Design House International takes over mansions to stage creative showcases

Last November, an empty room - one of 55 in a sprawling Beverly Hills home - was transformed into a showcase for a top Los Angeles design duo. It was part of a wider project that is a popular template in Los Angeles, and is destined to travel overseas: beautiful heritage houses whose rooms are temporarily taken over for designer showcases.

The Greystone Mansion event, which has run for eight editions, saw 29 Los Angeles-based designers take over various rooms and spaces of the empty mansion, a 1927 estate once lived in by the oil-rich Doheny family, and now owned by the city of Beverly Hills.

But this was the first time that the event featured a theme. For "Titans of Business", the designers were invited to choose a source of inspiration, ranging from Muppets creator Jim Henson to singing superstar Stevie Wonder.

Designer Suzanne Furst, who worked on the library at the mansion with her daughter-in-law, interior designer Estee Stanley, found inspiration by channelling Michael Meldman, a high-profile land developer and philanthropist who owns 17 luxury retreats in Hawaii, California and the Bahamas.

"He believes that preserving the natural characteristics of the land is the most crucial element of any development project," Furst says. To tap into that sensibility, Furst and Stanley infused the space with a "warm and comfortable" feeling.

"We thought it would be interesting to have a mix of contemporary, vintage and mid-century influences, and to put them all together to show what you can do with various elements of design."

Underpinning the pieces were white walls, and bookcases lined with earthy grasscloth. Then Furst and Stanley set to work filling the space with elements that conveyed a sense of rustic elegance, in a neutral setting punctuated with shots of dark red or black.