July 2013
Design Thinking
DESIGN BUREAU
Painless Renovations.
Vintage Addiction Eric Berg channels his affinity for antiques into a new career
A
true style pioneer, Eric Berg isn’t afraid to take the road less traveled. The California collector has quite literally scoured the state in search of pre-WWII (1910-1940) vintage treasures. And when his career as a music industry stylist stalled, he changed course and turned his sideline hobby into a full-time venture, opening an L.A. storefront called, fittingly enough, Early California Antiques.
“Our architectural origami keeps its ability to move. It can fold away or open up. Maybe someday we’ll design a building that can move.” – HIROKI YOSHIHARA
their projects contain folds, refractions, and repetitions that can only be described as explorations into this idea of pairing architecture with movement. In Manhattan, the duo revamped a weekend getaway apartment that operates around a wall with functionality akin to that of a Swiss Army knife. The wall’s surface of ruddy copper on hand-gouged wood masks a Murphy bed, side table, and various storage options, all concealed behind pullout and hinged panels. While this hide-and-reveal feature embodies a literal transformative movement, the project’s real dynamism shows itself as the sun shifts its rays across the apartment’s south-facing windows. Every hour, Sandy McKee says, “the sun catches the copper differently to change the way it appears. The room begins to glow.” – Kate Chiu
Here Berg sells and sources one-of-akind home decor items and artwork for high-profile clients like actress Diane Keaton, Glee producer Ryan Murphy, and famed interior designer Cliff Fong. Berg even lists life and style maven Ralph Lauren as one of his most loyal clients. “Lauren is hooked on this particular kind of garden pot called a Bauer Indian bowl,” Berg says. “They’re hard to find as they are rare and very expensive.” So rare that Berg has driven halfway across the state on several occasions to track down certain pieces, but it has paid off. These bowls and many more items can be found in the more rustic Double RL stores and in major stores in Paris and as far away as Dubai. Four years after Berg’s career switch, Early California Antiques has opened a new showroom down the street from where his labor of love began. “The timing was perfect,” he says. Now celebs and non-celebs alike can get lost in themed rooms ranging from Spanish Revival and rococo to pioneer, cowboys and Indians, and vintage lighting rooms. – Lauren Carroll
Early California Antiques photo by Odessy Barbu, odessybarbu.com
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