measures 34-inches wide by 45-inches tall and swivels 360 degrees. With no armrest for a remote, seems like the perfect place to curl up to read ... your iPad.

The chair is custom made and the price depends on which leather you choose. (Glove, shown above, is the cheapest.) Shipping is 10% of the value of the purchase. For further information, call (800) 762-1005.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photo credit: Restoration Hardware

Conversation with Frank Gehry to benefit Santa Monica High School orchestra

Like his most famous buildings -- downtown's Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, among them -- Frank Gehry is adventurous and yet enduring. At 81, one of the world's most important (and controversial) architects shows no signs of slowing down. He's currently designing a new building for Sydney, Australia's University of Technology and teaching at Yale.

On Thursday, he'll also be helping out the music program at Santa Monica High School. Gehry will sit down with writer Barbara Isenberg to discuss his projects and theories, detailed in Isenberg's book "Conversations with Frank Gehry." Also on the agenda: Gehry's musical influences.

Gehry has said that if he could be an instrument he would be a cello. Appropriately, then, noted cellist Lynn Harrell will provide musical interludes, along with Santa Monica High School orchestra students.

Frank Gehry in Conversation, Barnum Hall, 600 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica. 7 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $10 and $20. To purchase tickets, click here.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photo: Architect Frank Gehry. Credit: Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times

New Paul Robbins planter boxes bring a sharp, architectural look to the patio

"Most planter boxes are just boring dust collectors," says Los Angeles landscape designer Paul Robbins. "Cheap ones are made of wood or fiberglass, but those materials fall apart after a couple of years and you have to keep replacing them."

To improve the options, Robbins collaborated with Brentwood furniture designer Matthew Mink on a versatile new line of stylish, long-lasting planters. The square containers are handcrafted by a local workshop out of lightweight, rustproof aluminum that’s seamlessly welded, laser-cut with intricate patterns, drilled for drainage and powder-coated to hold up against sun and moisture.

The three designs come in two sizes (20- and 24- inches-square) and 10 colors. Each is named for a Los Angeles street: Vista, right, is minimalist with angled legs; Valencia, above left and right, is inspired by the ornate wrought iron of Mediterranean architecture; and Trousdale, above center, echoes the branches of a tree.

Prices range from $950 to $1,450 -- and more for  custom sizes or colors. Robbins concedes that’s a serious investment, but he emphasizes that the pieces are not mass-produced, they’re long-lasting and meant to be "a true luxury."

-- Emily Young

Photos: Valencia, Trousdale and Valencia designs, top. Vista planter, below. Credit: Paul Robbins.

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The Deal: Cassina offers 35% off architectural classics and contemporary furniture designs

Maybe you've heard the term "net" while shopping at high-end furniture stores? That's code for the 15%  discount given to professional interior designers. 

Through March 21, the rest of us can do even better. Cassina, part of the Diva Furniture collection of high-end showrooms, is offering a 35% markdown.

The Italian firm is the world's only licensed manufacturer of furniture by modernist architect Le Corbusier and Arts and Crafts master Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Its roster of talent also includes contemporary designers Philippe Starck and Konstantin Grcic. Cassina's upholstery and cabinetry include the nearly 6-foot oak and lacquered Radar storage unit by Piero Lissoni, above, reduced from $12,305 to $8,500. 

The combined 35% discount applies to new orders -- not floor models -- and many of the items are part of Cassina's 10-day quick ship program, so you can enjoy them that much sooner. Gerrit T. Rietveld's whip-stitched detailed Utrecht chair in wool felt, above left -- the 1935 classic featured in the Pedro Almodovar film "Broken Embraces" -- it regularly starts at $4,120; during the sale it will sell for $2,800.

Cassina Los Angeles, 8815 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 278 3292 or www.cassinausa.com.

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credits: Cassina

Corrected: A previous version of this post implied that the 35% discount will be offered at all the Diva stores. It applies only to Cassina.

UC master gardeners to lead classes on edibles at 11 sites across L.A.

Students in the University of California Cooperative Extension's master gardener program work through a 700-page textbook and complete three months of classes to be certified. It's tough to get in, and it's certainly not easy to get through. But now the extension is expanding its reach through something called the victory-garden initiative. The goal: to teach more Angelenos how to grow food at home, at schools or in a community garden.

