LA Modern

All photos by Richard Powers

I was watching Four Christmas's the other night and I couldn't help but notice one of the location homes used at the beginning of the movie I had visited myself a couple of years ago. When I was there with photographer Richard Powers it was a perfect sunny LA day and the owner Steve Shaw was as gorgeous as his home.

Born in Manchester, ex-boyfriend to Dannii Minogue, photographer Steve started his career in Miami as a cruise-ship photographer. In 1998 he swapped Hawaiian-shirt-toting holidaymakers for celebrities in Los Angeles: think sexy yet timeless images of A-list glitterati - from Hilary Swank to Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba and Kylie Minogue - for glossy magazines such as Vogue, Esquire and British ELLE. His eye for high-impact style came in handy when creating his Venice Beach pad. Inspired by his childhood obsession with James Bond's boys' toys and his love of American architect John Lautner's seminal buildings, Steve designed and built this home combining industrial sleek with sensual Seventies textures. The result is LA-style modern luxe, with a voluptuous vintage. Does it deliver as a bachelor pad? "I have my Aston Martin parked in the garage and I photograph beautiful actresses in the studio, so yes! The other night when a Hollywood producer friend held a screening here, I used one remote to turn down the lights, shut the blinds and open the curtains hiding the screen. This house has fufilled my boyhood fantasies!" says Steve.

If you have any questions about furniture or textures please ask in the comments

My New Banner

What do you guys think of the new banner? Honestly! The photo is by my mate Richard Powers. This was one of our first international houses we worked on together about six years ago. It's still one of my favourite shoots that brought me a lot of good luck.  You can view more of the house here

Living Down In Chinatown

Enter the Dragon. Moving into a former restaurant in the heart of LA's Chinatown inspired one family to embrace the colourful style of this vibrant area. I had to send photographer Richard Powers to snap this home for me. I think this week for me it's all about colour! I hope you don't mind?

Los Angeles' Chinatown is in the middle of a renaissance - new housing and transport links have created a thriving district filled with great bars and art gallaries, as well as a multicultural 24 hour street scene. Still it's not everyone who would want to move in a former Chinese restaruant and transform it into a home that embraces the original vibe - and even fewer who could manage to do it in a contemporary way! 

 

Having started out as a popular cabaret spot, in the Eighties this place became Madame Wong's - a punk club that played host to bands like Blondie. But it was languishing as a furniture warehouse when American property developer Dan Bernier and his architect wife Amy Finn Bernier fell for it and turned it into a fun family home fro their sons Lewis and Moe. I love its playful mix of retro-meets-industrial furniture, a fusion of East and West that never gets too kitsch.

"I love colour and have never been afraid of it. With the high ceilings we decided to break the colours up into horizontal bands so that no single shade would overpower the effect" shares Amy

"We love to have our stuff on show for easy access, but to stop it looking cluttered we have chosen pieces that match the colour palette"

All pictures by Richard Powers

"When it comes to getting the details right, it's about sticking to the colour palatte and having a sense of humour," says Amy.

The Iconic House

For any lover of modern architecture this new book by Thames & Hudson The Iconic House is a must have.  

The Iconic House is an essential book on modern architecture featuring one hundred of the most significant houses of the past hundred years.  The images in the book are delicious and it's so nice to see updated pictures of buildings that haven't been shot for such a long time. Photographer, Richard Powers (Richard has a few shoots on the blog) and author Dominic Bradbury have been travelling the world for the last couple of years gaining access into buildings where most can't. For example I have been trying to get into The Eames house forever and Eames Demetrios has always had some excuse. Well guess what? It's in this book all shot by Richard. I'm so excited about this read.

GUSH GUSH Falling Waters is why I fell in love with architecture and design. This is a home so ahead of it's time.  Frank was connecting with nature and telling the world before the 40's the importance to do so. From the first stirrings of modernity in the early twentieth century to the present, the house we call home has served as a test bed of design experimentation, the place where architects have sought to create new forms and to offer new domestic lifestyles. Alvar Aalto, Buckminster Fuller, Rudolph Schindler, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Eileen Gray, Charles and Ray Eames, Charles Gwathmey, Carlo Scarpa, Herzog & de Meuron: most great architects of the past hundred years have begun or catalyzed their careers with an iconic house.

Concise architect biographies and a list of key buildings accompany each house, while photographs and easy-to-read plans bring the words to life.

