Designers take inspiration from their favorite movies and Hollywood icons to decorate rooms for this Southern California show house
Wattles Mansion, the 1908 Mission Revival masterpiece of noted Southern California architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, is the site of a design showcase open now through April 17 in Los Angeles. Fifteen design teams decorated rooms in the mansion, using the show house theme “Hollywood, the First 100 Years” as their inspiration. An appreciation for the original design of the house mixed with contemporary styling and comfort is a unifying thread throughout.
The estate was the winter home of Omaha, Nebraska, financier Gurdon Wattles, who bankrolled much of early Hollywood. It boasted 90 acres of formal gardens, including a Japanese garden and teahouse, an Italian rose garden and orchards. Today the house and grounds — the only remaining intact example of a pre-film industry Hollywood estate — respectively serve as a private event venue and a public park.
2016 Wattles Mansion Showcase House
Location: 1824 N. Curson Ave., Los Angeles
When: May 25 through April 17, 2016; Thursdays through Sundays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: $40. Tickets and more info
Kitchen Suite: Kitchen, Butler’s Pantry, Dry Pantry and Former Staff’s Dining Room (this photo and next two)
Design team: Beall Design Group
Kathleen Beall adopted the black-and-white palette of the Oscar-winning 2011 movie The Artist for the look of this kitchen. The designer wanted to update the traditional kitchen suite with modern materials, such as these prepasted, washable and strippable wallcoverings by York. Beall also chose a black range from the French manufacturer La Cornue, whose first state-of-the art range was made in 1908, the same year the house was built.
The black-and-white theme carries through to the former staff’s dining room, which Beall refashioned as a breakfast nook. Photos of Los Angeles’ Ebell Theater, which was used as a set for the film, hang on the walls.
The colorful dry pantry represents Hollywood’s later Technicolor days.
