Fair Oaks Antique District, Pasadena · Antique center
Dozens of dealers in two buildings: antiques, art, and vintage furniture and decor.
“Ground zero for vintage furniture,” this Fair Oaks “landmark” is “where interior designers, set designers (hello, Mad Men), and antique dealers shop”; a “marvelous labyrinth of antiques, art, and vintage treasures,” it runs “from small collectables to large pieces of furniture,” with “something to look at around every corner.” The dealers “definitely know quality,” the staff is “very helpful,” right down to “getting it to your car,” and the prices are “fair for the items”; one convert is simply “obsessed with this place.” Plan to “reserve a morning, if not entire day”: it’s “difficult not to spend an entire afternoon here.”
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Art, objects, ceramics and lighting, with some furniture.
Everything here is chosen for color and form, and much of it is functional. Prices are mid-range, and it comes up often when people post their favorite antique shops.
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Vintage and offbeat design objects, especially Japanese bronzes and ceramics.
A tightly edited space built around small, sculptural pieces, many of them sourced by the dealer in Japan. The display is as considered as the stock; he also takes on styling and merchandising work.
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Handmade modern rugs with restored vintage furniture, sculpture and paintings.
Designer Arvin Olano’s label. The look is calm and layered, with the rugs and vintage pieces chosen to work together, so the space reads like a finished room.
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Small fine objects: Americana, Southwestern and lesser-known modern pieces.
Folk and tramp art, old silver, ceramics and metalwork, with an eye for the unusual. One of the best small-object collections in LA, and fairly priced. The dealer also shows at Marburger Farm in Round Top, Texas.
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Antique and vintage design and decor, 19th century to the 1960s.
Chosen with a strong point of view and often shown in unexpected pairings. The dealer sums up the approach as “nice and opinionated.”
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Traditional decorative arts: antique furniture, engravings and Asian ceramics.
Pieces with age and patina, suited to classic interiors from neoclassical to Spanish Colonial. The taste is traditional, with the occasional eccentric piece mixed in.
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Restored mid-century modern furniture, mostly Scandinavian and American classics.
A restoration-first dealer: pieces are sold refinished and ready to use, and the business describes its work as design preservation. The space also holds a small library of design books. Nationwide shipping.
Inside the Pasadena Antique Center
Vintage furniture, Latin American art and folk pieces, and objects with patina.
Run by a designer couple with a strong point of view: chunky oak furniture and textured, patinated objects, put together with a mid-century eye. Their own restored Eichler, furnished from the shop, was featured in Dwell. Prices range from modest to serious.