LM Pagano: East meets West by way of the South
By David Hay, Special to The Times
LM Pagano’s L.A. house looks and feels more like a slice of New Orleans than Hollywood Hills -- fitting for someone whose career has been full of surprises. As a teenager, Pagano made shirts out of antique fabric for Bob Dylan and embroidered jeans for David Lee Roth. In her 20s, she worked as a chef for Steven Spielberg. Later, when she was Nicolas Cage’s assistant, the actor came by her house in Santa Monica, fell in love with what he saw and asked her to decorate a beach house for him in Malibu.
Since then, Pagano says, she has done 15 houses and two boats for Cage and members of his family. Other clients include Johnny Depp, who hired Pagano to turn a yacht into what she describes as a “combination of the Orient Express and an Art Deco gypsy caravan.”
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Paganos inspiration often comes from light fixtures. In the kitchen she chose a large, onyx lamp similar to one that was featured in the William Powell-Carole Lombard romantic comedy My Man Godfrey. Here in the front hallway, she put up a 19th century French bronze hot-air balloon lamp.
Back to L.A. at Home (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Paganos home was somewhat of a shambles when she bought it in 1994. Owned at one time by actress Deana Durbin, it was subsequently lived in by Lynda Carter during her stint as Wonder Woman and, still later, by Eric Stoltz. During the 1970s, she says, it was a hippie art colony.
The house doesn’t feel like a typical designer’s showcase. Pagano’s floor lamps have elegant, torn lampshades. A portion of the ceiling is yet to be painted, and in one spot, an antique window frame, now housing a multi-paneled mirror, leans against a wall. The overall effect is broken-down charm and a celebration of imperfect beauty.
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Pagano amplifies the eclecticness of the setting with antique Chinese figurines placed around the house.
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“People have time to come over to talk, to have tea or a drink, so they need a parlor like this, Pagano says. On nights when she holds jazz salons, a piano player takes a seat at the 7-foot Steinway while Pagano sings. Windows at the other end of the room open to the courtyard for the smokers, she says and music fills the house into the wee hours.
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Late afternoon sunshine illuminates antique bottles set in front of vintage drapes.
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A close-up look at one of the many Chinese dolls in Pagano’s home.
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The colored beads and intricate threadwork of a vintage lampshade.
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The inspiration to redo a room often comes from a new object. Here in the dining room, a carved Chinese campaign bar came from the movie Mrs. Doubtfire. Pagano discovered it at a sale on the 20th Century Fox lot.
Closed it looks like a sturdy, ornate chest, but upon inspection its secret doors and storage spaces become a bartenders dream. One drawer holds liquor bottles, another glasses, and yet another part of her wine collection. Hovering above (and seen in the mirror): an Art Deco fixture with 30 panels of etched glass from the early 1920s.
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Candles and vintage figurines in the dining room.
Back to L.A. at Home (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Paganos 4,800-square-foot home was built in the late 1920s.
When she first saw it, she ventured down the hall and entered the small bathroom under the stairs. Low black tile is topped by what appears to be a three-dimensional, zigzagging frieze in persimmon orange.
The design thrilled Pagano, and without seeing another room in the six-bedroom house or realizing that this tile maker had worked wonders in two more bathrooms, she decided to buy the house.
Back to L.A. at Home (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
In the master bedroom, vintage Russian pillows rest in front of a headboard made from what used to be a teak ceiling sculpture.
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An ornate bureau in the bedroom sits in front of a window overlooking the patio.
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In the bathroom: another vintage doll. Pagano says she has yet to decorate many of the rooms. I found it so hard to make decisions that I kept putting them off and off, she says. It took me 14 years to put the window treatments in my own bedroom!
Back to L.A. at Home (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Antique religious artifacts can be found throughout the house. Religiosity is such a New Orleans thing, and even though Im not religious, I love the objects associated with it, Pagano says.
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The back porch, lighted by lanterns.
Pagano is collaborating with New Orleans hotelier Sean Cummings on his revamping of the International House boutique hotel.
The fingerprints of the designer should not be the thing that jumps out at you, and her projects are never ego-driven,” Cummings said of Pagano. “Rather, they capture the places where her clients’ houses are and easily express how these clients chose to live in them.
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L.A. meets the South by way of the Far East.
Back to L.A. at Home (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
And what would an L.A. house be without a little humor? Pagano’s sign, popular with thieves, is now bolted to the front gate.
To peek inside more noteworthy houses, lofts and backyards, check out www.latimes.com/homesofthetimes.
To read our design blog: www.latimes.com/home. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
