Los Angeles Daily News: Classic Hollywood with Angelo Surmelis
By Sandra Barrera, Staff Writer
Updated: 08/21/2009 08:04:34 PM PDT
Celebrity designer Angelo Surmelis recently unveiled his debut furniture collection, and it has classic Hollywood all over it.
Harlow. Grant. Crawford.
These Silver Screen legends are just a few of the different models of The Modern Classics by angelo: Home collection of chairs, loveseats and sofas, whose clean, modern lines and fresh palette of colors and patterns have been selling out at Overstock.com since it launched in early August.
And there’s more on the way.
The designer and host of HGTV’s “Rate My Space” reality show says he’s taking his high-concept collection to other online shopping destinations, including Sears, CSN Stores and Costco. Like the Overstock offerings, prices range from $249 to $699.
“Sometimes when you buy something that is inexpensive, you think of it as disposable,” he says. “I wanted to give people the idea that they could have great value in terms of price point and great value in the way it looks and is constructed.”
Since he was a kid, Surmelis has found himself drawn to furniture.
When he wasn’t reconfiguring rooms, he was dragging furniture that had been dumped on the street back to his Greek family’s Chicago apartment.
There, he’d dismantle and put it back together again.
But his original designs are inspired by the sets of old Hollywood films.
“The set design always thrilled me,” Surmelis says. “And so, when the idea of creating a line came up I didn’t want it to feel like it was a trend that was going to go out of style in a couple of years. I wanted it to have an updated feel on the classics.”
He’s got a Hepburn love seat in yellow and a Harlow chair in a white-and-yellow check pattern in the living room of his Los Angeles home.
“If you have an apartment or if you’ve got a master bedroom that needs a seating area or something against the bed, the Hepburn is just the perfect scale,” he says, adding it’s smaller than traditional love seats.
Another small space must-have is the nesting ottoman, which can be used as seating, a coffee table or side table.
“Aren’t those cool? When we figured that out I was like, `This is my favorite thing,”’ he says. “It’s the perfect thing for when you want to store it in the corner without it taking up too much space.”
The collection also features the Grant chair with caster legs. At his site, Surmelis suggests partnering the lotus green floral pattern with the chocolate brown Crawford sofa.
More rich colors and a bedroom furniture collection will be part of the next roll out expected to come in late winter or early 2010.
“This was never a short-term goal,” Surmelis says. “This is about building the line, building the brand and continuing to roll out more and more under the angelo: Home banner to create a lifestyle for every room in your home.”
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