What is it about loft living that pushes people to go all-in on their design choices? Oh that's right. The lack of interior walls. Suddenly your living, dining, sleeping and cooking spaces have to relate to one another.

This week writer Audrey Davidow takes us behind the four doors at the Toy Factory Lofts building downtown. The bones of these apartments may once have been the same, but you'd never know it now. One resident, for instance, found decorating inspiration in from late 19th century Paris -- while a neighbor found it in modern Tokyo. Check them all out in our extensive photo gallery. 

-- Deborah Netburn

Photos clockwise from top: Toy Factory Lofts exterior, Al Seib / Los Angeles Times; Wendy Park and Asa Anderson's organic Tokyo-inspired home, Stefano Paltera / For the Los Angeles Times; Michelle Niday's over-the-top Parisienne palace, Stefano Paltera / For the Los Angeles Times; Marcos de Mattos urban pad, Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

The Cube Marketplace Downtown, a once-a-month pop-up shop selling gourmet foods, garden accessories, housewares and tabletop items, will premiere Saturday. The event will include classes on a rooftop garden including a session on kitchen-garden basics and composting by Marta Teegan as well as a wine class with David King, wine assistant at Cube Marketplace & Cafe, the Hollywood restaurant and shop on La Brea Avenue. 

The basics: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cube Marketplace Downtown, 550 Ceres Ave., Los Angeles. (213) 542-3316. 

For more information on the event, read Betty Hallock's Daily Dish report.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

It’s only February, but bestirred by rain and gathering days, California lilacs are blooming, manzanitas are bedecked with bells and irises are pent up for a March explosion.

It doesn’t just feel like spring, it is spring in Southern California. So, if you are considering a dry garden for your home, now is the time to meet the natives. This is the moment to go to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont.

Prepare for romance. There is nothing that quite compares with the first stroll through Rancho. But, remember, it’s also a beauty contest, and you are a judge. You are auditioning plants that you may one day put in your garden. Take paper, a pen and a camera. Print out a copy of the garden's landscape plan and accompanying plant list. The list and beds are coded, so if plant tags are missing, you will know what’s what.

Rancho can be a magical place for small children, but leave them at home for this trip. You will be walking the fine line between reverie and scrutiny, taking in beauty, then allowing your mind to trip quickly from fascination to hard calculus. Your toddlers will be off at college while you are still living with plants spotted on this trip.

When reconnoitering, be clinical. If you are suddenly taken by a stand of woolly blue curls, salvias or penstemons, don’t let it go with a sigh. Stop. Read the plant tag. Write down the plant name -- the full name. Botanical Latin is a royal pain, but it is also a vital tool.

In a botanical name, the genus of plants is the first term, then the species name and/or the words for the nursery-bred cultivar. By using these terms correctly, we are guaranteed to get the plant we want and not some big, wrong cousin. Within one genus, different species often range from trees to groundcover.

As foreign as it seems at first, we classify things this way all the time. If this were a trip through IKEA, we would automatically note the difference between a dining chair versus an arm chair. In a garden, it’s exactly the same process, except in Latin, and backward. That makes it hard, but it’s worth it. The most insufferable of us become very good at it.

Nearly 60 home decor, fashion and food merchants on West 3rd Street will try to seduce sweethearts into a bit of Valentine's Eve shopping this Saturday. Some of the enticements include raffles, sales, refreshments, entertainment and free valet parking when you say the word "heart" to an attendant.

I did a quick survey of the landscape. Trina Turk is featuring a selection of decorative pillows in the fashion designer's signature textiles at 50% off. The store does not stock the 75% off cushions that my colleague Lisa Boone recently wrote about, but a member of the staff said she'd be happy to order them from Trina Turk Residential in Palm Springs. At Plastica, all items (including the colorful woven vinyl rugs from Sweden, above left, which start at $110) will be reduced by 10% to those who say the word "sweet." (Hey, you gotta have a gimmick). 

There are deeper discounts at New Stone Age, where I discovered small rolling glass vases (above right), that imitate those created by the innovative Parisian floral designer Christian Tortu. Once $20 each, they are marked down 60% to $12 for the event. 

Don't pass by the clothing store Aero & Co.,  either. It has a small selection of home decor objects, but some of the most eye-catching are half off. Among them: Harry Allen Reality's "Bank in the Form of A Pig" in a metallic red marked down from $250 to $125 and a colorful selection of Kuma bears, right. 

