Vintage Furniture Store, Melrose Hill: Pop Up Home Weekends

Pop Up Home keeps its Melrose Hill showroom open Wednesday through Sunday: noon to 6 pm from Wednesday to Friday, and 11 am to 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday, at 642 N Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90004. If you are looking for a vintage furniture store in Los Angeles where a Mario Bellini sofa and a $55 wooden keepsake box sit under one roof, this is the address to save, and the showroom phone is (323) 238-2295 if you want to ask about a piece before you drive over.

Pop Up Home began in 2009, when founder Tricia Benitez Beanum set out to reimagine the traditional estate sale as something between a shop, a gallery and a treasure hunt. According to the shop's own About page, it started in an unmarked warehouse that opened once a month to an invited crowd of designers, collectors, celebrities and tastemakers. Nobody wandered in off the street; you heard about it from someone who had already been.

In 2023 the project moved into its Melrose Hill flagship at 642 N. Western Ave, a showroom the shop describes as nearly double its original size and as both a working studio and a stage for curation. That history explains why the floor feels edited rather than stocked. Pieces are grouped by materials, shape and conversation between objects instead of by category, so a ribbed ceramic vessel might be staged beside a sculptural bookcase rather than on a shelf of vases.

The About page describes the mix plainly: monumental mid-century sofas beside sculptural Italian lighting, hand-carved African furniture next to delicate ceramics, and contemporary artworks placed in dialogue with historical design. The online inventory at popuphome.com shows the range. A five-piece Le Bambole sofa by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia is listed at $27,500, an oatmeal Afra and Tobia Scarpa Soriana sofa from the 1970s at $22,500, and a pair of Tito Agnoli P3 rattan lounge chairs for Bonacina, made in 1960, at $6,200.

Come down the price ladder and the shop stays interesting. A set of three Frattini sculptural nesting tables is $3,200, a sculptural geometric travertine coffee table is $3,450, a sculptural wood bookcase with geometric details is $4,200, and a pair of Han Dynasty lamps is $1,400. Antique Persian, Turkish and Afghan rugs are listed between $595 and $795, which makes them the most approachable way to bring something old and large into a room.

Small objects are where most first-time visitors spend. A Danish Axella abstract glazed serving bowl is $285, a vintage ombre striated ceramic vase is $195, a ribbed earthenware lidded vessel is $95, a trio of wooden canisters is $68, and the spherical wooden keepsake box is $55. Stock turns as one-of-a-kind pieces sell, so treat these as a snapshot of the kind of thing the shop carries, not a menu.

Read the policy before you fall for a sofa: the site states that all pieces are final sale and sold as is. That is normal for one-of-a-kind vintage, but it means the showroom visit is your inspection. Sit in the chair, open the drawers, turn the lamp over, and ask what has been restored while the piece is in front of you, because there is no return window to fix a misjudgment later.

The shop also works well beyond straightforward retail. Its Services page says pieces are available for photoshoots, film and staging, with rentals starting at 25 percent of retail per week, and that the shop consigns select pieces on a 50/50 split after you submit photos and details for review. The Melrose Hill showroom itself can be booked for private events and shoots. If you are dressing a set or staging a listing rather than furnishing a living room, ask about the rental rate before you buy anything outright.

Saturday and Sunday are the natural days, because the doors open at 11 am rather than noon, which gives you an extra hour, and a weekend visit leaves room to come back with a tape measure or photos of your own room. If you want to work through the big pieces calmly, a Wednesday to Friday afternoon from noon is the better window, since a long sofa deserves more than a quick lap with other people around it. The shop is not open on Monday or Tuesday, so do not plan a Monday drive.

An honest judgment call: if your budget is under $500, skip the sofas and start with ceramics, small lamps and the boxes, where $55 to $325 buys a genuinely distinctive object. If you are tempted by a rug, measure the floor first and bring the dimensions, because a $595 to $795 rug that is half a foot too short is still final sale. And if Pop Up Home does not have the piece you imagined, Midcentury LA on Cahuenga Boulevard is the other showroom worth comparing it with.

Melrose Hill sits just off Melrose Avenue, a quiet corner of a busy part of the city. From the showroom it is a short drive north to Hollywood Forever at 6000 Santa Monica Blvd for a slow walk among old mausoleums and palms, or east to Skylight Books at 1818 N Vermont Ave in Los Feliz for design and photography books. Neither stop is required, but both pair well with an afternoon spent looking at objects.

Western Avenue itself is a working street, not a shopping promenade, so plan on getting a coffee elsewhere and treating the showroom as the one deliberate stop on this block. Allow about an hour for a proper look at the rooms, longer if you intend to sit in several seats and compare them.

Address: 642 N Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90004. Hours: Wednesday to Friday 12 pm to 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday 11 am to 6 pm. Phone: (323) 238-2295. Email: hello@popuphome.com. Everything is final sale and sold as is. Prices quoted here come from popuphome.com and move as pieces sell. Karpo APP can help you plan the rest of your day around the showroom, from lunch to the next stop.