Beverly Blvd; Landscape Los Angeles

W a n n a  c o m e  s h o p p i n g ? 

Here is a place in West L.A. where West Hollywood and Beverly Hills meet.  The actual corner is Beverly and Martel. Fairfax and La Brea can be found just beyond in either direction

We are only a stone's throw from CBS studios, the L.A. Farmers Market and "The Grove" - the ersatz "village" shopping mall  ......

......with the very best designed car park that I've every experienced.  (That's meaningful folks!  After years of trying to park in NYC, London and Honolulu.)  But despite middle-of-the-road tourist central being two minutes away (on a good traffic day) by car, this is actually a very classy area.  It's the place you would 

shop when you're grown up and earning (seriously) and upgrading from the Melrose Flea Market.  The shops and styles remind me a little of Pimlico Road in London.  The quality and the ideas are just that 

little notch "above".  Brenda Antin (no weblink/site) is the name of this beautiful shop full of graceful pieces with history.  There are three Brenda Antins altogether in L.A.  This must be what they're calling the Hollywood store, with two others in Santa Monica.  The pieces are displayed to complement each other and the choices are thoughtfully edited so that you're never tripping on other so-so stuff to get to the treasure.

Mosaik, this Aladdin's cave of not-quite-the-usual

Middle Eastern and North African delights.

You will find things of scale here.  And a little bit of pedigree.  And did I say taste?

It's a very small area.  Really just the intersection of two roads with a collection of shops

clustered nearby.

Modernica.  Is the go-to place for new and gently-used mid-century furniture and the extensive

extensive selection of George Nelson lamps.  If you have had your modern L.A. home photographed and published in any glossy magazine in the past seven years,  you probably had George Nelson lamps in that house

and you bought them here.

Also to be found here at this dazzling-in-the sunlight lo-rise kind-of-in-the middle-of-not-much couple of blocks in the center of the sprawl that is Los Angeles, is the newly opened "Rolling Greens" outlet.  If you like ABC Carpet in NYC (- but not necessarily for the carpet -) you will like Rolling Greens.  In addition to turbo-charged super plants at very manageable prices, Rolling Greens offer properly distressed home and garden furnishings, flowery decorative accessories and now, design books and gourmet food products.  But on a much smaller scale than ABC.  Its very near neighbor on Beverly heading towards Fairfax is Heath Ceramics.  Iconic mid-century tableware made fresh and showcased in a modest brick building.  Come back tomorrow for these!




P.S.:  In the same way that I've said I appreciate smaller museums that you leave feeling refreshed, I appreciate these little neighborhood knots of shopping that it's possible to find in L.A.  And may I say, further to my post two days ago....this is not necessarily a post to encourage you to shop!  These pictures were taken on a Sunday, when the shops were closed and so....no damage done to credit balances or fragile ecologies by this little wander around.  You'll notice that many of the goods in these windows have lived other lives.  If you must shop, what better than to adopt something a "second time around".  And if you're not shopping......inspiration and visual enrichment are thankfully so far, still FREE!  So enjoy!  No guilt!