London West Hollywood: a mix of glamour and warmth
Designer David Collins uses natural light, metallic fabrics and subtle colors for an inspiring contemporary interior.
"IT WAS important to make the rooms feel residential and to have subliminal touches of Hollywood glamour," designer David Collins says, "but it's quite difficult to make a contemporary interior look cozy without appearing fussy."
One solution: incorporating a Maya Romanoff wall covering made from wood veneer. "The presence of wood and the reflective sheen of the grain gives a nod to Neutra and L.A. modernism," he says, "and equally brings a warmth into the room."
Though Collins changed the exterior of the hotel from pink to a more tasteful gray and white, the designer didn't shy away from color inside.
"Los Angeles is a colorful town, and the fact that it has such beautiful light makes it easier to use subtle colors," Collins says. "I didn't want to do gray-beige-greige. I wanted to bring the green I see from the windows indoors with marble and velvet and silk."
He also uses mirrors artfully. On one wall, he achieves the effect of oversized necklace links by hanging three oval mirrors so close that their frames meet, a technique that can be easily managed at home.
A more difficult look to emulate is the mini-bar backsplash, in which Collins covered a mirror with linen mesh and plate glass for a subtler reflection.
If the rooms represent a luxurious take on California casual, the lobby has a distinctly British polish. Tiled in marble mosaic, the floor is a glistening white, with areas defined by circular black borders. Doorway moldings are trimmed in crocodile-embossed leather. At the far end of the lobby, Collins installed one of several 19th century-style English settees upholstered in metallic gold hides from Edelman Leather in the Pacific Design Center.
"I'd be arrogant to think that people might want to copy that," he says. "But they certainly could. I do think it takes a sizable room to get away with gold leather."
Another form of gilding that Collins uses throughout the lobby: The shades of satin black floor lamps have been gold-leafed on the inside. Ditto the iron chandeliers coated in plaster and gesso and inspired by Alberto Giacometti's designs for the Picasso museum in Paris.
"They look matte and organic from the outside and glow from the inside, casting a golden reflection on everything and everyone in the room," Collins says. "And at the end of the day, as everyone in Los Angeles knows, you're only as good as your lighting."
