Antiques LAAll places

For the trade

Where LA designers and set decorators shop

For LA’s interior designers and set decorators, the first stop is the Pasadena Antique Center on Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena: specialist dealers under one roof, many of them offering memo and rentals for shoots and productions. The Los Angeles Times photographed the set decorator of Mad Men buying for the show there in 2009. Start there, then work through the rest of the city’s trade favorites below.

Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena

Start here

Pasadena Antique Center

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.”

Object Lesson

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.

Gregory Ducharme

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.

Forma Strata

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.

Chindi Gallery

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.

Galerie des Objets

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.”

MJH Design Arts

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.

Modern for All

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.

Paula y Gregorio

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.

Los Angeles

Across the city

JF Chen

Hollywood, Los Angeles · Shop

20th-century furniture, lighting, accessories and art, plus period antiques.

Blackman Cruz

Hollywood, Los Angeles · Shop

Antiques, furniture, lighting, art and garden objects.

Galerie Half

Melrose Ave, Los Angeles · Shop

Mid-century and earlier furniture, lighting, art, ceramics and objects.

Lawson-Fenning

Melrose Ave, Los Angeles · Shop

Vintage-modern furniture and home goods, plus its own LF Collection.

Nickey Kehoe

Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles · Shop

Furniture, lighting, rugs, textiles, fine art and vintage pieces.

Obsolete

Culver City · Shop

Furniture, lighting and curiosities alongside contemporary figurative art.

Lief

Hollywood, Los Angeles · Shop

Antiques and 20th-century furniture, lighting, art, rugs and mirrors.

Rewire Gallery

East Hollywood, Los Angeles · By appointment

Designer lighting and furniture by Ponti, Magistretti, Colombo, Chareau and others.

Jadis

Santa Monica (Main St), Santa Monica · Shop

Vintage curiosities, ephemera, photographica, and aviation and scientific objects.

Uncharted Antiques

East Pasadena (Altadena Dr), Pasadena · Shop

Industrial objects, art, lighting, mid-century furniture and oddities.

Pierce & Ward

Los Feliz, Los Angeles · Shop

Curated vintage pieces, custom furnishings and objects from the interior design studio.

NFS

Frogtown (Elysian Valley), Los Angeles · By appointment

Smalls, sculptural and uncomfortable furniture, conversation pieces and anonymous art.