MidCentury LA

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 My dreams generally fall into two categories: the ultra-realistic ones based on current events (or whose Instagram feed I ogled before passing out); and the totally batshit crazy ones where nothing makes sense yet everything has a ~deep~ psychological meaning. Last night for example, I dreamed that the British Pound had fallen below parity with the Dollar; a few weeks ago I dreamed a pal was scaling a building to get to its rooftop. I tend not to remember the crazy dreams, but there is a recurring one I’ve been having since I was a little girl, where I’m running around in a building made entirely of square cushions (all in seventies colours), chased by a giant who is actually just a pair of gigantic legs. I am not sure why I am telling you all this right now, it isn’t entirely relevant to the topic of the day, apart from an extremely tenuous link to do with dreams becoming a reality (don’t ask). Seriously that was going to be my introduction for this post but, after discussing it with my people (Brak and Luke), I decided I respected you more than that. I left the paragraph there though, let’s just pretend it doesn’t exist. Maybe it was just a dream…. *disappears into the ether*.

Just to pretend I didn’t write the above for nothing, I will tell you this: MidCenturyLA is one of those Instagram accounts that have plagued my dreams. I walked through that NoHo warehouse many times before actually setting a be-Gucci-loafered foot inside. I have this thing with mid-century design, especially of the Scandinavian variety. The first piece of furniture I bought with my own money was an early 60s Danish desk, that later followed me from apartment to apartment in Paris, London and now Los Angeles. I don’t know much about it, and it has definitely taken a battering over the years, but it may well get a new lease of life with a little help from my (new) friends at MidCenturyLA – more on this later.

Back to the order of the day – about 3 minutes after landing in Los Angeles, I made the trip out to NoHo (that’s North Hollywood to you) to visit MidCenturyLA. They had a sale on that day, I had a home to furnish, seemed like a no-brainer. I got chatting to the lovely Trish and to David Pierce aka Mr. MidCenturyLA himself. After a few moments spent shnuffling around the warehouse, squealing like a newborn warthog, business cards were exchanged and we agreed I would come back a few weeks later to have a proper sit down and a good old natter with David.

That finally happened a couple of weeks ago over cappuccinos and muffins. I was mostly curious to know how it all started, how one man (doing something else altogether with his life) ended up with a 12.000 sq ft warehouse filled with mid-century furniture. Like most passion projects, it actually happened by chance. David had just left a tech job in San Francisco in the hope of opening a hotel in Stockholm, but after 9/11, the travel industry collapsed and the hotel project never saw the light of day. However, he made connections in Scandinavia and somehow ended up importing furniture. It is worth nothing that by that point, he had a container filled with mid-century goods and nowhere to put it. NYC wasn’t an option but L.A. sort of imposed itself as the logical choice.

In their NoHo warehouse, you will find a mix of name/stamped items and more affordable pieces, all united by the idea that design should be accessible to everyone. There is a distinct lack of snootiness there too, which is so refreshing. Despite providing furniture for Mad Men and countless other films and TV Series, the store and its staff have kept their feet firmly on the ground, something that can be a bit of a rarity here in Los Angeles. Besides the obvious rows and rows of furniture, the store also carries original artwork by the likes of Jock McDonald and George Byrne.You better get there soon, there are some exciting changes in the works too, with the addition of the uber-cool Renee to the team, who so happens to have cut her teeth at Dover Street Market. Need I say more or are you already wiggling those sausage fingers on your GPS? If that’s the case, you want to program this address in: 5333 Cahuenga Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601.

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Adrian Pearsall

geometric platform sofa

MidCentury LA

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Mies Van Der Rohe

“Brno” chair 

MidCentury LA

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MidCentury LA

Jock McDonald

LAX series (created especially for MidCenturyLA)

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