Plus Design Within Reach arrives in Palm Springs and Giorgio Armani’s interiors line marks a milestone
Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW, KERSTIN CZARRA, DAVID NASH, and ELIZABETH VARNELL
Jake Arnold’s Outdoor Life
London-born and L.A.-based interior designer JAKE ARNOLD fuses Brit charm with California ease, creating spaces that exude classicism with warmth, livability, and whimsy. His first collaboration with CRATE & BARREL offered his character-rich designs to a broader audience, and he is back for an encore this spring with an outdoor line. The alfresco offerings capture Arnold’s signature style of Old Hollywood glam meets English elegance: teak-framed sofas with tailored upholstery, shapely iron-framed chaises and tables, and an array of accessories from pillows to antique bronze lighting, delicate shatterproof glassware to wicker-trimmed pitchers. The collective effect is transportive, and that’s the goal. “Escapism is a big part of my work,” Arnold says. “I want this to whisk you away to somewhere warm.” crateandbarrel.com. K.C.
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Sonoma Gets Haus Proud
Partners in life and business, in 2018 designing duo Alex Mutter-Rottmayer and Austin Carrier founded Hommeboys Interiors, a full-service firm focused on indoor-outdoor living. Now the pair has opened a new showroom, HAUS OF HOMMEBOYS, which showcases their three in-house designed collections: Ocotillo, Lone, and Bishop. Pieces include the notch-detailed Ocotillo coffee table carved from Western Red Cedar, the Bishop poufs and ottomans upholstered in a range of textural materials, and Lone pedestals finished in natural plaster. They are juxtaposed with an array of curated art, lighting, and objects that fit their appreciation for design that is both functional and artful. 141 Church St., Sonoma; hausofhommeboys.com. D.N.
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Giorgio Armani in the Haute Seat
In 2000, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani rolled out a sumptuous silvery hand-knotted carpet to usher in the 21st century and welcome the expansion of his business into the home space with ARMANI/CASA. The luxurious fashion offshoot is celebrating its 25th anniversary with as much refinement and style as its namesake founder’s clothes exude on the runway. Today 13 outposts around the world present Armani’s vision through the lens of furniture, lighting, rugs, textiles, and tableware. The home collections are imbued with references of the past and a reverence for the present, like the new VIVACE armchair that debuts in April at Salone del Mobile in Milan: Conceived of curved wood framed in a brass-finished bamboo-effect metal, and upholstered in an embroidered silk fabric, the result is one haute seat. 125 N. Robertson Blvd., L.A., 310-358-0901; armani.com. D.N.
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Minotti’s Leisurely Los Angeles Line
After years designing boutiques housing eyeglasses and shades, Giampiero Tagliaferri is at work improving the places where we rest and revive. Born in Bergamo, Italy, Tagliaferri’s design work took him from Milan to Silver Lake as creative director of Oliver Peoples before he started his interior design practice. “Los Angeles is the city that has taught me to be more relaxed,” he says. Now, Italian furniture manufacturer MINOTTI is tapping Tagliaferri’s creative mind for a slew of new projects. Drawing inspiration from low-slung ’70s silhouettes, his nomadic Supermoon seating features “rounder, very low, very cozy shapes.” The pieces are modular, starting with a sofa surrounded by flexible configurations with Ethan, Jason, and Diagramma occasional tables and benches and joined by the Pattie armchair with a lacquered base. Following the leisurely theme, there’s even a Supermoon bed. Tagliaferri’s deft combination of Southern California modernism and 20th-century Italian design culminates in a group of Pattie Cord outdoor chairs. 8936 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood, 310-278-6851; minotti.com. E.V.
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A Look Inside Peter Dunham’s World
Since founding his eponymous firm in 1998, L.A. interior designer PETER DUNHAM has amassed a throng of adoring A-list fans and clients with his trademark style, once referred to as “Merchant Ivory Moderne.” It has taken 27 creatively compelling years to deliver his first monograph. The World of Peter Dunham: Global Style From Paris to Hollywood (Vendome, $75) is a 320-page survey of the European-born aesthete’s formative years living in Paris with his stylish expat parents to his most enduring projects spanning Beverly Hills to Greenwich Village, including his own Spanish Revival duplex in Los Angeles. Organized into 12 illuminating chapters, the colorfully illustrated book also pays homage to the people who have influenced his career, including David Hicks, Salvador Dalí, Christopher Gibbs, and Teddy Millington-Drake. The book is a blueprint for Dunham’s design ethos that reveals an inspiring depth of character seldom shared in similar publications. vendomepress.com. D.N.
