The Deal: Everything is 40% off at Inner Gardens

  Inner Gardens is discounting all of its inventory  -- antiques, planters, accessories, unusual plants --  by 40% through March 14.

The Hatfield concrete two-seat sofa , originally $2,995, is now $1,797. Vintage botanicals from the Sierras, originally $1,350 apiece, are now $810 each. A painted table with white marble top, originally $8,500, is now $5,100, and coconut planters for indoor trees, originally $650, are now $390 each.

The sale is running at both Inner Gardens showrooms: 8925 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, (310) 492-9990; and 6050 W. Jefferson Blvd., Culver City; (310) 838-8378.

The company doesn't have an online store, but the website does show inventory. On each product page, if you click on "inquire about product," you'll generate an e-mail that automatically describes the item in question and cites its tracking number, so the store knows exactly which design you want more information about.

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-- Lisa Boone

Photo: Inner Gardens

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Creato Finito Home opens new showroom on La Brea

Like its new neighbor Croft House across the street, the L.A. store Creato Finito has opened a new showroom boasting handcrafted designs manufactured in Los Angeles.

"Made in Los Angeles is so important to people right now," said Creato Finito designer David McCallen. "People are becoming less disposable."

The expansive, light-filled showroom, formerly home to Reform Gallery, features McCallen's custom pieces and classic designs, inspired by family heirlooms.

"My clients often want to re-create favorite heirlooms they remember from their childhood,"  he said. "People like the comfort of the classics." 

Indeed, one of his signature pieces –- the Addie Scroll sofa, shown at left (starting at $4,000) -- is named for his great-great-aunt Addie, a silent movie actress.

Midcentury Modern furnishings courtesy of creative director John St. Denis blend with the more formal décor and antiques to give the new space an eclectic feel.  

Look for midcentury vintage items such as Saarinen side tables ($645), one-of-a kind handmade pillows made from vintage fabrics ($295), vintage and antique Turkish rugs, an oversized  reupholstered vintage chaise ($3,850) and works by local artists. Unique items from McCallen's travels dot the shelves too, including a vintage Gucci leather cocktail set/picnic bag he found at a Milano flea market. "I priced it high in the hopes that no one will buy it," he joked. The showroom also features a drafting table in the back for custom pieces. "We frame the design and send it home with our clients," he said.

Creato Finito Home is at 601 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 951-1200.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Creato Finito Home

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The Look for Less: Staffordshire dog purebreds vs. HSN's new pups

A couple of summers back I wrote about the Los Angeles residence of fashion designer Johnson Hartig, a home filled with recent Damien Hirst paintings and a curious collection of antique ceramic figurines, including packs of Staffordshire dogs in almost every room. It seemed quaint and eccentric, even for the creator of the trendy Libertine clothing line. 

Named for the county of Staffordshire, where potteries produced these ceramic mantel piece canines, the dogs are Cavalier King Charles spaniels named for the British monarch, Charles II (1630-1685) who was said to give these royal hounds the run of the castle. In the early 18th century, the figurines were made from china and hand-painted in a labor intensive process of repeated kiln firings. They reached the height of their popularity in the late 1800s and were mass produced in the 20th century. 

It turns out that Hartig's collection was ahead of the curve. As designers look back to the 19th century for inspiration, these pups have emerged as iconic symbols of Victorian decor.

They are now so hip that in 2010, young British designer Donna Wilson sweetly reinterpreted them in signed and dated limited edition pairs, right. Wilson, who is known for handmade animal dolls and vividly patterned pillows and blankets, has the figures made in Staffordshire and hand-paints a Fair Isle sweater pattern on the neck and chest. They sell for $400 per pair in the U.S. exclusively through The Future Perfect. 

Original Staffordshire dogs are far more expensive, starting at about the $1,000 mark and rising in cost based on age, condition and rarity. One of the above pairs is an antique, the other a new reproduction by Carlton Varney for HSN that's just under $40.  

Keep reading to see which dogs have the pedigree and which are fresh from the puppy mill -- I mean ceramics factory.

The Deal: Sale on antiques and vintage decor starts Saturday at Wertz Brothers

Wertz Brothers Antique Mart gets a jump on the Presidents' Day sales with its annual winter event beginning Saturday.

