Actor Clark Duke’s Hollywood Hills Bungalow Is an Ode to Ettore Sottsass
Kathryn Romeyn
Updated
Although he’s of the belief that homes are “living and breathing, they’re never really finished,” L.A.-based interior designer Oliver Furth is mostly satisfied—for now—with the current state of actor, writer and director Clark Duke’s Craftsman bungalow in the Hollywood Hills after years of combing the globe and California for landmark postmodern pieces. Three years ago his client discovered and became smitten with the color and form of Ettore Sottsass’s work (and found Furth in a Wall Street Journal article), leading the pair on a research bender and treasure hunt.
“I think Clark had seen one Sottsass piece and from there we developed this language,” says Furth. “I didn’t want it to be this sort of slavish historic copy of a room that already existed, so we spread the boundaries and went further back to earlier modernist pieces and brought it forward with contemporary pieces,” he says, adding, “Clark has turned the corner from decorating into truly collecting.” Furth’s all-consuming dedication to design turned out a perfect match for Duke’s new passion, which has grown to encompass fine art in the form of works on paper by the likes of icons Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari.
A Carlton bookcase by Sottsass is a showpiece in the master bedroom.
Auctions (Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, Phillips)—where Furth bid against respected dealers—were a big source for major scores, alongside dealers in L.A. and one in Milan for ceramics. But going down the rabbit hole of Sottsass signatures is only part of the story, and they also commissioned quite a few pieces, including perhaps the most enticing statement in the house, a dining room console made by Memphis Group cofounder Peter Shire over a year and a half of collaboration. “It was very fun for the three of us to do this together,” says Furth of the process. We gave Peter, a creative genius, the program we needed and let him run wild. I wanted him to really push those colors.” The result is a “kind of wacky” primary-colored, hinging, bi-level console that led to an entirely new body of work by Shire, showcased this spring at MOCA at PDC.
Furth also commissioned a pair of mismatched marble end tables from L.A.-based Australian neo-Memphis designer Jonathan Zawada, and incorporated works by Angeleno ceramicists and artists including Ben Medansky, Clare Graham and Elyse Graham, the latter whose innovations with resin led to a large custom sculpture. Says Furth, “I love to cheerlead all design, especially the talents here in L.A.”
There was no master plan, the designer admits. Instead, “we started buying things, collecting these wonderful pieces of furniture, accessories, ceramic objects, and sculpture that went into the envelope.” Furth says he’s not one to scheme and use coordinates, instead likening their process to going to the market for ingredients before deciding what’s for dinner. He also had entire rooms painted in saturated hues—azure, evergreen, eggplant—and commissioned St. Louis’s Porter Teleo to create half a dozen unique wallpapers, hand-painted on Japanese rice paper. Duke, it turns out, was actually the one pushing Furth for more color. “Usually it’s a moment, but we really went for it and came up with a really interesting family of patterns,” says the object-driven designer who saw the wall coverings as yet another object to play with. He adds, “We sort of created these rooms within a beautiful painting. There are no placeholders in this house—it’s packed with details. Every thing is a thing.”
Actor Clark Duke’s Hollywood Hills Bungalow Is an Ode to Ettore Sottsass
Duke’s dining room showcases serious vision and craftsmanship, and is in a way a reaction against what Furth calls the “beigeness happening in design these days.” He thought, “Let’s try to do something that’s an antidote to all that.” The commissioned marble console by Memphis Group’s Peter Shire is a focal point beneath hand-painted wallpaper by Porter Teleo, a pair of Frank Stella mono prints, made at L.A.’s Gemini Gel, and an Ingo Maurer lamp. Vintage ‘50s-era chairs by Carlo Mollino sit beside it. It’s Furth’s favorite room: “It really is so different from other work I’ve done, and it’s different from everything else happening right now. I find it completely unique."
Duke’s grandparents’ Queen Anne table is surrounded by felted folding chairs by L.A.-based textile artist Tanya Aguañiga, and topped with a mixture of ceramics by Sottsass, Alex Reed (“a super-cool emerging L.A. ceramicist”) and a Kelly Wearstler bowl. The Rug Company rug adds a colorless splash, while Furth says the polka-dot Dadar curtains, which he uses throughout the house, “neutralize things. It calms the riot of color and pattern happening elsewhere.”
Despite more subdued walls—by Porter Teleo—Duke’s living room is a riot of bold, saturated color. The custom-made sofas, reupholstered recliners, original fireplace with handmade tile made by an L.A. workshop, and vivid rug play off hues found in the woven Erin Riley tapestry, “Summer.” Jonathan Zawada’s commissioned marble end tables and a solid Cypress wood coffee table made by Joshua Tree–area artist-maker Daniel Pollock (topped with Elyse Graham’s resin “geode”) add a dash of the natural.
A big reader, Duke required ample space for reading and storing his books, and Carlo Mollino stools give him a perfect perch in view of an Ed Ruscha piece. The Richard Shapiro ‘50s tricolor reading lamp is the house’s newest member. Beyond the literature, ceramics are a star here: A mix of pieces by Sottsass and contemporary artists live on the top shelf. On the left, Clare Graham’s—a former Disney float maker–turned–subversive sculptor—dexterity is on display in the form of a piece made of found buttons and wire.
The master bedroom features even more harmonious color. The cobalt of Duke’s room “was a great backdrop for this Carlton bookcase by Sottsass—it’s one of the most iconic pieces he did for Memphis,” says Furth of the showpiece they bought at Sotheby’s London after a long search. “It was a big day—there’s one currently at the Met’s Sottsass show. It was a big thing.” The complementary peach Robert Sonneman chair in its original fabric from the ‘50s is kept company by a 1961 Orbiter lamp and 2007 Marcel Wanders stool.
Furth painted Duke’s existing bedside table with a “funny stripe,” and had knobs custom made. Afterward it went perfectly with the pair of Ryan Mennealy ceramic lamps, Rebecca Atwood fabric-clad headboard and Claire Frost bed pillow—“it’s this unbelievably gorgeous woven silk,” says Furth.
Compared to the rest of the some 2,000-square-foot bungalow, Duke’s study is somber, but not so when seen alongside most rooms—especially thanks to two colorful Howard Hodgkin prints. A carpet from The Rug Company, Carlo Mollino stool and guitars decorate the room where the actor edits a lot of his films and plays music. “There’s a lot of good creative hanging out that happens here,” says Furth.
Duke wanted a pool table, “so we got him one.” Artwork by Roy Lichtenstein and John McLaughlin hangs on the long grasscloth-clad wall, and a John Baldessari lithograph peeks through in the purple hallway.
The kitchen features one of the most splashy Porter Teleo creations of the home, and it was made last, in reaction to the breakfast table and banquette. Furth says the pair looked forever for the perfect table for the space. “Clark was patient and we waited and found this unbelievable early Sottsass end table, which we used as a breakfast table.” They built the blue banquette around it, scaled low. Says Furth rhetorically, “How much more interesting is that than something everyone else has?”
Along with the prized Sottsass table, the kitchen eating area features a vibrant chair purchased in Rome by Italian artist Giorgia Zanellato, which is covered in hand-painted velvet. The blue pillows are made from an Indian quilt Furth found and adored the beautiful stitching.
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