Fuller + Roberts Co. window design by Jane Hallworth, for the La Cienega Design Quarter's 3rd annual Legends of La Cienega event, running May 12 - 14, 2011. The store front design pays homage to the British artist J.M.W. Turner, and features a piece by artist Ron Pippin.
Dir: Alex DeMille; Prod: Loretta Ramos Music: "Waltz Tree", Written by Jonathan Zalben, Courtesy of First Frame Music
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.
Fuller & Roberts is designed to look like a gentleman's living room, a contrast to the more cluttered spaces usually found in antiques collectives. Pictured here: on the left, a wing back chair upholstered in striped Irish linen (one of a pair priced at $4,200); in the foreground, left, a 1960s bronze cocktail table with an acid-etched chinoiserie pattern by Philip and Kelvin LaVerne ($10,500); and at right rear, a biscuit-tufted silk sofa with a lacquered base ($3,400). The black-and-white photos are by the Los Angeles artist Philip Pirolo.
A 1950s armchair, left, restored and reupholstered in a faux bois printed cotton is $2,200. At right, Roberts sits between two versions of his Triplicate lamp, "named after Fred Astaire's prize-winning thoroughbred in the 1940s," he says. It is made from a gypsum compound that has the feel of plaster without fragility. It is available in natural gesso and a black matte finish with a plaid wool shade for $2,400. The 22-karat gold leaf version is $3,800.
-- David A. Keeps
Photo credits: Gabriel Goldberg