The sprawling store will discount antiques and vintage decor from 10% to 50% through March 7. Store manager Robin Messick said the array of items will include industrial furnishings, Murano art glass, crystal chandeliers, rustic tables, medical cabinets, oil paintings, framed anatomical charts and mid-century lighting.

The sale is at the Wertz Brothers Antique Mart at 1607 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica (and not the location in West Los Angeles). (310) 452-1800

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Wertz Brothers Antique Mart

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Home tour: Spanish Revival meets flea-market mania

Our latest home profile: When remaking their Laguna Beach house, Mark and Cindy Evans wanted to emulate the calm of the California missions they loved while celebrating their favorite pastime: shopping flea markets.

Nearly everything in their 1929 Spanish Revival home overlooking Laguna's Main Beach is courtesy of their excursions during the past 25 years. Monterey-style furniture mixes with San Jose and Tlaquepaque pottery, Mexican yard art and their favorite Laguna Beach plein-air paintings from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Asked if anything in the house is not from a flea market, Cindy jokes, "the bed and the coffee maker."

To see more, check out our 21-photo gallery.

You also can find the story in the Home section of the L.A. Times print edition Saturday.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

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The Deal: 40% off vintage textiles at Country Laundry

Although the Wisconsin-based online retailer Country Laundry is geared for bulk wholesale buyers, individual shoppers can buy vintage quilts and linens at wholesale prices during the company's December sale.

Shopping here is a bit unconventional: You peruse the website to get an idea of what kinds of pieces you want. Then after placing your order for a crazy quilt, perhaps, or tea towels, pillows or other linens, Country Laundry will choose the items for you. You can convey preferences for certain styles, materials or colors by phone or e-mail, and Country Laundry will confirm those details before moving forward. Still, part of the fun is the one-of-a-kind nature of each piece and a certain element of surprise seeing how designers have fulfilled your request.

"We start with vintage and antique textiles and then we refashion them," says designer Suzanne Frye. "We recently got a huge lot of high-quality tea towels, for instance, and we then hand crocheted the edges."

Discounted items include the velvet, silk and satin crazy quilt shown here, regularly $425, now $255; prairie quilts, regularly $275, now $165; hand embroidered linen tea towels, regularly $15, now $9 and tufted quilts, regularly $285, now $171.

Frye said a new line of contemporary pieces geared toward the Midcentury Modern home will premiere in January. Shipping is free.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Country Laundry

New 'Auction Hunters' bets big on storage-unit sales

One has a tattoo as his hairstyle and problem perspiration. The other looks like the helpful Honda guy on TV commercials but knows how to drive a hard bargain. Meet Clinton "Ton" Jones and Allen Haff, above, of "Auction Hunters." This not-so-odd couple make a living -- and a TV show -- looking for treasures amid the trash of storage units whose contents are being auctioned off because of unpaid rent. The show premieres at 10 p.m. Tuesday on Spike TV.

By the looks of the unscripted series, the recession certainly isn't receding.  Following the success of the History Channel's "Pawn Stars," currently in its third season, and "American Pickers," currently in its second, junking and auction shows are beginning to clog up programming schedules like something out of an episode of "Hoarders."

In October, TLC launched "Auctioneer$," which followed the action at Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers in Phoenix. According to the auction house's website, the series has already been pulled from its time slot. Going, going, gone. The Discovery Channel's "Auction Kings" bowed on Oct. 26. The eight-episode series follows the Atlanta auction house Gallery 63 and runs as two half-hour episodes, back to back, every Tuesday through Nov. 16.

"Auction Hunters," broadcast on the man-centric Spike, bridges the gap between salvaging and sold-to-the-highest-bidder events. In each episode, Jones and Haff bid on the contents of lockers after just a few minutes of peeking from the doorway. In the first installment, they prowl downtown Los Angeles and purchase the contents of two units.

The likeable duo exude the enthusiasm of boys on a scavenger hunt. In a genre filled with hard-luckers and hucksters, "Auction Hunters" is refreshing, a no-nonsense, no-drama half-hour that should satisfy fans of "The Antiques Roadshow."

Fuller & Roberts gallops dashingly into the Collection

Interior designer Scott Roberts, who recently completed the offices of the Farrah Fawcett Foundation in Beverly Hills, has teamed with his partner and L.A. Times Home section subject Bryan Fuller to create Fuller & Roberts.The swank home decor boutique has handsomely refinished 20th century designs, Roberts' original furnishings and Fuller's stash of vintage movie posters -- all in one of the newest additions to the Collection, an upscale antiques and vintage cooperative on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles. 

