Legends of Design: Kelly Wearstler

Can one be a Legend of Design and still be alive? For this installation of Legends of Design, I say "yes."

Kelly Wearstler began her design journey after a stint working in motion picture art departments in Hollywood by opening up her eponymous studio in 1995. She soon met her future husband, Brad Korzen who hired her to design his own home as well as several properties owned by his real estate group, Kor Realty Group. She has since developed into a force in the industry. Known for her clothes and high heels as much as her interiors, Wearstler has mined several design styles, working in once-popular vernaculars and pretty much single-handedly bringing them back into the consciousness of the design community. Mid-Century Modern gave way to Hollywood Regency (previously mentioned here), beautifully profiled in her second book, Domicilium Decoratus: Hillcrest Estate, Beverly Hills, California.

This was my first complete exposure to Wearstler's work and I was dazzled. It is a profile of her own home, the Hillcrest Estate in Beverly Hills. The decor inside is full-on Hollywood Regency with a deft mix of antiques, vintage, and modern with touches of exotica.

Wearstler, maybe more than any other current interior designer, truly revels in what she does. One can tell by her creations that she truly loves textures, shapes, color, space, pattern...all the basic elements that make up an interior design...and the marvelous frisson that can result from their unexpected combinations. Look at the love and care with which she assembled her Hillcrest Estate above, curating a maximalist experience that is jaw-dropping.

Wearstler has designed an incredible number of hotels starting with the Avalon Beverly Hills in 1999 as well as a long list of restaurants; visit her website to see photos of these projects as there are too many to include here in this post. As she has moved from project to project, she has expanded her visual vocabulary and now includes silhouettes and colors of the Memphis/Ettore Sottsass movement (previously here) as well as the rounded sturdy organic shapes of Brutalism. Let's look at her Malibu beach house to see an example of these styles. She eschews the tired blue-and-white beach house theme for a sun-bleached approach with not a blue to be found. The simplicity of the design itself allows nature outside to be the star.

Wearstler has also designed homes for many celebrities and non-celebrities...so, because I just can't resist, I leave you with some views of a home she designed for a couple on Mercer Island In Washington. Again, on display is her commitment to natural stone, textures, unexpected colors, and materials. Just phenomenal.

Happy designing!

Know Your Chairs: The Pedro Friedeberg Hand Chair

Mexican surrealist Pedro Friedeberg created his now-iconic Hand Chair on a whim. His mentor, the artist Mathias Goeritz told Friedeberg to throw some work to a favorite local carpenter. Thinking he was being funny, Friedeberg told the carpenter to carve a hand...big enough to sit on. But the moment Manhattan art dealer Georges Keller saw the hand sculpture/seat, he immediately put in orders...and the Hand Chair was born.

The Biography section of Friedeberg's official site is delightful:

"I was born in Italy during the era of Mussolini, who made all trains run on time. Immediately thereafter, I moved to México where the trains are never on time, but where once they start moving they pass pyramids.

My education was first entrusted to a Zapotec governess and later to brilliant mentors such as Mathias Goeritz, who taught me morals, José González, who taught me carpentry, and Gerry Morris, who taught me to play bridge.

I have invented several styles of architecture, as well as one new religion and two salads. I am particularly fond of social problems and cloud formations. My work is profoundly profound.

I admire everything that is useless, frivolous and whimsical. I hate functionalism, post modernism and almost everything else. I do not agree with the dictum that houses are supposed to be ‘machines to live in’. For me, the house and it’s objects is supposed to be some crazy place that make you laugh.

Americans do not understand Mexicans and viceversa. Americans find Mexicans unpunctual, they eat funny things and act like old-fashioned Chinese. When André Breton came to Mexico he said it was the chosen Country of surrealism. Breton saw all kinds of surrealist things happen here every day. The surrealists are more into dreaming, into the absurd and into the ridiculous uselesness of things. My work is always criticizing the absurdity of things. I am an idealist. I am certain that very soon now humanity will arrive at a marvelous epoch totally devoid of Knoll chairs, jogging pants, tennis shoes and baseball caps sideway use, and the obscenity of Japanese rock gardens five thousand miles from Kyoto.

I get up at the crack of noon and, after watering my pirañas, I breakfast off things Corinthian. Later in the day I partake in an Ionic lunch followed by a Doric nap. On Tuesdays I sketch a volute or two, and perhaps a pediment, if the mood overtakes me. Wednesday I have set aside for anti-meditation. On Thursdays I usually relax whereas on Friday I write autobiographies”

The Hand goes well in contemporary settings...

...as much as it does traditional spaces, as a sculptural element.

Legendary designer Kelly Wearstler has championed The Hand seen here in the entryway to her home (while she poses with her two sons)...

...and in her office.

Original Friedeberg Hand Chairs can go at auction for up to 5 figures.

Happy designing!

A Malachite Moment

Malachite is an exquisite saturated green mineral that is considered a semi-precious gemstone. Its circular pattern is fascinating and designers from Tony Duquette to Kelly Wearstler have loved using this mineral for furniture, tile, or printed on textiles. It is a rich, luxurious accent in any room.

Below is a shot from a corner of The Garden Room at designer Tony Duquette's Shangri-la-esque estate Dawnridge. The malachite wallcovering is paired with the same pattern in lapis lazuli for drapery panels. The fabric is available through Jim Thompson.

Here is the malachite fabric in drapery panels...

As I mentioned, Kelly Wearstler used malachite to great effect in the lobby of The Viceroy Hotel in Miami.

Wisteria has a series of mineral prints and this pair of malachite close-ups makes a dramatic statement over a console table.

Italian porcelain manufacturer Fiandre make a wonderful large format malachite-looking wall tile which adds a sumptuous feeling to any space, especially the bathroom seen below.

Designer Shelley Johnstone put a malachite-patterned wallcovering on a ceiling.

Whether it's a piece of furniture, a mirror frame, or on a wall, malachite adds a touch of glamour and sophistication to any space.

Happy designing!