Los Angeles Residential Architecture — The Current Cycle
A working designer's read on what the city's architects are building this year, and what the architecture is asking the drapery to do.
The Los Angeles residential cycle has clearly turned. The hard-edged contemporary work that defined the 2018–2022 wave — black steel windows, polished concrete, oversized cantilevers — is being quietly retired by the city's best architects in favor of a softer, warmer, more material-honest direction.
Limewashed plaster has replaced board-formed concrete on the exteriors. Unfilled travertine has replaced honed black stone on the floors. Reclaimed oak has replaced rift-cut walnut on the millwork. Steel windows are still everywhere — they will be for another decade — but they are being paired with softer interiors that no longer fight them.
What this means for drapery: ceiling-mounted ripple fold is no longer the default specification. The hand-tacked pleat is back. Linen, hand-loomed wool, and dimensional sheers are the cloths the new architecture is asking for. Hardware is moving from polished nickel and matte black toward antique brass, hand-forged bronze, and burnished gold.
The studios I am specifying alongside are reading the shift correctly. The drapery briefs coming across my desk this season look more like the great Belgian and Italian residential interiors of the 1970s than the Los Angeles contemporary work of the 2010s. It is a healthier moment. The architecture is more confident. The drapery has more to do.
Olga Rechdouni is the principal designer of House of Drapery and a consulting specialist on custom drapery for the residential interiors of Los Angeles. She is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and works privately with homeowners, interior designers, and architects.