Timothy Oulton is a luxury brand that brings comfort and style to you. With galleries located throughout the world, their story-filled stores help individuals find, create and design their dream space.
Founder Tim Oulton started out in his dad’s antiques shop before later taking over the business and reposition-ing it to focus on furniture design. Many of the brand’s most established icons are inspired by the past, but reinvented with modern energy. Signature pieces on show in the new gallery include: the effortlessly sophisticated Shabby Modular Sofa, the timeless Saddle Chair, the glamorous Glacier Table collection in burnt timber and acrylic, the glowing Bio Hazard Bar Cabinet and the iconic Rex Mirror and Dining Table. A separate mezzanine level creates a showcase for Timothy Oulton’s Noble Souls, a modular sofa collection handmade with natural vegetable-dyed linens using ancient dyeing techniques, and promising to create a realm of sensorial, social and cultural reconnection in any home.
Bringing lifestyle and comfort to the Downtown Los Ángeles area, Timothy Oulton has watched and been a part of the cultural shifts the community has experienced. Tim Oulton says, “L.A. is very special to us, it’s where we opened our very first gallery over a decade ago. We’ve watched downtown undergo a huge transformation in recent years and it’s still in the midst of this burgeoning cultural resurgence which we want to be a part of. Broadway street has such an amazing creative heritage and it just seemed like the perfect home for us. We’re excited to bring our story-filled store experience to the local downtown residents as well as the wider L.A. community and beyond.”
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BRAND
Timothy Oulton: Authenticity has always been a cornerstone for us, whether it’s in the materials, the craftsmanship, or the experience that we give people in our stores. We’ve always had our own way of doing things, we say that if you’re not prepared to swim upstream while everyone else is going in the other direction then you won’t find something that no one else has seen. The product isn’t for the faint-hearted, it’s very strong visually, and that’s something we really focus on. We can’t appeal to everyone but that’s part of our authenticity, we appeal to people who value storied pieces, who want their home to inspire them and to be meaningful.
“BE RELEVANT OR BE DEAD”
Timothy Oulton: I started my career in my dad’s antique shop and I loved antiques––I still do––but there was no creative process there. Vintage never dies because it has a story and that’s what draws people to it, but the design has to be relevant to how people live. What we make is meant to be used, it’s comfortable, it gets better with age and wears. We borrow ideas from the past but we make them our own, we put our own modern twist on them. Everything is handcrafted, using beautiful authentic materials and time-honored techniques, that’s very much at the heart of the brand.
FUELING THE CREATIVE GENIUS
Timothy Oulton: It always starts with the materials; we don’t even decide on the shape until we’ve got material in our hands. We bring old timber from the UK, leathers from Brazil and Argentina, stone, crystal and glass, and we’ll look at the materials and say what can we try and do with this? I follow the Paul Smith adage: “You can find inspiration in anything, and if you can’t, look again.” It could be an LP cover––those Pink Floyd designs and Rolling Stones covers are iconic. We have leather finishes inspired by antique cowboy chaps, lighting inspired by vintage jewelry. I see the creative process as a bit of a quest, a journey. You explore, discover, and often end up finding inspiration down pretty unexpected avenues.
WORDS OF WISDOM
Timothy Oulton: Our core philosophy is based on giving people a great hosted experience. We’ve always been driven by this realization that we only have one life, so we should elevate every moment to the utmost.
Visit the Timothy Oulton Downtown LA Gallery at 950 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90015
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