Brenda Antin, a Fixture in the Los Angeles Design Scene, Has Died

Interior designer and showroom owner Brenda Antin, a longtime fixture and éminence grise on the Southern California design scene, passed away on March 4 at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 82. Antin’s client list encompassed a veritable who’s-who of Hollywood actors and power players, along with a roster of leading interior designers who relied on her famously incisive eye and acerbic wit.

In the 1980s, Antin worked as a creative executive at Motown Productions, the film and television arm of Motown Records, where she shepherded major projects such as the Lonesome Dove miniseries. After becoming disillusioned with the entertainment industry, she decided to shift gears and pursue her passion for furniture and interior design. In 1990, she opened her eponymous furniture showroom, which she launched with her husband, Michael Antin, on Beverly Boulevard. Her distinctive aesthetic sensibility—a worldly mix of distilled, unpretentious forms and elegant lines, grounded in American and European craft traditions—quickly gained a following among L.A. tastemakers and savvy clients.

As her reputation grew, Antin soon caught the attention of the shelter press and the popular media. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and her work became a readily identifiable staple of design magazines and books. Her creations made frequent appearances in the pages of Architectural Digest, often in the homes of megacelebrities on the order of Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen and Kendall Jenner. Her client list included Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Paul McCartney, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Derek Jeter, and many other boldface names.

“Our family lived a typical Southern California lifestyle. There were always friends and family congregating at our house, and Brenda was at the center of it all. You’d find her on a hot summer day, dressed in a bikini by the pool, with a glass of wine in one hand and a joint in the other,” recalls her son Steven Antin, the actor, writer, and director. “She was also profoundly generous. She donated beautiful things to Alexandria House, a shelter for mothers. She visited women’s prisons and held A.A. meetings for the inmates who needed to get sober,” he adds.

In addition to Steven, Brenda Antin is survived by her husband, Michael Antin, and her three other children: celebrity hairstylist Jonathan Antin, Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin, and entrepreneur Neil Antin.