The organic cotton teddy bears are the work of  designer Ross Menuez (who also created the popular Fauna line of animal image pillows and T-shirts). The bears are silkscreened using kid-friendly soy inks. Originally $58, they are now $29. 

Valentine's on West 3rd Street, between Fairfax Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard, Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credits: Plastica's rugs and New Stone Age's vases by David A. Keeps; Kuma bears courtesy of Areaware

"It was a Sunday afternoon in 1974 when a black-suited Claretian missionary known as Father Pat walked into the monthly meeting of the Long Beach Cactus Club looking to make a deal.

"Turn the sunny dirt patch next to his home at Dominguez Rancho Adobe into a cactus garden, Father Patrick McPolin said, and you can use the state historic site's carriage house for all of your future meetings."

So begins Laura Randall's story on the unlikely 36-year relationship between a cactus club and a missionary.

The garden makes up just a small corner of the ranch, which is now a historical museum run by heirs of the original owner, Juan Jose Dominguez. The cacti are not labeled, but who needs labels when you've got blooms like these? 

The Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum, 18127 Alameda St., Rancho Dominguez; (310) 603-0088 or dominguezrancho.org. The grounds are open for free guided tours every Wednesday and Sunday, as well as the first Thursday, Friday and Saturday of each month.

-- Deborah Netburn

Photo credit: Axel Koester / Los Angeles Times

Every winter I find myself thinking the same thing -- "It is so good to live in L.A." While other parts of the country are blanketed in a sea of white, we here in Los Angeles are enjoying some of the best color displays of the year in the garden.

If you planted carefully you might be seeing Christmas cactus in pink and magenta, red-hot pokers, red-stemmed beets or neon pink Swiss chard in their full glory this month. Even if you didn't plant carefully you're sure to catch glimpses of these eye-popping plants around town. With those colors, they are hard to miss.

A few Februaries ago, writer Lili Singer took us on a tour of two homes that had particularly colorful winter gardens. To accompany that story she offered a list of plants from around the world that set cool-season gardens aglow. You can click here to download Singer's story, but the plant list is after the jump.

-- Deborah Netburn

I've wanted to check out the exotic housewares at Sweet Smiling Home ever since I visited the magical yard called Skyfarm and saw one of the store's Balinese Temple umbrellas (shown above with Skyfarm owner Ilse Ackerman).

I finally have real impetus to make the trip to Sweet Smiling Home this Saturday. Leading up to a big warehouse move, it is offering huge discounts all day. (The new location will open sometime in March.)  Everything in the store will be reduced by 70%, including furniture, curtains, lighting, pillows and other accessories. And the large Balinese Temple umbrellas like the one shown above? Normally priced at around $200, they cost only $70 on Saturday.

Sweet Smiling Home, 1317 Palmetto St., downtown Los Angeles; (213) 687-9630 or www.sweetsmilinghome.com. Sale is Saturday only, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

When Jim Tripp sends a Valentine's Day bouquet to wife Lauren, he makes sure the flowers are grown locally.

"It's important to support organic farmers and make a conscious choice about where our money goes," says Tripp, Aramark’s general manager for sports, entertainment and conventions at the Anaheim Convention Center. "Every time I pull out my checkbook, I can make a difference."

According to the Society of American Florists, 187 million roses are produced for Valentine’s Day alone, but only a fraction are sustainably or organically grown. As the base of eco-conscious consumers grows, flowers are joining paints, cabinets, floors and cleaning products in the realm of green shopping.

The key question: What makes flowers green?

Times staff writer Martha Groves reports this morning:

The Century Plaza, the elegantly curved luxury hotel that has welcomed presidents, princes and pop stars since its 1966 opening, will be spared from the wrecking ball under a historic agreement between the owner and preservationists.

The top floors will go condo, but should we be surprised? You also can read L.A. at Home columnist Sam Watters' column from April, when the movement to preserve the landmark was peaking. Watters wrote about the hotel's special place in residential design:

Long before Southern California was a land of houses, it was an eden of hotels. The Raymond, the Green, the Mission Inn, the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Ambassador were designed as homes away from home. . . . Donald A. Robbins, senior designer for manager Western International Hotels, decorated the [Century Plaza's] 800 guest rooms. Each had cutting-edge luxuries: wide sliders that opened onto balconies with an ocean or a mountain view, soundproofed walls, central air and heating, electric blankets, built-in vanities, ice machines, radios in the nightstands, and color television a decade before it reached most American homes.

