Design neighbourhoods usually happen for unglamorous reasons: available space, the right building stock, and enough of the right businesses arriving close enough together to make a trip worth it. Melrose Hill has all three, which is why a few blocks of central Los Angeles now pull people who would previously have driven to the Design District or Culver City.
Key Takeaways
- The appeal is the combination — galleries, furniture, food and architecture in one walkable area.
- The building stock came from the area's commercial and furniture past.
- Furniture retail was not displaced by the galleries; the two coexist.
- Density matters more than size in a city as spread out as Los Angeles.
The Buildings Came First
The reason the new spaces look as good as they do is the architecture they inherited. Wallpaper* has written about former furniture warehouses becoming gallery and design spaces — long clear spans, timber roofs, generous daylight. You cannot easily build that now, and you certainly cannot build it cheaply.
Density Is the Point
What makes Melrose Hill work is that it is small. Architectural Digest has called it one of the city's buzziest design neighbourhoods, and Eater LA has documented how quickly the restaurant scene filled in. In a city this spread out, being able to park once and walk between a gallery, lunch and a furniture showroom is genuinely unusual.
Furniture Is Part of the Draw
It would be easy to write the story as galleries arriving and furniture hanging on. That is not quite right. Furniture is one of the reasons people come, and the two audiences overlap more than either trade expects. Someone who has spent an hour looking at art is in precisely the right frame of mind to assess a sculptural mirror or a marble-topped console.
You can see it in what people gravitate to on our floor: sculptural work like the Cascata Molten Gold Floor Mirror and the Onda Gold Floor Mirror gets treated much more like art than like furniture, while the ornate end — the Palazzo Baroque Floor Mirror — appeals to a more traditional eye. The full range is in our mirror collection and console tables.
The pieces mentioned above
Cascata Molten Gold Floor Mirror$1,710
Onda Gold Floor Mirror$1,045
Palazzo Baroque Floor Mirror$1,280
What Comes Next
The redevelopment around Western and Melrose is ongoing, so the neighbourhood is still changing. For anyone shopping for furniture in Los Angeles that is mostly good news: more reasons to make the trip, and more to do once you are here. Our Melrose Hill showroom is open six days a week. For the longer history, see our furniture history of Western Avenue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Melrose Hill a design neighbourhood?
A concentration of galleries, design studios, furniture retail and restaurants within a few walkable blocks, housed largely in converted commercial buildings.
Is Melrose Hill an official Los Angeles design district?
No — it is not a formally designated district, but it has become one of the city's most active clusters of art, furniture and design businesses.
Where can I see luxury furniture in Melrose Hill?
Furniture Collection's showroom at 635 N Western Avenue carries mirrors, console tables, dining, living and office furniture, open to walk-in visitors.
Visit Furniture Collection in Melrose Hill
Our Los Angeles furniture showroom is at 635 N Western Avenue, open Monday to Friday 10am–6pm and Sunday 11am–5pm. Walk in any time, or call or text (323) 466-4131 and we will have a piece waiting on the floor. Delivery is complimentary nationwide.
