Lee Stanton’s Los Angeles condo–an urban aerie filled with a collection cabinet of unique antiques – didn’t have a kitchen when he bought it in 2006. There weren’t any bathrooms, either. The credit goes to the previous owner Lindsay Lohan.
“She had destroyed the house. This was an old shell,” says Lee Stanton, who owns Lee Stanton Antiques, a specialist in European items of the 17th-18th and 19th centuries. “I think she was going to remodel it.” The actress instead sold the property, letting it become an ideal 2,300-square-foot home on the top floor of one of the most sought-after high-rises in the city, Sierra Towers. The doorman’s building from 1965, located on the edge of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills, is an enclave for celebrities. Residents include David Geffen, Cher, Sidney Poitier, Elton John, and Courteney Cox.
Due to the property’s attractiveness, Stanton thought he would sell the property. But two factors came up. First, he became amazed by the property, a sought-after corner unit with a 40-foot terrace with sea views to the west and the north, Hollywood Hills to the north, and the snow-capped mountains to the east. After that, he explains that he realized, “I’m not a flipper and seller.”
The choice of the wide plank of bleached Belgian oak flooring, for example, didn’t come out as well, and neither did the custom cabinetry made of dark stained oak with stainless steel details. “I was picking out things that were double the price of what I probably should have put in here to sell it,” says Stanton, who is a prominent persona in L.A.’s design scene, not only for his store, which is one of the most sought-after spots for top designers and decorators and designers but also for his work in marketing North La Cienega Boulevard as an area for design. He was instrumental in naming the neighborhood, home to several showrooms and shops designed by Michael S. Smith, Rose Tarlow, and Kelly Wearstler–as the La Cienega Design Quarter about six years ago.
Before buying the Sierra Towers pad–which he converted from a three-bedroom house to an additional two bedrooms to expand the size of the rooms–, Stanton resided over his business. “When people found out where I lived, they would start knocking, wanting me to open up,” he remembers. “Or asking, ‘Can you meet a delivery guy at six in the morning, or at 10 at night?’ ” Incentive enough to make me move.
Naturally, the antiquarian chose the pieces he could find from his store to use in his home. “I really wanted a place to showcase antiques in a contemporary environment–to demonstrate that they can still look current and that a very eclectic collection of pieces from different periods can fit together,” he states. For the room in which he lives, a massive 18th-century walnut library cabinet is the focal point of the room. (The cabinet, discovered in an estate in Tuscany and is so huge that it needed to be placed over the elevator’s cab to ensure enough room.) Chairs from the 1800s, one antique inlaid Italian Art Deco writing desk, and a pair of French Directoire marble-top tables are all seated beneath a circa-1970 modernist pewter chandelier.
Stanton’s passion for collecting — he grew up in Ohio going to the shops along with his mother, who was a lover of antiques — is evident in the plethora of tiny ornaments scattered throughout the home. Most are geometric shapes ranging from inlaid boxes to old obelisks to bocce and marble balls. “I sort of like imagining I’m an artist who’s studying and drawing shapes,” says Stanton, who has also crafted various models of wood used in perspective drawings.
The space isn’t bare. Even with numerous carefully selected items, the Stanton residence isn’t too raucous due to his stoic colors (including furniture in slate blue linen, brown and warm gray wool-suiting fabric) and his clean-lined furniture. “People want antiques these days that have a contemporary look to them, and those pieces are getting more difficult to find,” Stanton says. “You can go to Europe and find warehouses full of old armoires and buffets with all these fancy legs and carvings–and I don’t know if that look will ever come back.”
Mahogany, with its reddish-colored tones, was also prohibited. “It’s just English traditional. All of the items are made of oak or walnut. The browns I was looking for were rich dark brown,” adds Stanton. Also, the architectural details ranging from planked floors to the floor-to-ceiling
windows provide an uncluttered backdrop to his treasures.
The result aligns with how Stanton states that his clients (and clients — he has an interior design project every year or as often) would like to live their lives. “They need something that is solid. They desire their homes to look like they have been layered and collected over time, and not decorated within one year. This suggests that the house was purchased rather than bought.” In Stanton’s instance, the latter was. He’s recently completed his 52nd purchasing journey to Europe. The next one will be Italy: “I haven’t been to Italy in three trips. It’s about time to travel.”