Private and public, modern and antique

Interior designer Thomas Beeton moved into his concrete and glass Franklin Hills home in August, but it wasn’t until a recent rainy evening that he got around to housewarming festivities. Then again, when guests include many who’s-who L.A. designers (Michael Berman, Jackie Terrell, Gary Gibson and David Desmond), opening your house for its maiden viewing can require serious preparation.

Beeton, who lives with his partner, Lucas Schelkens, gave up his 1920s Whitley Heights Spanish bungalow for the three-story contemporary house and has been carefully outfitting it with art and antiques.

“Every time I get a new house I seem to come up with new furniture from my warehouses,” said Beeton, who talked to such guests as art critics Edward Goldman and Peter Frank and architects Raun Thorp and Brian Tichenor in a living room with startling glass walls, an 18-foot ceiling and a 17th century carpet from Isfahan, Iran, above the fireplace.

“Stucco, glass and concrete show off traditional furniture in an unexpected way,” said Beeton. “I could never have displayed that carpet without a wall like that.”

Throughout the house, exotic textiles from Turkey, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, among other countries, were draped over sofas and chairs, hanging on walls and strewn throughout the downstairs guest room.

Schelkens, who owns Lucas LA, a European antiques, contemporary furniture and art gallery, decided to show the bold-colored textiles at home before he officially showed them in his shop. The exhibition, which opened last week and will run until April 15, is a small but stunning collection of works assembled by a Belgian art history professor, Carl Suijerbuijk, who specializes in textiles. They range in price from $350 to $2,500. “I thought that because these textiles look so modern, they totally fit in with the whole concept of my shop,” said Schelkens, who deftly mixes old and new.

“Even though they’re mostly from the 19th century,” he said, “I see them more like Rothkos.”

Lucas LA is at 8816 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 777-8816.

Alexandria Abramian-Mott

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Embellishing your personal throne

WENDY GOLD knew she was on to something when Jack Nicholson mooned her art.

Gold, the founder of www.artdetoilette.com, creates custom toilet seats with themes from golf to roses to Harleys. “My whole mission is that people don’t view the toilet as strictly a utility item bought at a hardware store,” says Gold, who’s based in Sausalito, Calif. “I see it more as fine art and a chance to make a personal statement. I can do anything under the sun.”

Or the lid, as it were. “I’ve done a couple seats with tax forms for accountants,” she says. “I was commissioned by a woman to do a toilet seat with pictures of her ex-husband that she cut out.... I’m doing one for a woman with her prenuptial agreement -- I guess it was a major ordeal.”

Gold’s artistic process takes time and toil, as the seat is decoupaged, then coated with five layers of sprayed-on varnish. Each finished work is signed and numbered; prices range from $200 to $600.

As usual, celebrities get the best seats. Billy Joe Armstrong of the band Green Day commissioned one and “gave me a list of the 10 bands he hates. I can’t give specifics,” Gold says. Actor Sean Penn ordered Nicholson’s custom seat as a Christmas gift. “The theme ended up being Jack Nicholson posing with pinup girls. I took images of vintage postcard pinup girls and Photoshopped them with photos of Jack from his movies, so it looks like they’re interacting. Apparently, he loves it and it’s in his bathroom. He uses it.”

Michael T. Jarvis

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Flush with success

WHY, you finally have to ask, didn’t they just make the hole bigger in the first place? At least two plumbing fixture companies are touting new toilets that promise better, swifter, more-satisfying flushes, thanks to a bigger opening at the bottom of the tank.

“Inspired by the raw power of class five whitewater rapids, the Cimarron Comfort Height toilet with Class Five flushing technology represents a new category of ... flushing systems,” boasts Kohler.

Meanwhile, “In a true technological breakthrough, American Standard has reinvented flushing and has virtually eliminated what consumers have long hated about their toilets -- clogs, overflows, plunging ... “

Well, you get the idea. Obviously, it’s a competitive business, flushing is. Before you run breathless to your plumbing dealer, know that the apparent breakthrough in both these toilet systems is a bigger flush valve -- namely, the hole in the bottom of the water tank.

“With the increased diameter of its industry-leading 3 1/4-inch flush valve, Kohler Class Five flushing technology creates incredibly strong gravity-fed flushing power while also maintaining the efficient use of 1.6 or 1.4 gallons of water,” Kohler explains.

Some solutions seem so obvious.

-- Chris Erskine