-- Craig Nakano

Photos: At top, the exterior of the Century Plaza. Credit: Yamasaki Associates. Second photo, the 1966 rooms with wide sliders that opened to views. Credit:  Julius Shulman /  courtesy of the Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Getty Research Institute

"I just picked this from my backyard" is a phrase usually supplied by someone handing over a clump of kale, or maybe a calla lily bouquet. But it could easily apply to a pot of herbal tea.

It's completely doable here in California, where mild weather allows any backyard garden to become its own Celestial Seasons. Camomile, thyme, rose hips, ginger, endless varieties of mint, lemon grass and lemon balm, and even allspice all can be grown relatively easily, and all make great herbal teas.

Tempted? Check out Los Angeles-based garden guru Lili Singer's story about growing tea in the garden, which includes a list of each plant's needs, wants and growing patterns. "Plant well, and you'll be rewarded with a cup of aromatherapy at its best: camomile that calms, spearmint that soothes, lemongrass that refreshes," she writes. Read her full story here, or click to the jump for her list of tea plants that grow readily in L.A.

-- Deborah Netburn

When fashion designer Trina Turk opened her flagship boutique in 2002, she chose a Palm Springs modernist building designed by Albert Frey.

Although Turk's Medallion print floors cushions, shown above, would certainly suit such a setting, we're guessing they will rest on the floor of your home just as easily.

The high-quality 3-inch-thick foam pillows measure 22 inches square and are covered in 100% cotton printed in Italy. Normally $228, the pillows are now on sale for $57 each. (Shipping is $15.) For other great deals on Turk's housewares, including many snazzy pillows, click here.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Trina Turk

With the National Weather Service forecasting wet weather through March, it seems like an opportune time to invest in a rain barrel. Rain barrels hold water that has been collected from roofs. They not only save money on your monthly water bill, but also help the environment by reducing urban runoff.

This portable 34-gallon collapsible rain barrel from the eco-conscious online store Green Home is made of flexible, puncture-resistant, laminated polyester. Simply place it outdoors under your gutter or on your patio and reuse the water for your gardening needs.

The rain barrel has a wide mouth that allows for easy access and a mesh screen to keep out  leaves and other debris. Zip open the top to fill your bucket or install a compatible garden hose to the attached nozzle at the base. On sale this week for $59 (down from $70).

For more Green Home products that help with water conservation, click here. (877) 282-6400.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Green Home

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More than 1,000 photographs, drawings and other documents from the archives of Frank Lloyd Wright scholar Henry-Russell Hitchcock will go on the block as part of Bonhams & Butterfields' books and manuscripts sale Sunday in Los Angeles. It is the largest and most diverse collection of Wright material that Catherine Williamson, director of fine books of manuscripts at the auction house, has seen in more a decade.

"There are more archives, usually smaller collections of designs and correspondence that come from the descendants of people who commissioned individual houses from Wright," she says. This material includes rare photographs from the architect's files that were used to research, write and illustrate "In the Nature of Materials: The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright," co-authored by Wright and Hitchcock. That work, Williamson adds, "was the standard text on Wright from its publication in 1942 to the late 1960s." 

Hitchcock's collection includes images of Wright buildings that are no longer standing, such as the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo as well as photographs and plans for Wright landmarks in L.A. including the Ennis House and Hollyhock House, right. Wiliiamson says Wright scholars believe the material is enough to produce two or three more books. 

First editions of Hitchcock and Wright's "In the Nature of Materials" now fetch around $300 at auction. The Hitchcock archive is valued considerably higher -- as in add-two-zeros higher. The group of items is expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

For those of lesser means, Bonhams & Butterfields also is selling a signed 1954 check from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. It is made out to Safway Steel Scaffolds Co. in the amount of $51. It is expected to sell for $500 to $700.

Wright fans can get a peek for free during Bonhams & Butterfields' auction previews: noon to 5 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at 7601 W. Sunset Blvd. Information: (323) 850 7500.

-- David A. Keeps

Photos: Bonhams & Butterfields

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Who knows if the cause is the economy or the pressure to conserve resources or general paranoia about the food supply -- but publishers are responding with new titles promoting self-sufficiency. Here are three new or upcoming releases that represent different levels of intensity. After all, some of us just want a pot of herbs in our windowsill, while others are looking into the legality of keeping goats in the yard.