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Palm Springs Gets a New Design Mecca
The purveyor of authentic modern furniture and accessories DESIGN WITHIN REACH is making a splash in one of the centers of midcentury architecture. DWR Palm Springs, the brand’s 41st U.S. location, opened recently at the base of the Thompson Hotel. The 6,000-sq.-ft. light-filled studio space will immerse shoppers in the world of Desert Modernist living at the epicenter of Palm Springs’ Design District. There are furnishings for every room — living and outdoor spaces, dining areas, home offices — including Fritz Hansen chairs and Herman Miller Thin Edge pieces conceived by George Nelson, limited-edition artwork from photographer Adrian Gaut, and playful, curvy pieces by Sydney-based Ellison Studios. 414 N. Palm Canyon Dr., Palm Springs; dwr.com. K.C.
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RH Delivers a New Look to Newport
High style and laid-back living just became more accessible in Orange County with the opening of RH NEWPORT BEACH, the venerable brand’s latest gallery at Fashion Island. The 97,000-sq.-ft. emporium was conceptualized as a transparent four-level contemporary structure imbued with natural light and fresh air. Expansive glass-and-steel French doors open to a vibrant garden courtyard, with floors featuring indoor furnishings, outdoor collections, the first dedicated Waterworks showroom within a gallery setting, and a 270-seat restaurant (RH Ocean Grill) and two adjacent wine bars — all with sweeping views of the California coastline. And with RH MONTECITO’s recent opening at The Gallery at the Old Firehouse, as well as RH INTERIOR DESIGN PALM DESERT, design inspiration is just a stone’s throw away. 1101 Newport Beach Center Dr., Newport Beach, 949-760-9232; rh.com. D.N.
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Ken Fulk’s Fantastical Vision Arrives in L.A.
Like his dreamy coffee table book, Ken Fulk: The Movie in My Mind (Assouline, $120), heralded AD100 designer KEN FULK recently premiered his first Technicolor concept boutique in the West Hollywood Design District. The eponymous garden bungalow, swathed in an olive green facade and accented by an Edenic manicured courtyard, features an array of luxurious objets curated from Fulk’s fantastical creations for private clients, exclusive social clubs, and luxury resorts from his award-winning 25-year career. Amid the wood-paneled galleries, which also includes a design studio for his Los Angeles creative team, Fulk offers accoutrements and artworks essential to elevating the lifestyle and art of hosting for his customers, including French linens, Linda Fahey candles, antiques (sourced from his San Francisco warehouse), vintage table settings, jewelry, Belgian bouclé throws, fine art books, garden tools, and floral designs. 555 Norwich Dr., West Hollywood; kenfulk.com. C.B.
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MYCOWORKS Moves Into Plant-Based Furniture
Bay Area–based MYCOWORKS, known for creating reishi — an innovative material woven from mycelium strands produced by rootlike underground fungal networks — is again at the forefront of design. Architects Sophie Dries, Marion Mailaender, and Fanny Perrier; interior designer Joséphine Fossey; and artists and artisans Sarah Valente, Pauline Guerrier, and Anna Le Corno have used it to create a new series of furniture — including desks, screens, lamps, and chairs — that sustainably combine art and nature. The Mycelium Muse collection looks and feels like leather, and even develops a patina, yet the biodegradable material is completely plant based and uses little energy to produce, hinting at the possibilities for conceptual furniture. Prices upon request. myceliummuse.com. E.V.
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Studio Visits With RENKO Florals
“I have to be completely enamored and excited by a material to want to work with it, and then the rest kind of flows organically,” says Ren MacDonald-Balasia, the owner and force behind the Los Angeles– and Honolulu-based floral design studio RENKO, who has been creating eclectic arrangements for clients like LOEWE, Hauser & Wirth, and Formula Fig since 2017. She credits Southern California with imbuing her work with a rebellious streak, resulting in sculptural, vivid, and slightly surreal arrangements in texture and form. She recently opened a studio and showroom that is part Wonka factory and part modernist gallery. Amid the bespoke arrangements is a collection of branded hoodies, baby tees, and aprons designed with Paris fashion designer Noémie Sebayashi and cheeky artwork of tropical fruits by artist Emma Pryde. 424 West Collage St., L.A.; renkofloral.com. K.C.
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Ginori 1735’s Harmonizing Patterns
Multidisciplinary artist Sami Hayek’s recent exhibition, Frequency, which explores sacred geometry and physical representations of Solfeggio sounds, included tables, rotating spheres, and installations. Now the Lebanese-Mexican artist is adding dinnerware in collaboration with Ginori 1735. In line with Hayek’s design philosophy that every material emits a frequency that interacts, he’s extending the dialogue between the tables and other objects to include a four-piece set of handcrafted dishes in collaboration with the made-in-Florence porcelain line. Hayek draws on the harmonizing 528 Hz frequency to create kaleidoscopic patterns across Corona Collection plates using vibrant yellows, blues, greens, and black. Whether the settings summon a gathering or convene an intimate dinner for two, the tablescape is sure to be transformative. Four-piece set, $725, hayekstudio.com. E.V.
Portions of this story originally appeared in the Winter, Spring, and Men’s Spring 2025 issues of C Magazine.
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