Avi Brosh, the developer and creative visionary behind the chic Palihouse hotel, knows all about how to make a house a super-hip home.
The lobby-cum-lounge of the West Hollywood hotel is one of the most fabulously decorated spots in town; think bold Sixties wallpaper back-dropping stuffed birds and quirky Polaroid art projects.
We chatted with the hotelier recently in an attempt to figure out how to infuse a little Palihouse cool into our humble abodes, after the jump.
Style Section L.A.: How would you describe your aesthetic when it comes to Palihouse?
Avi Brosh: It’s sort of European bohemian-inspired, a mix of classic, vintage and more contemporary pieces. It feels recognizable — the silhouettes of pieces are silhouettes you understand. And then there’s more quirky, contemporary pieces mixed in to give it a more modern edge. We try to accelerate the patina or the space. And if something’s raggedy, we try and mix it with something that very, very refined. And if something’s super refined, we try and dumb it down and make it a little more raggedy. I think that’s a good rule of thumb. That’s pretty much our style.
SSLA: There are a number of original pieces of art in the hotel that your company designed — Why did you want to make your own art instead of buying outside art?
Brosh: We wanted the space to be as much as possible an independent expression. It also allowed us to reflect better or sort of suggest through art what the space is about. Lastly, it’s more cost effective at the end of the day – getting what you want without having to pay retail for art. It was really fun to do.
SSLA: There’s that big piece of art in the lobby made from Polaroid shots. What are the pictures of in that piece?
Brosh: Those are pictures of a variety of different things in the neighborhood. Although they are somewhat abstract, when you look at them you really do get a sense for what’s going on in the local area. Some of them are close-ups of different kinds of things, but all are representative of what surrounds the hotel.
SSLA: What’s the first thing you think about when creating a piece of art?
Brosh: I think that in the case of Palihouse where it almost has a gentleman’s club kind of feel, you have to offset that with slightly more interesting or contemporary pieces of art. So we try to get a visual impact without spending a lot of money. Whether it’s the Polaroid pieces or just sort of images that we get that we blow up or shrink down and frame, it’s all a part of creating a little story.
SSLA: What are other examples of artwork your team has made that we might be able to replicate?
Brosh: We have some drawings of some dogs, or drawings of other live art-type pieces that we got images of and we sort of framed them to suit the size and aesthetic of different places. We got old shoe horns from the turn of the century and we put those on top of books. It just kind of makes it interesting and quirky.
SSLA: Where do you find all the quirky cool things used as decor in the hotel?
Brosh: Online. You say, “Oh, we’re gonna have framed butterflies” and you get online and you’re like, where do you get framed butterflies? We’re constantly shopping and looking. A lot of times we buy stuff that we don’t really know where we’re going to put it for a while until the next project. It’s sort of a mix between specific things that we look for or we get things as we go and you find a good spot for them somewhere along the line.
SSLA: What advice would you give to someone who wants to create their own homemade art?
Brosh: What I would say is a lot of times people don’t have the ability to actually see things all the way through. I’ll give you a perfect example: Our DJ booth is an old woman’s vanity – the most god-awful looking woman’s vanity that you’ve ever seen in your life. And what we did was we were able to see through it… Take those little indentations where the brushes and the mirrors and the combs come and instead of having that, we put two turntables in there and then we took this horrific-looking piece and we painted it steel gray. It ended up being just the most beautiful piece, one of my favorite pieces that we did.
You have sort of find the utility of pieces, and don’t be afraid to paint them or re-imagine them. They end up providing a very elegant and chic addition to your space.
–Brett Malec
