2 minute read
House Party
Interior designer Peti Lau's vision is behind this eclectic house in the Hollywood Hills. HOME takes a tour
Words PEARL BOYD
Alex Pall, half of Grammy-winning DJ duo Chainsmokers, bought this house in the Hollywood Hills two years ago. Built in the 1930s and renovated in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, the hodgepodge of architectural styles and the house’s industrial edge appealed to him, but when it came to decorating it, he sought professional help from New York-based interior designed Peti Lau.
Lau calls her signature style AristoFreak. Her worldly inspirations are shown in eclectic colours, patterns and textures to create romance and moods in all of her spaces. AristoFreak emerged from Peti’s early career in Thailand, Mauritius, and Europe through her adventures as an expatriate, influenced by her love of art, travel and lifestyle. Her curiosity for exploration ultimately led her to the concrete jungle of New York City. AristoFreak evolved through the ideology of old world charms adapted for modern living. Over the past decade, Lau’s projects have brought her to locations such as Los Angeles, London, Brighton, Koh Samui in Thailand, India and Mauritius. Her eclectic style has attracted a wide range of clients.
Pall had already installed the nature-themed wallpaper and the orange velvet couch in the family room when Lau began decorating the house. She continued the interior-jungle theme, as she called it, with a natural-fibre coffee table that evokes dried versions of the leaves on the wall, and leopard and tribal print pillows. The orange, green and blue palette of the painting by Hassan Hajjaj (according to Lau, he’s Morocco’s Andy Warhol) recurs in trippy throws and pillows from Silken Favours and a vintage Turkish rug laid over a larger jute rug. “A classic antique rug is a nice way to stabilize all the stuff that’s going on,” she says.
The living room has a retro feel, thanks partly to an impressive sideboard. Inspired by the 007 films, Essential Home’s Monocle sideboard is built from solid walnut and accented by gold-plated front doors featuring a protruding circular design. The circles are engraved to the back and side of the unit, making the whole piece stand out for its striking mid-century aesthetic.
“The house had this built-in eclecticism,” says Lau, a Chinese-Vietnamese American born in Israel whose own influences might be similarly characterized. “It felt appropriate to approach each interior space as its own unique environment.” She brashly mixed decades and colours and incorporated Pall’s growing contemporary art collection, an approach that holds each room together.
