The Asian-inspired aesthetic of the Charles Jacobsen showroom at the Pacific Design Showroom in Los Angeles is a personal vision of beauty and discipline. The antique pieces from Asia and India are chosen, in part, for their architectural appeal. Beauty of wood, finishes, and personality are also important. This is mainly domestic furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries: the pieces show their age and one is comforted by these beautiful objects from other times and cultures. Recently, we have added some pieces of Ming furniture to our Chinese offering: they are more unusual and expensive than the Ching furniture and have a different character. Over the years, we have designed lines of soft seating, mainly sofas, chairs, and ottomans, which marry well with the antiques in their simplicity of line. Since the upholstery is custom, any variation on our presentation can be made. Fabric is important in the presentation of the aesthetic, and nowhere is taht better observed than in the choice of fabrics we use. Since we sell our soft seating off the floor, there is an ongoing change of dimension and fabric that one sees on subsequent visits. We are continually rethinking the presentation, which keeps the showroom a freash teaching platform for designers and their clients. In addition, we sell reproduction furniture that we call new forms. The lines are clean and show off the beauty of the wood we use. We do custom work and provide clients with exactly what they desire within the framework of the new forms aesthetic. Finally, we sell textiles: most are antique, like Japanese obi and Indian metallic embroidery work known as zardosi. We also sell custom-colored, vegetable-dyed Tibetan rugs with no patterns - they act as tranquil backgrounds for the furniture. There is great cohesion among the various parts of the inventory: everything is chosen with a sense of compatibility. The result is calm and beauty.
