Judith Hoffman’s Westwood penthouse: Antique elegance in modern world

Open the door to Hoffman’s 6,000-square-foot penthouse, and one will find a worldly, opulent blend of decorative periods and styles. The rooms are filled with artfully arranged furniture -- Art Deco, Vienna Secession, pieces inspired by 1940s French design and the early 19th century German neoclassical style known as Biedermeier.

“Antiques have to be combined with contemporary designs to make it feel like today,” Hoffman says. “I’m not crazy about doing purely period rooms because too many antiques becomes mundane.” Step inside …  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Hoffman was born in Hungary and moved to Los Angeles at age 14. In her current home, her first improvement was installing cherry planks in a herringbone pattern -- flooring that is common in the kind of apartment her family occupied in Budapest.

She bought the Lajos Kozma chairs pictured at left on a trip to Budapest in the late 1990s. “I ran to the Museum of Applied Arts and discovered that he was the Frank Lloyd Wright of Hungary, the preeminent architect, designer and graphic artist of his time.”

The contemporary artwork in the foreground is by Hungarian painter Laszlo Feher.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Two chairs by the Hungarian Kozma lie at the heart of the living room. In the design industry, French Art Deco has long been considered the gold standard, but Hoffman champions design from her native Hungary. “There was an incredible Old World method of book-matching veneers on even the most insignificant pieces made in Hungary,” she says. “That was what became important, not the over-decorated style of the French. And as modernism grew out of Deco, the lines became simpler, but they were still using the same highly skilled craftspeople.”

Over the years, Hoffman has become a connoisseur and collector, finally amassing so much 20th century Hungarian and Austrian furniture and decorative objects that she opened the store Szalon in Los Angeles.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The living room’s well-stuffed rolled-arm furniture is arranged hearthside; contemporary andirons and a metal goose purchased in Morocco complement the granite fireplace. The 10-foot-wide Chinese screen is 19th century.

In her native country, Hoffman says, each generation layered new purchases with family heirlooms. “Things could be 20, 50 or 100 years old, and all live very well together,” she says of the mix. This old-meets-new decorating philosophy is harder to achieve in an era of disposable home décor. “I want to be as up to date as everyone else,” Hoffman says, “but I resent the pack mentality of it. I always admired things for their own beauty and not necessarily because everybody thought they were cool.”  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Hoffman designed a Biedermeier-influenced media unit with fluted columns that conceal pullout storage drawers fabricated by Vienna Woods in Los Angeles.   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Paired with a settee from Thomas Lavin, this table is one of two used to entertain guests. Together they can accommodate 22 people.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Showcased with all European antiques are contemporary glassworks by Dale Chihuly.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Two midcentury figurines are by the Hungarian porcelain firm Zsolnay, known for its iridescent and metallic glazes.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

With its Louis XVI chair, the library is French neoclassical. The table is an old Chinese chest for which Hoffman designed a brushed stainless steel stand. The sofa is a Biedermeier reproduction by Vienna Woods. The lyre-shared tub chair is a Rose Tarlow piece.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Above the library sofa: a contemporary painting by Yankel Ginzburg, an American of Russian descent. Hoffman says she chose the sofa fabric because it picks up on the swirls in the rug, referencing Vienna Secession design.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Hoffman’s home office has a Russian Empire reproduction desk by Baker and a side chair by Austrian designer Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956).   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

In the powder room, Judith Hoffman used glass and gold Italian mosaic tiles and a Venetian mirror to create a sense of Hollywood Regency grandeur.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Hoffman stands in front of frosted-glass doors leading into the master suite. She devised a pattern for the glass similar to what might have been found on a Josef Hoffmann textile produced in the Wiener Werkstatte, the early 20th century Viennese workshop. The contemporary silhouette painting is by the Hungarian Laszlo Feher.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Inside the bedroom doors: a half-moon rosewood console table, a Charles Schneider French Art Deco vase and an Edgar Brandt framed mirror.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The expansive master bedroom exudes Art Deco glamour with silver painted walls, oversized chenille club chairs that Hoffman designed and an elaborate mural by the contemporary Russian artist Katya Kompaneyets.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A bedroom cabinet includes a walnut chest of drawers with the kind of intricate marquetry typical of the 1920s. “In order to bring the elegance and luxury of the past into today,” Hoffman says, “I needed a contemporary space that I could make my own.”

Read the full story on Judith Hoffman’s Westwood penthouse here.

Click here for more Homes of the Times.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)