i love LA! (inspired by house beautiful's "making it in LA")

good gosh- where does the time fly? i've had these photos sitting on my desktop in preparation for this post for over a month, and just realized tonight, that even worse, it's been almost two weeks since my last post of any kind! my apologies- two weeks without a post is an eternity in blog land, but all is well here at teh atelier, just busy, and thank you to every one for sticking with me during this brief recess. (and y'all know that you can always find me in the meantime on my other social media outlets, facebook, twitter, and pinterest, right? they are all much more immediate than my blog, and much less time consuming, meaning i can update them on the go, so really, if you just can't bear the pain of being separated from m21, please connect with me everywhere!)

anyhoo, back to the subject of today's post- y'all know i'm in a complete love affair with my city, right? warts and all (you know, warts like the traffic and pacoima), i just couldn't imagine living anywhere else but los angeles. between the near perfect weather, the beautiful people, the ocean, the year 'round green, and all the cultural amenities that a world class city offers,  sometimes it's just downright magical being here in the city of angels, and that is the subject of today's post (though we really aren't going to talk about any of those things).

what we are going to talk about is how inspired we were by an article in last month's house beautiful magazine by david keeps (LA's design writer emeritus) entitled "making it in LA", enumerating all the amazing design resources, current and past, that make this city one of the world's true capitals of design. if you don't have a copy of the magazine, particularly if you live in LA, go out and beg, borrow, or steal one from your dentist's office, as it is a near encyclopedic compendium of all the great people who manufacture and design here in los angeles. as i read it, it made me realize just how lucky i am to be in an interior designer in a city with so many amazing resources literally at my fingertips, and how it makes my job so much easier, as well makes my work so much better, to be immersed in such a fantastic creative environment.

i read the article during the height of westweek, the PDC's annual celebration of design, so i wanted to highlight some "made in LA" favorites also mentioned in the article that i was lucky enough to see in person during market...

brian ferrick and alex mason, of ferrick mason.

first, one of my LA favorites is local fabric house, ferrick mason, founded by brian ferrick and alex mason. their artisan fabrics are designed, hand screened and printed right here in los angeles, and i caught them as they in they were debuting new designs in the thomas lavin showroom.

lexington by ferrick mason

my favorite of ferrick mason's market introductions, "galapagos". curtains in this would be amazing!

a ferrick mason old fave, "criss cross"

right across the aisle from ferrick mason, also represented in the thomas lavin showroom is another "made in LA" favorite, kevin kolanowski's fuse lighting- again, 100% designed and manufactured here in los angeles:

a fuse lighting sconce so new, i don't think i got its name. sure is pretty, though!
(photo by jill seidner of material girls)

an old favorite from fuse, the acacia bookshelf light. so verstaile and chic. also comes in a sconce, table lamp and chandelier and as fuse is local, the possibilities for customization are limitless!

i have loved the bright and beautiful prints of raoul textiles for years, but until mr. keeps' fabulous house beautiful article, i had NO idea that they too were a "made in LA"  item. well, not technically LA, but sally mcquillan has been designing and printing her fabrics 2 hours north of LA in santa barbara for over 30 years, so raoul still qualifies as a local. no wonder sally's fabrics are so quirky and cool- it's easy to be inspired when you live in paradise!

colorful and bold- see why i like raoul textiles?

there are tons more manufacturers and designers listed in mr. keeps' amazing article so if you can still find HB on the newstand BUY it, if only for this amazing resource! if you can't find it, order a backcopy, or stalk it on ebay- it's worth it. thanks again to house beautiful magazine and david keeps for producing such a great feature on the city i love, and illustrating to the rest of world what makes los angeles such an important and vital resource for design.  truly, the most inspiring article i've read in a magazine this year! (ps- you can also find david keeps' local coverage in the LATimes at home blog)

speaking of "making it in LA", i wanted to briefly announce that maison21 is super excited to be designing a window display for this year's la cienega design quarter "legends 2012: windows to the world" event from may 9th to 11th. we are keeping the theme of our window local, and working with some great LA resources, like gina berschneider furniture, to make some items for our vignette, so it should be exciting!  we are still planning and finalizing our design (and searching for a local manufacturer to make us a folding screen- anyone have room in their production schedules for a quick job? so far, i'm striking out), and we are super-excited to be involved in such a great celebration of local design, including great los angeles based designers, manufacturers and retailers.  again, see why we LOVE our city? more posts to come on this in may!

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