Los Angeles - March 07, 2005

Build Me Up, Buttercup

H.D. Buttercup Opens

It’s hard not to resent interior designers.

Especially when you’re gazing through the window of yet another off-limits-to-the-average-Joe showroom, coveting a pair of Fortuny-covered antique chairs. “Look,” they say invitingly. “But unless you’re inner circle, don’t touch.”

That’s all over now. Evan Cole, former CEO and co-founder of New York’s ABC Carpet & Home, has just opened L.A.’s very own direct-to-consumer design and furniture showroom, H.D. Buttercup. Located in the landmark Helms Bakery Building in Culver City, the 1931 “zigzag moderne” structure presents 100,000 square feet of antique, traditional, and modern home furnishings, as well as jewelry, accessories, bath and body products, gifts, and garden items.

H.D. Buttercup promises an all-access pass to high-end manufacturers’ entire collections in the modern-day medina. (1930s butter stains on the hardwoods and all.) You may even find yourself rubbing elbows with some on-the-job interior designers.

And yes. You have permission to gloat.

H.D. Buttercup, Helms Bakery Building, 3225 Helms Avenue, at Venice Boulevard, Culver City (310-558-8900 or hdbuttercup.com).