Home Comfort
Furniture designers and manufacturers Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams, experts in combining style with comfort, have recently opened a signature store at South Coast Plaza Village that showcases their furniture and design philosophy.
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| Get the Guide :: The Comfortable Home: How to Invest in Your Nest and Live Well for Less by Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams shows you how to choose and put together the elements of a stylish and comfy home. Available where books are sold. Visit the Store :: Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams is located at 1661 West Sunflower Ave. Ste. A2 at South Coast Plaza Village, Santa Ana 714.389.9300 :: mgbwhome.com |
Long before comfortable became an acceptable word in the interior design lexicon, furniture designers and manufacturers Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams were already creating sofas and chairs that embodied this quality.
Twenty-one years later, the duo has earned a rep as gurus and practitioners of combining style with comfort. They’ve recently opened a signature store bearing their names at South Coast Plaza Village to showcase their furniture and design philosophy. The spacious store across the street from the home wing of the shopping center is their second in California (the other one is in Los Angeles) and is part of their company’s long-standing expansion plans.
The company’s full line of furniture and accessories is available for purchase, but what’s actually on display is a wide but carefully customized selection. During their visit here last month, Gold and Williams said they’ve chosen to display pieces that best connect with the Orange County lifestyle. “For example, we’ve selected more lighter-colored things,” Gold said, indicating sofas in lovely ocean- and sky-inspired pale blues.
Williams added that it’s important for the furniture featured in the store to take into account the environment. “There’s a lot of light in this location, the kind of light that people who live here in Southern California actually see in their homes.”
Here, there is no shortage in the range of styles, whether it’s a side table or server. From the diminutive roll-armed Sophie sofa, which might suit a small cottage in Laguna Beach to the Rennie, a midcentury-inspired armless number that could anchor a Corona del Mar ranch house, it’s hard to walk away from this store without finding one you want to take home. The showroom would not be complete without the large-scale Dr. Pitt, a customizable multi-piece sectional that pays homage to disco era pit seating but has been updated with slipcovers to suit the spacious family rooms you might find in Newport Coast. “It’s just what the love doctor ordered,” Gold joked.
Perhaps the best part of the stylized showroom is that it’s a big but accessible three-dimensional visual guide on how to achieve comfort without sacrificing style. Many vignettes are composed so they have just the right dose of sophistication, but still look cozy enough that you can picture a homeowner slipping off her swanky Jimmy Choo cage sandals and curling up on a chaise longue.
So you like the furniture, but you’re not sure how to put it all together? You can always heed the experts’ advice: “We encourage people who like our furniture to copy our rooms,” Williams said, with a twinkle in his eyes. Lower those eyebrows. He and Gold really mean it.
