Valley Life : bargains : Good Furniture Buys Hatch at French Hen
Those who love the highly decorated hand-painted French look in home furnishings will enjoy a visit to the French Hen in Woodland Hills.
If buying isn’t what you have in mind, you can always take in your own piece and let them decorate it. Wandering around the store, I kept picturing a 1920s credenza of mine in seemingly hopeless condition that might be rescued after all.
Owners Vicki Yorton and Joyce Caplan have melded their artistic talents and love for antiques into a theme for this charming shop. Customers can see the women’s handiwork on tables, chairs and desks, and on some unlikely targets such as a shuttered windowsill surrounded by silk flowers with blossoms carefully hand-painted on the wood.
The aura it would bring to a dreary room is worth more than the $425 price.
The hand-painted pieces called faience create an expensive-looking touch at a reasonable price. The treatment imparts an Old World feeling to a showcase drum table that goes for $125. The rosebuds on the walnut trim of a pair of off-white wing chairs add a panache that makes them seem more important than the $450 price for the pair.
One of the most stunning pieces is a huge Victorian buffet, heavily covered with roses and larkspur and fruits and delphiniums, modestly priced at $1,550. At any high-end decorator boutique, it would be more than double that.
This Old World botanical look could be captured with a painting, such as a 10--by-12-inch French mezzotint from the mid-1800s for $75. Accessories, from lamps and candelabra to garden statuary, are all marked at low prices.
Yorton and Caplan are avid antiquers, and the low prices on their discoveries make me wonder if the ladies are simply incredible treasure hunters or working on an extremely low markup. Probably both. But the result is that shoppers gain.
When I asked Caplan what it would cost to rehabilitate my hacked-up credenza with spring bouquets, she estimated from $150 to $250.
The French Hen, 21910 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. (818) 704-6489. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday by appointment.
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Weekend Supersale: Summer merchandise will be going for a fraction of the original price this holiday weekend. Pianos aren’t seasonal, but the folks over at the Piano Factory in Burbank are in the clearing-out mood. Managers say this weekend’s sale will be their largest ever. They distribute some of the big names you’ll find among the 435 new pianos that start at $1,499. Used grands begin at $895 and used uprights at $99. New digitals start at $69, and the used ones at $29. The sale is Saturday and Sunday only, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Piano Factory, 1033 Hollywood Way, Burbank. In Orange County, 15722 Tustin Village Way, Tustin. (800) 597-4266.