The store reflects the partners' mutual appreciation for American and British decor in the 1900s, "when traditional and modern collided with swell results," Roberts says. "It's masculine, tailored and slightly screwball. Butch and pretty."

That's Fuller, best known as a writer-director, standing, and Roberts, sitting on the arm of his horse-hoofed Saratoga chair while puggle pup Lou hogs the seat. Fuller and Roberts launched the store with a party Sept. 30. Roberts filled the limestone fireplace with birch logs and a flat screen TV showing the 1940 screwball comedy "The Philadelphia Story." Guests admired equine lamps, including the cast bronze and limed oak Hitching Post floor lamp ($1,800) above, and drank a specially concocted cocktail called the Giddyup.

Why so much horsing around?

"I love horses and equestrian design. It's a perfect blend of beauty and utility," Roberts says.

At an early age, the designer fell under the spell of classic movies such as "The Philadelphia Story" and "Suspicion" and idealized the elegant athletic world they promoted.

"If I could make people enter the shop through a mud room, I would," he adds. 

The Saratoga chair has solid maple horse hoof feet, right, hand carved by a Los Angeles artisan. The chair was designed with an extra deep seat for Roberts, who is 6-foot-5-inches.

"The generous proportions are meant to lure you into curling up with a book," he says.

Shown here in camel cashmere-wool, it costs $3,800; a version in black with lacquered hooves is the same price. If customers provide their own fabric, the chair costs $3,000 and takes six weeks to produce.

Keep reading to see more of the store ...

 

 

The Melrose Project gives antiques a modern home [Updated]

The Melrose Project is an ambitious attempt to present fine antiques, vintage industrial pieces and contemporary furniture as works of art -- with prices to match. The store opened last month in a 9,000-square-foot loft-style building by architect Bruno Bondanelli across the street from the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.  

Mother-son founders Kathleen and Tommy Clements designed the Melrose Project as an alternative to traditional antiques collectives. It's stocked with inventively displayed pieces cherry-picked from Los Angeles antique stores including Lee Stanton, which provided the 18th century oak Belgian convent armoire ($45,000) and 1920s French chairs ($7,500 for a set of six), above. The 24-light Italian neo-Gothic gilt bronze chandelier ($39,100) is from Robuck & Co. of Atlanta. 

"A lot of dealers don't have the room for grand-scale pieces," Tommy Clements said. "We want to allow each piece to breathe so they can be fully appreciated."

The cost of some pieces may indeed take one's breath away. "I have seen some people blanch, definitely," Tommy Clements added. "The prices befit the quality, and we may not be the place to fill up your entire home, but if you want important statement pieces, that's where we come in."

The Santa Monica store Obsolete provides the Melrose Project with artwork and newly configured lighting made from vintage industrial parts. The Melrose Project recently landed an L.A. exclusive on Olatz bedding, a luxury line designed by the wife of artist Julian Schnabel. Antique carpets and contemporary rugs come from Woven Accents, including the Clements-designed  Gypsy Maturin line. 

Working as an interior designer for "more years than I want to talk about," Kathleen Clements added that she has also developed a line of furniture including the made-to-order Hudson sofa, above right, which has one continuous down-and-feather seat cushion and starts at about $5,000.  

Keep reading to see more ...

Art Deco collector John Thomas opens festival with Long Beach walking tour

Art Deco collector John Thomas, left, has a home so crammed with his finds that it looks a bit like a museum. But his interests in the period extend outside his home too. To kick off the 6th Annual Queen Mary Art Deco Festival, Thomas is conducting a walking tour from noon to 3 p.m. on Friday.

Thomas is co-chairman of the festival this year, coauthor of the book "Long Beach Art Deco" and president of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.

All this began with a plate, Thomas told The Times. 

The festival runs Friday to Monday and also includes a special insider tour of the Queen Mary, lectures on Art Deco topics such as fashion and architecture, and parties and shopping. There's also a grand ball. Tickets range from $10 to $650; the latter includes all the events plus two nights at the Hotel Queen Mary.

-- Mary MacVean

 

 

Photos: John Thomas and objects in his home. Credit: Christina House / For The Times