STYLE: INTERIOR : A Room for All Ages

Steeped in texture, interior designer Thomas Beeton’s 1936 Streamline Moderne apartment in Hancock Park has an arresting array of dramatic finishes, perfect background for an eclectic mix of furnishings covering two centuries. Beeton transformed the living room into an oasis of creamy vanillas. Echoing the curve of the Moderne ceiling, the walls have an undulating taupe stripe. To achieve this effect, artist Elloree Findley first painted the walls with a pure white semi-gloss oil, then dragged a “rock-crystal” glaze down the wall with a stiff-bristle wallpaper brush. Inspired by an 18th-Century mirror that hangs in a small first-floor bathroom, Beeton had Findley spray the bathroom walls with metallic aluminum paint, then apply Lamp Black color in a “very loose, brushy manner and slightly drag it” to resemble the smoky patina of the aged mirror. The tiny dining room, which measures 10 by 13 feet, was given scale and panache by trompe l’oeil artist Dana Westring, who painted the fanciful wall, frieze and wainscot designs as well as the gigantic 18th-Century Italian urns. “Big scale in a small room makes the room look larger,” says Beeton.

Above all, this is a touch-and-feel-apartment: Textures include leathers, sisal, rattan, lacquer, silver and gold gilt, Fortuny cotton, white piquet and hand-beaded pillows. Beeton says his design philosophy is simple: “I put together what appeals to me. And one of the exciting things about living now, you can pick and choose from everything in the past.”