Energetic and ingenious Vanessa De Vargas is an L.A.-based furniture designer and interior decorator, specializing in the restoration of heirloom and vintage furniture pieces. Her exquisite Venice Beach design label and interior design firm, Turquoise, is a reflection of the chic innovation that makes her work so unique within the market. She sells beautifully restored antiques; revamped for the modern client.
Her affection for vintage pieces and their handcrafted charm and impeccable construction has been prevalent since the beginning of her career as a decorator. Her love for the gilded glamour of former eras has inspired her to reconstruct and design world-class pieces that she updates with practical and yet chic details, so the pieces can extend to further generations without losing their design integrity. It is this personal and instinctive vision that has allowed her to become one of the most forthcoming and celebrated designers within the niche of vintage furniture restoration.
Training with the UCLA Extension Interior Design program and then becoming a freelance assistant for a few years with Los Angeles most talented designers, Vanessa found her niche by revamping mid-century and vintage pieces. Consigning with some of the biggest home décor stores in Los Angeles like Free Space Modern, Carol Kipling, Woodson and Rummerfield’s and The Red House Interiors, Vanessa then decided to open her own store called Turquoise which was located in Venice Beach. The store was housed in an old Japanese style building from Abbot Kinney’s World Fair and was the perfect showroom to display her treasures of the past. The store was a huge success selling to celebrities, design clients and other high-end designers, but in the end Vanessa had to chose which career path she wanted to follow and later closed her store to focus on her number one passion, interior design.
Vanessa enjoys mixing old and new pieces together and that homes should feel lived in and reflect the clients’ taste as much as possible. Vanessa offers hourly consultations, full build outs, space planning, custom furniture options, color consultations and full home design services. “I feel everyone should be able to afford design. No job is too small or too big to handle”, Vanessa says.
To expand her interior design business to other parts of the United States Vanessa launched E-Decorating a few years ago. She is the first designer to offer a fully electronic type of design service for her out-of-state clients. With no paper to mail back and forth the service also serves as an eco-friendly solution to design. Vanessa supplies all the important tools via email so that you can create a beautiful space for your home. Please visit the E-Decorating page for more information on how to get started.
Last year Vanessa and Vanessa Kogevinas partnered up as a team to organize High-End Interior Designer Tag Sales in Los Angeles. Into their third event it has grown into a recognizable exclusive yard sale where designers and the like sell their personal inventory to the public. The events are a one stop shop for the best hand picked home décor items that you can find under one roof. The events are a huge hit with fabulous gift bags, DJ’s, passed food/bar, with designers on hand to give consultations and appraisals. It has become the perfect home décor shopping experience that you can only find in Los Angeles.
Embarking on her third homeless shelter project as a project manager and also decorating, De Vargas met and teamed up with owner and founder, Lauri Burns of The Teen Project and is opening the first LA location in February 2012. Vanessa organizes and combines Los Angeles most sought after design talent to create these one-of-a-kind spaces for the less fortune. Giving back to the community is something that Vanessa wants to continue to do. The rewards are priceless.
Seeking a community within her peers, Vanessa started her Designer Networking Group called DNG, that brings designers, vendors, shop owners, artists, and showroom managers a place to network and socialize. Going into her third consecutive year with over 35 events, these member only events are held every other month in an exclusive space in Los Angeles. For details on how to become a member, new events, past events and our members list visit designersnetworkinggroup.blogspot.com for more information.
You can also find sneak peeks to her ever changing and progressing projects on her blog, turquoise-la.blogspot.com and you can follow Vanessa on Twitter @TurquoiseLA and on Facebook at Turquoise.
Vanessa has spoken and hosted numerous design related events for such companies like Editor at Large, Effen Vodka, West Elm, Ford Chung and Baccarat Studio.
Recent publications include, Lonny Magazine, Los Angeles Times, CA Home + Design Magazine, New York Times, Sunset Magazine, Washington Post, InStyle, Architectural Digest–Italy, Lucky and California Homes, Adore and Ivy and Piper – just to name a few.