I want to live here in a sculptured house like this... How could you NOT do great things in life when you have an inspirational building oozing brilliance.

The glass house is another favourite home of mine. Perhaps some feel they are fish in a glass bowl when inside but for me the concept of blurring the outdoors with the inside begun here. 

Now I know I wouldn't normally tell you what to buy but this bit of reading needs to belong on your bookshelf. You should click here to own one.

Mullholand Drive - Star Gazer

This was my first house feature I ever did and I think it's still my favourite. After all these years the home is still as seductive as when I went there. It really shows when designing not to follow trends but aim for over the top  grandeur and you will have a home that will forever wow your visitors. 

"LA is a sexy place. If you are going to live here, you want a sexy house" says Steven Silverstein, in his native Los Angeles accent. "Somewhere that puts you in the mood to have a drink - to have a party. You know what I am saying?" Steven, a semi-retired fashion photographer and his Texan wife Gina, gave themselves the unthinkable time frame of one week to find a Fifties Modern house to purchase when they moved back to the United States from Paris. 

Their agent, a former Rodeo Drive haridresser, found them a 1958 classic by architect Richard Dorman which was completely out of the, couples price range. But the pressing time frame and 'love at first sight' prompted them to seal the deal. Today it's a place that has recaptured a romantic age of cocktail parties and the silver screen.

The house was built as one of the first show homes in this exclusive area, high in the hills above Hollywood, just off Mullholland Drive. These dwellings gave many movie stars, film directors and LA socialites their first taste of life in a modern home. Its striking roof, which swoops down from seven metres at its apex to just 1.5 metres at other corners, is all that can be seen over the boundary wall, but on the other side, three walls of glass means the boundary between indoors and the green canyon below with its deer, raccoons and coyotes, vanishes. It's the nuances of different light here that Steven loves. 

The mostly original interior includes turquoise splashed on redwood, mosaic double-sided fireplace, natural wood built cabinetry and Fifties light fittings. "The reason why we fell in love with this house is because it was unchanged, it was pure. We were taken aback," says Gina. "Dorman visited us which has made us really respect the house. He said it was his favourite project".

"Although we were cautious not to change the original colour schemes, there was a little too much turquoise in this house for our taste," admits Gina. The couple decided to sand down the kitchen counter top and the wood panel walls in the den, just leaving a trace of the colour in the wall's grooves. The original mosaics in the bathroom were repaired and a new slate floor put down in the bedroom. Even the Fifties black lino tiles were retained and waxed to a sheen. "We are both preservationists at heart," she says. "I think people rush into doing up homes to quickly". 

Antique stores in LA and Dallas were scoured to find furniture by legendary Fifties designers, such as Eames, Knoll and Nelson. "Because the house has nostalgia, it felt only right to have furniture and accessories that had contemporary clean lines and bold colours to match the preiod," says Gina. 

Guests who don't want the couple's infamous Hollywood parties to end are drawn to the kitchen in the early hours of the morning. The kitchen, a cocoon in the middle of the house, is lined with rich timber. It is the only room that is sheltered from the windows overlooking the San Fernando Valley.

The Silverstein's honesty to the period could have made their interior predictable but the couple's fun choice of colour and mixture of old and new have made it unpretentious and full of character. They were given a head start by purchasing an original Saarinen Knoll table and a chandelier from the previous owner which had been in the house since it was built. They also inherited some Eames chairs which, after their tattered shark skin covers were stripped off, revealed their original coloured fibreglass.

Steven has always had a love affair with Fifties and Sixties glamour. "I grew up in LA. I grew up with cars with fins. I saw turquoise mixed with white and colourful interiors. This way of living is in me from my childhood," he says. At 223 square metres it is small but, he says, "Who needs a McMansion to be happy? I have always dreamt about living in a house like this".

All pictures by photographer Richard Powers

Brent Bolthouse - American Dream

I was channel flicking this afternoon and found myself watching MTV's show The Hills. Please don't tell anyone! The show instantly sent my mind back to when I went to the creator and actor of the shows AMAZING home. 

First meeting Brent Bolthouse I instantly had a huge crush. Good-looking, super successful and a lover of restoring old masters how could I not. 

In Hollywood, some say your cool credentials depends on whether you've received an invitation to a Brent Bolthouse production party. Dubbed the 'King of LA Nightlife', this party-planner has a golden Rolodex bulging with A-list contacts - Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lindsay Lohan to name just a few. 