Beginning later this month and in early April, certified master gardeners -- graduates of the extension course -- will offer four weekends of instruction, advice and hands-on practice at 11 sites around Los Angeles, including downtown, Highland Park, Venice, Canoga Park and Tarzana. Attend all four sessions and you’ll become a UC-certified victory gardener.

Justin McInteer, owner of the Echo Curio gallery in Echo Park and a graduate of the master gardener program last year, will be running the classes behind his spot on Sunset Boulevard. “This is a drastically scaled down but still functional version of what you learn in the master gardening class," said McInteer, pictured here. "It’s information for the individual growing his own garden, taking advantage of the space they already have.”

At the same time, he said, participants will create a neighborhood network using the Echo Curio message board. His classes start April 10. Prior to that, on March 27, fruit-tree specialist and worm-wrangler Lora Hall will be giving a one-day class on how to build your own worm bin. For $20, you’ll see how she turned a battered 1980s plastic suitcase into a home for night crawlers. The cost of the class includes a bag of worms.

And stay tuned: In the weeks to come, I'll be sharing what I learn as I go through the master gardener program myself.

-- Jeff Spurrier

Photo credit: Ann Summa

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The Deal: Bebop Design's moving sale features midcentury furniture, lamps and posters

Bebop Design in Silver Lake offered an unusual selection of midcentury home furnishings in a small store that couldn't quite vanquish the three rules of retail: location, location, location. I drove by it for months before spotting some slam-on-the-brakes items out front on the sidewalk.

Come April, the two owners -- Parisian antiques dealer Remi Loca and Scottish architecture student Susy Bell -- will move Bebop Design from its current address on the all-but-vanished vintage furniture strip of Rowena Avenue to the more bustling Sunset Junction area. Bebop will join other dealers in a 4,000-square-foot market on Santa Monica Boulevard.

In preparation for moving day, the store is offering 15% off selected merchandise through March. The regular retail prices, quoted here, are already fairly reasonable: The circular Art Deco-era table, above left, is $450. The original poster for an Alexander Calder exhibition in Paris is $250. The midcentury American oak desk, above right, is $950, and the 1950s iron chairs with original upholstery by designer Tony Paul are $750 for a set of four. 

See more of the French and American designs on sale after the jump.

Bebop Design, 2874 Rowena Ave., Silver Lake. (323) 770-1901.

The Deal: Colorful bistro set now $79 at Target.com

This cheery three-piece metal bistro set caught my eye in the garden section of Target on Sunday. Powder-coated a glossy red, it stood out among the plants and other patio furniture.

The table is 23.6 inches square and 28 high -- a perfect fit for a small space like an apartment balcony.

Normally $124, it was marked down to $99 in the store, but I found it listed online for $79 (shipping is free). The set comes with a one-year warranty. Also available in yellow, blue and white. For further information, click here.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photo credit: Target

The Deal: LuxFinds.com offers high-end furnishings to members at up to 85% off retail

Joining Gilt Groupe and One Kings Lane, LuxFinds.com is the latest invitation-only online shopping site to offer deep discounts on high-end goods. 

Membership is free and sign-up is easy. It took me only a minute to register before I went searching through their listings, some of which are up to 85% off retail. (Invite friends and receive $25 off toward your purchase.)

The site features a Visual Comfort chandelier marked down from $2,400 to $610, above right, hammocks by Algoma (reduced from $218 to $109) and a great selection of modern outdoor furniture by EMU. The EMU Spot reclining folding aluminum chaise longue, shown above, with an attached sunshade is on sale for $383, down from $763.

In addition, the site offers an extra 10% to 20% off at its weekly "Saturday Morning Super Sales" from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. For further information, go to www.luxfinds.com.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photos: EMU Spot patio recliner; Visual Comfort chandelier. Credit: LuxFinds.com

The Look for Less: The Wegner Wishbone chair for purists and wishful thinkers

In 1950, the Danish furniture makers Carl Hansen & Son introduced Hans Wegner's CH 24, also known as the Wishbone chair, in a reference to the split back splat. The design is a sleek update of the Quan Yi chair, a ceremonial seat during China's Ming and Qing dynasties. Wegner's Danish modern style reduced the often ornately carved chair into a simple and lightweight form composed of curved and tapered dowels with a woven rush seat. 