Level 1: So, you want to grow some vegetables. Gayla Trail, founder of the beloved Canadian gardening blog You Grow Girl, has written a book called "Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces" (Clarkson Potter, $19.99). In this book you'll find tips on starting your first compost pile, a tutorial on using toilet rolls as seed starters, directions for making a raised bed with no bags of dirt involved (it's all compost, and I'm tempted!), and even a DIY upside-down tomato planter. There's also a section on dealing with pests (slugs hate coffee) plus recipes and harvesting tips.

Level 2: We're talking chickens. For the backyard farmer who wants to add animals, "Creating Your Backyard Farm: How to Grow Fruit and Vegetables, and to Raise Chickens and Bees" (CICO Books, $24.95) is coming to stores in March. Most of the book, by British writer Nicki Trench, is devoted to the fruits and vegetables part. A long chapter on the kitchen garden covers how to raise potatoes in grow bags, how to store apples and more. The chicken section is meant only as an introduction; there are no coop plans, for example. There are also a couple of pages on keeping goats and keeping pigs, but again, it's only an introduction.

Level 3: Off the grid. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living" (Alpha Books, $18.95) is far less insane than the title might suggest. Writer Jerome D. Belanger promotes shopping for clothes at Goodwill rather than learning to spin your own wool. Yes, he's got tips on raising rabbits, chickens, pigs, turkeys and goats, as well as how to save seeds, but he looks beyond livestock and produce into more everyday concerns, such as how readers can save water and electricity. He also thinks repurposing an old house makes more sense than building one.

-- Deborah Netburn

Photo credits: "Grow Great Grub" courtesy of Clarkson Potter; "Creating Your Backyard Farm" courtesy of CICO Books; "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living" courtesy of Alpha Books

Hanging from a leather strap, the most desirable -- and imitated -- mirror of the moment has a sleek, masculine appearance that suggests equestrian hardware, camping canteens and pocket watches. The design also references the work of Jacques Adnet, who created accessories for the Parisian design house Hermes in the mid-20th century, as well as his own desirable and collectible furniture line.

One of the looking glasses shown above is the Captain's Mirror made in the United States and designed in 2001 by Tyler Hays, owner of the Manhattan design firm BDDW. Sold directly to decorators but now available through Lawson Fenning in Los Angeles, it set the gold standard with bronze details, topstitched leather and a $1,600 price tag for a 20-inch-diameter mirror. Others, which range in size from 16 inches to 18 inches, sell for $295 to $500.

Which is which? Answers after the jump.

Just days after the Times' architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne called Unhappy Hipsters a "welcome addition to the often self-serious world of architecture and design," the website took a satirical poke at one of our photos, which had us laughing out loud.

Our original Oct. 3 caption on the photo, by prize-winning staff photographer Robert Gauthier? "Robert Choeff holds daughter Zara as he makes dinner in the upstairs addition of their home. A long countertop spans one wall, and dark cabinets help to conceal the refrigerator and other appliances. The chalkboard paint also makes the kitchen feel bigger than its 125 square feet."

The Unhappy Hipster caption? "Daybreak revealed much worse. The blackness hung low, swallowing shadows, blotting out sunshine. He hugged his daughter close and tried to assume the normal routine."

Check out our original photo gallery of Robert Choeff's and Krystyan Keck's home, including the bench-wrapped living area where son Zo looks, well... dare we say happy?

-- Lisa Boone

Photos, from top: Screen grab from Unhappy Hipsters; The acrobatic Zo photographed by Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

You'll want to stay out of flower beds until they dry out a bit -- there's nothing worse than compacted soil. But for those plotting their next move in the garden, some suggestions:

Now is a prime time to plant winter greens -- or reds, whites, pinks and purples, as is the case with one colorful edible. Check out Lili Singer's advice on planting chard. 

Why bother with seeds? It's one way to get more interesting plants, and it's easier than you might think. Robert Smaus offers tips on the best way to raise seedlings.

If a desert garden sounds smart but you're worried about how your children and pets might live with it, read our feature on cactus without spines or needles.

We could spend hours debating the place (or lack thereof) of lawn in L.A., but for those of you who have decided to keep your turf, at least know there are good reasons not to spread manure as fertilizer, as so many gardeners and professional gardening crews do this time of year. 