Like many Hollywood hopefuls, the potential of this Los Angeles home had been overlooked - until discovered by Brent, a passionate buyer with an eye for true star quality. 

But with a glamorous 'day' job that essentially means working all night, this is one man who is in desperate need of time out in the best and most relaxing surroundings, which explains why he says his greatest indulgence is his home. 

Located in the East Hollywood Hills, with sweeping views of the city below and the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance, the home was designed by legendary American architect John Lautner. 'It's not a large home by LA standards, but Lautner's design means that it never feels claustrophobic', says Brent. 

I found it tough to get this house published and looking at the beautiful pictures by photographer Richard Powers again I do scratch my head and wonder why. This house is a star who deserves to be in the spotlight. 

You can check out more of this story and the history of the home in this months Australian Inside Out magazine. 

Donna Karan's Urban Retreat

My shoulder is killing me and I so need a massage. Oh if only I could be Donna Karan for a day. Whenever I get a creak in my neck and there is lack of wellbeing in my life I can't help but think about when I visited Donna Karan's home. American fashion designer Donna Karan's New York apartment serves as both spa retreat and partypad - the ultimate style sanctuary in the city.

Sadly the day I was there she was in the air flying home from Europe. It was just me, the photographer Richard Powers and Donna's gorgeous chocolate labrador. Her chef came in for little while to prepare some meals and it seems she was no longer on a raw diet.

It's kind of weird to wander around a famous persons home without them being there but at the same time it gives such a clear insight into who they really are.  I walked away before interviewing her knowing she is spiritual, gentle and tactile.

Donna, queen of the New York fashion scene and global tastemaker has attracted a loyal clientele around the world thanks to her simple, well-cut and wearable clothes. The same elegant, understated approach infuses her New York 'bachelorette apartment,'

 set in an Art Deco block on the Upper West Side, enjoying incredible views over Central Park.

 When she wants to get away from it all, Donna heads for her boltholes in the Hamptons or the Turks and Caicos islands, but if she needs tranquillity when she's working in the city, this is her spiritual home.

Super-sophisticated and spacious, Donna's pad is a lesson in how to create a tranquil relaxation zone. Light-filled areas flow easily into one another and are decorated in a classic black and white palette, with emphasis on beautiful, quality materials like travertine and swamp teak.

Everything from the sofas to the candles has been designed to meet Donna's exacting requirements (think simple yet chic). And the building also links inside and outside in an imaginative way: along the glass external walls, architects Bonetti Kozerski (who design Donna's global boutiques) have created a stone bench which appears to cut through the glass, providing a seat and display surface in each room and on the terrace. ' What we love about this home is that it makes you feel instantly relaxed,' enthuses architect Enrico Bonetti. 'People react well to a space that is well proportioned and has a constant flow to it'.

Donna's chosen to have only one bedroom, but the lounge areas transform into comfy sleeping zones when her children and grandchildren descend. 'It makes for the ultimate sleepover party,' she laughs. While the apartment is frequently given over to post fashion show parties and intimate dinners where guests included Tibet's Dali Lama - it is primarily devoted to Donna's passion for physical and spiritual wellbeing.

In fact, one whole wing has been transformed into her very own spa - somewhere for her to practise yoga and meditate, as well as indulge in treatments and a daily massage before bed. 'It's my sanctuary, the calm to my chaos,' she says.

Donna also loves to be surrounded by her beloved art and books as well as momentoes of her late husband, Stephen Weiss, who died in 2002. 'My home celebrates my family and friends, art and culture, and it holds the memories that are a part of who I am'.

Donna's thoughts on creating a tranquil home

Space

'Space means freedom and flexibility. My apartment is all about flow and openness, with one room leading into another and the inside blurring into the outdoors'. 

Texture

'To me, texture is a way to add an almost sculptural dimension to a room, whether with a tactile fabric - like cashmere or linen - or via a wall or floor surface - like bamboo or limestone'. 

Balance

'I'm a Libran, so I'm always looking to find balance within opposites - black and white, calm and chaos, dram and serenity'. 

Spirituality

'My late husband's presence is felt throughout this space, as he has always shared my passion for creating environments that cultivate learning and enlightenment'. 

Family

'Family is everything to me, and every element in my home is designed with them in mind'. 

Daily Ritual

'I practise yoga every morning and then take my steam bath, where I get some of my best design ideas. Before I go to bed, I always try to have a massage to help me unwind and relax'. 

Comfort

'I live for comfort. There are cushions everywhere!'