Casual enough for a kitchen table, the design is equally elegant in the dining room and functional as a bedroom side chair (the oxbow top rail is a great place to drape a jacket). It's hardly surprising, then, that the official Wegner Wishbone, which starts at around $699, has been widely imitated.

One of the chairs shown above is the authentic solid oak design made in Denmark, another is made from beech and sells for $249 and one costs a mere $79. Which is which and why do they cost what they do? Answers after the jump.

Datebook: Events, exhibits, classes for the week ahead

We've listed select home and garden events below. Suggest your own via reader comments. Submissions must be fewer than 75 words and must be for one-time events with legitimate value to other readers. No store promotions and no frivolous links, please. L.A. at Home staff will determine which submissions will be made public, but we won't edit the comments.

March 17: Architects Zoe Coombes and David Boira of Commonwealth lecture on “Agnus Dei and the Dirt of Tomorrow” as part of the Southern California Institute of Architecture spring lecture series. 7 p.m. W.M. Keck Lecture Hall, SCI-Arc, 960 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles. (213) 613-2200; www.sciarc.edu.

March 18: The Los Angeles County Arboretum hosts a field trip to Cal Poly Pomona. Event includes a look at Weeks Roses’ new facility guided by rose breeder Tom Carruth and a short tour of the adjacent Agriscapes complex. 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Registration required: (626) 821-4623 or jill.berry@arboretum.org.

March 19: Four historic homes in Pasadena, including the Vista del Arroyo bungalows, will be open to the public during the San Marino League's Art Walk XXVI, a tour of classic homes and art. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and March 20. $35. Will call location, 277 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena. (626) 578-8510.

March 20: Photographer Jonathan Singer and his collaborators W. John Kress, curator of botany at the Smithsonian Institution, and Marc Hachadourian, curator of Glasshouse Collections at the New York Botanical Garden, come to the Huntington Library for a lecture and book signing for “Botanica Magnifica: Portraits of the World’s Most Extraordinary Flowers and Plants.” 7:30 p.m. Free. No reservations required. 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100.

March 21: Ocean View Farms Community Garden opens its gates to the public for its 6th Annual Tomato-bration Heirloom Tomato Plant Sale and free seminar from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Barbara Spencer of Windrose Farm will share "Secrets of Growing Delicious Heirloom Tomatoes" from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Plant sale follows. Location: on the east side of South Centinela Avenue at Rose Avenue, south of the Santa Monica Airport and north of Palms Boulevard. Inquire at educationchair@oceanviewfarms.net.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photo: The Reeves Home on the San Marino League's Art Walk XXVI. Credit: San Marino League

A Silver Lake remodel drenched in light

It all started in 2005 when film producer Mark Gill moved in with screenwriter Hanna Weg and asked, "Honey, can I move the couch?" Little did they know this modest request would lead to a two-year makeover that transformed a nondescript clapboard-and-stucco box to a modern jewel. So they hired Roger Sherman, a Culver City architect and co-director of cityLAB, a UCLA architecture and urban design think tank, to renovate.

See the results (and a few snippets of what they started with) in our extensive photo gallery. Or you can skip all those dreamy photos and read the full text of the story here.

-- Emily Young

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Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

The Dry Garden: Best ways to beat the weeds

Winter rains have done more than quench thirsty trees, shrubs and flowers. The storms also have fed a bumper crop of weeds. Before you head out into the garden this weekend, check out Emily Green's take on weeds. In the latest installment of her column, The Dry Garden, she writes:

They do so much cooling, aerating and stabilizing of vacant lots and roadsides that Harvard horticulturist Peter Del Tredici has taken to celebrating weeds as “spontaneous urban vegetation.” But when a mother lode of seed from these fast-breeding, water-hungry plants germinates in a garden, particularly a drought-tolerant garden in Southern California, it’s war. It’s a water war.

Read Green's column, including her strategies for taking out specific weeds in specific places, then check out some bonus material on the jump of this post.

-- Craig Nakano

Illustration: "Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale" is a hand-colored engraving from "Flora Londinensis," a 1777-78 book detailing plants growing in London. Credit: William Kilburn / Victoria and Albert Museum, London.