Top 20 Interior Designers in Los Angeles
For The Hollywood Reporter's list, nearly 40 design experts and showroom heads weighed in on who matters in creating Hollywood homes today for clients including Beyonce and Jay-Z, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, and George and Amal Clooney.
Gone are the days of the headline-grabbing, Hollywood designer whose brand is emblazoned on every throw pillow and candle. Tinsel town’s new breed of influential interior designers are more discreet, less dictatorial and all about creating chic spaces where the tastes of their industry-insider clients reign. These newer interiors reflect a panoply of influences — 1930s French modernism, contemporary Belgian rusticity, louche '70s glam and the primary-colored geometry of '80s Memphis. An emphasis on vintage pieces, reclaimed materials and green building indicate a growing eco-consciousness, just as incorporating the craft of local artisans celebrates uniqueness and authenticity. A good percentage of the following interior designers — compiled in a list after consulting nearly 40 design experts, showroom heads and photographers — fly under the radar, letting their powerful and starry clients grab the spotlight.
"I worked on Brooke Shields' dorm room at Princeton," says Demitri Sgourakis with a laugh about his start. Since then, the Demitri Christian Interior Design principal, whose husband is Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning director Michael Sucsy (Grey Gardens, The Vow), has worked on houses for Cher, Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Paul McCartney and is designing homes for Pat Sajak, Toni Braxton and Mary J. Blige. But even in rooms dripping with luxurious patterns and textures, like the houndstooth glam room he created for Braxton's sister Tamar, his focus is his clients. "It's really a place for them to shine," he says. “He encourages me to take risks and the result is always a 'wow,'” says Laura McKenzie, for whom Sgourakis has finished multiple projects, from a home and executive offices to two mega yachts, for her and her husband David McKenzie of Associated Television. Next: the lobby renovation of The Carlyle Residences on Wilshire Boulevard.
10/24/2019 Written By Abigail Stone