Randy Esada opens a second shop for Prospr-ous business
Business is booming at Randy Esada’s antique and custom-furniture-with-a-modern-twist enterprise. It’s doing so well that he’s opened a second store, Prospr, at 158 N. La Brea Ave. It’s around the corner from his smaller decorative arts shop, Thrive, at 7407 Beverly Blvd.
The Windsor Square resident’s grand opening for the new 4,500-square-foot space was June 20.
ANTIQUE DEALER and designer Randy Esada at his new store on La Brea Avenue.
“I’m not your typical antique store where everything is beige and peeling,” notes Esada in the new space, large enough to accommodate a 9-foot gilt mirror and a pair of grand Italianate chandeliers.
Many pieces here are reproductions by known designers. Some are Esada’s own creations done after originals. And then there are the actual antiques from all over the world. “I can buy English antiques for a good price,” says the Chicago native with a Midwestern and East Coast sensibility that his customers appreciate.
He stays away from Victorian and trendy designs as the self-taught Esada prefers the clean, simple lines of Regency and Biedermeier pieces.
“The beauty is mixing the different styles,” he said.
He notes that his prices are fair, which is why his business continues to flourish while other design shops around him have closed.
“I deal now more in furniture than ever before,” he adds. Many of his pieces were stored at a facility adjoining the Original Farmers Market, which is why he sorely needed room to grow.
In-person and online
Esada’s customers are from around the country. They search online at Chairish.com and other online sites. Some buy right off the internet, while other buyers enjoy walking in the store and breathing in the candle scene (created for the new store), trying out the furniture and viewing the art, including works by Esada’s husband, artist Dave Wilcox.
Many of his customers are for life, notes Esada. They call him when they are downsizing, as was the case of one celebrity, which is how the 9-foot gilt mirror landed in his showroom, near a tall 18th-century secretary, a reproduction by Richard Mulligan. A Rose Tarlow four-poster bed is another sought-after prize for a price at a fraction of a new one.
“I can offer prices we mere mortals can afford,” he says. “To the novice, it may seem high-priced, but everything here is pedigree.”
PAINTING of “Sock Monkey” by Dave Wilcox is next to an antique Buddha and Louis XVI-style chair.
Esada explains that his custom line is also top-notch. It includes chandeliers, chairs and tables made with Esada’s team of Los Angeles-based carvers, gilders and electricians. A Louis XVI-style chair was designed after an original but with a narrower seat. The originals’ wide seats were to accommodate the puffy dresses of the day.
“I’ll add a little something or elongate the leg, or modernize it so it’s not so wide,” he says of his designs.
Many of the craftsmen here have migrated from Europe in recent years, where prices on exports have skyrocketed, and which helped make Los Angeles a mecca for furniture design and fabrication.
Esada had worked in the “soulless” world of corporate management before venturing into the antique business, originally based in his Windsor Square home. As his business grew, he brushed up on his knowledge of design and opened his first store in 1988 on Larchmont Boulevard, Phileas Fogg & Co.
He’s also had a shop in Palm Springs and flipped homes with his husband until the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We went from our worst year [the pandemic] to our best year. There’s more to be said for perseverance than for talent. I felt like Forrest Gump after the storm. My prices were right.” (In the movie, Gump’s business prospered after a hurricane eliminated much of his competition.)
“There will always be a market for timeless decorating that uses antiques and reproduction pieces,” Esada concludes.
To see his ever-revolving merchandise, visit Esada’s stores in person or on his website, prosprco.com.
Category: Real Estate