Finally, what would winter be without camellias? Read our feature story, and for some growing advice, click to the jump.

In a Jan. 15 Culture Monster post on "The Last Plastics Show" at Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art, reviewer David Pagel noted that the work of Venice, Calif.-based Doug Edge pushed "mysteriousness to extremes, making wacky talismans that are too beautiful to ignore, yet too odd to make sense of by conventional means." That description certainly applies to the artist's rippling cast-resin pieces with bullet holes, which commemorate slain leaders Malcolm X and John F. Kennedy. But Edge's 1969 piece "Earth, Seed, Water Bus Bench," shown above, is a pretty easy read. 

"It was created for the first Earth Day 40 years ago," says Tom Jimmerson, co-owner of the Culver City gallery, where the 7-foot-long object is prominently displayed. Made during the birth of the green movement, the work is still meaningful today.

Its name stems from the ingredients encased within its molded plexiglass components. The uprights are filled with dirt, the seat slats contain plant seeds, and the wavy-topped back is a reservoir for water.

At $15,000, the one-of-a-kind original artwork is out of my league, but it did make me to wonder how I might make the same statement at a more affordable price. My take on the concept: Make three acrylic 18-inch acrylic cubes that could each be filled with earth, seeds and water. They could double as side tables. On a whim, I called Hastings Plastics in Santa Monica, where to my surprise, a representative said that the company had done refurbishing work on the Edge bench. The estimated cost for my idea would run about $1,500. Now I'm thinking that filling three small acrylic display cubes from the Container Store might be an  intriguing centerpiece. Or at least a conversation starter. 

"The Last Plastics Show" runs through Saturday at Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art, 8568 Washington Blvd., Culver City; (310) 815-1100 or cardwelljimmerson.com.

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credits: Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art

 
Designer and showroom owner Dan Marty has closed his sprawling space in the Pacific Design Center in favor of a smaller showroom on La Cienega Boulevard named Maison Au Naturel No. 819.

Marty says that name change reflects his shift toward “more earthiness in design,” such as his growing collection of vegetable-dyed hemp throw pillows, sea grass rugs and shell-encrusted  mirrors. Even hay bales are used to delineate different areas of the shop.

Marty was one of the first to use French grain sacks as upholstery fabric. It’s a much-copied look -- Pottery Barn has come out with a line of grain-sack-inspired throw pillows -- so he's now busy trying out new ideas. The latest involves using subway scroll fabric for pillows and lamp shades. They've just arrived in the store.

Au Naturel upholstered pieces aren’t cheap: Linen-covered chairs and sofas run $1,000 to $3,000. But some of the hemp pillows (photo on the jump) can be had for under $200. And a new line of glass domes set atop antique cogs, pictured here — they’re a cool  twist on bell jars — go for around $250. 

Maison Au Naturel No. 819, 819 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood; (310) 657-1002. Open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. More photos after the jump ...

Designer Bernard Brucha's dilemma is your opportunity. "I am running out of room for all our prototypes and samples," says the owner of Mash Studios and creator of the solid walnut LAXseries furniture line. 

To clear out some space, Brucha is hosting a studio sample sale that runs Thursday to Saturday. Pieces from the LAXseries collection and his new solid teak PCHseries beds will be reduced  50% to 70%. Among the steals: A slim wall-mounted desk in solid walnut, right, will be $370, and a low, 23-inch-square side table with a nifty cord-concealing design will be $175.

The event will also provide a peek at Brucha's latest designs, including his first upholstered pieces -- the modular seating group, shown above. 

"I went to buy a sofa for my own home and found the existing designs to be very dull, like having a gray elephant in your room," he says.

His solution: a sleek, low-slung and easy-to-move trio -- ottoman, armless two-seater and one-arm seat -- that can be configured in a variety of ways to suit spacious homes or cozy apartments. 

Balanced on a solid red oak plinth base, the LAXseries sofa features feather-and-down-filled cushions upholstered in solids, stripes and, as shown at right, a jazzy mix of both fabrics that Brucha calls Transition. The three-piece sectional is available by order from Mash Studios for $3,975. Prices for custom fabrics vary.

Mash Studios, 12705 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 313 4700 or www.mashstudios.com. The sale begins with a party on Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m., and continues Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credits: Bernard Brucha for Mash Studios