Childhood Trips to France Infuse This L.A. Designer’s Home With Vintage European Vibes

When Leah Cumming was working as a designer for companies like Nickey Kehoe, Jenni Kayne, and Soho House, the best place to find her wasn’t behind a desk—it was in the studios and workrooms of Los Angeles’s top furniture makers. Cumming recalls one client’s project that involved a custom dining table and side tables: “It was everything from running around the city sourcing hardware to seeing the products be prototyped to the final installation phase,” she says. “Having something that you can look at every day and remember the process, the people who made it, just feels like you have all these points of connection rather than just ordering something from a website and you have no idea where the materials were sourced or who was fabricating it.” She was hooked. 

Fast-forward to last November: Cumming branched out on her own to launch Maison Madeleine, a curated collection of 10 pieces that are designed and handmade in Los Angeles. The name Madeleine stems from her middle name, but it’s also her now 101-year-old grandmother’s first name. “It’s an ode to her,” notes Cumming. The inspiration behind the furniture pieces themselves, and her growing assortment of accessories, is just as personal. 

While Cumming is technically Canadian and spent much of her childhood in Atlanta, she has strong ties to France. Both of her parents are big Francophiles, she says, so she grew up visiting and, eventually, moved to Paris for a few years. “It’s my happiest place,” she says. Soft scalloped edges and shell motifs can be found throughout the collection—details that Cumming attributes to her love of Art Deco design and her upbringing.  

Luckily, after launching her brand, she didn’t have to scramble to find a showroom. The circa-1924 East Hancock Park home that Cumming bought two years ago is the perfect space (for now). “I was so in love with the house [the first time I saw it], but I couldn’t fathom actually getting to wake up here and live here,” recalls Cumming, who initially discovered the listing through L.A. real-estate agent Jenna Cooper’s website, which she checked religiously (mostly for daydreaming’s sake). On a fateful Sunday afternoon, the then renter popped by the open house. “I wasn’t really looking,” notes Cumming. “It was more like, this is such an insane house, I want to see it in person.” When she went to work the following Monday and mentioned to her boss at the time, Jenni Kayne, that she had toured an amazing house over the weekend, Kayne told her to go for it—put an offer in. Three days later, it was hers. 

Today the single-story home is a rotating display of what’s new at Maison Madeleine. At her kitchen island, you can pull up a seat for dinner in one of her hand-carved alder-wood barstools that are based on antique Venetian grotto piano stools. In the living room, guests can lounge on her yet-to-be-released green velvet sofa. (Psst: It’s dropping in January, along with a nightstand that matches her Midnight Bar cabinet.)

Previously, Cumming had the ever-popular Cloud Sofa from RH, which she admits was super-comfortable but due to its inherent slouchiness didn’t always look polished. When coming up with her own design, comfort was still key (peep this one’s deep cushion), but she wanted structured pillows that sit upright no matter what, curved arms, and a splash of color. Complete with two Nickey Kehoe armchairs and a Maison Madeleine coffee table that’s a mix of solid oak and burl wood, the living room is a space you want to “stay in, drink wine, and talk for hours,” she says.

The vintage Hermès scarf that now hangs over the sofa is the first piece Cumming ever had professionally framed. The rattan pedestal and vase were affordable Chairish scores, while the lamp on the bar cart is from Athena Calderone’s collaboration with Crate & Barrel. “It’s like how creating an outfit is all about high and low,” says Cumming of combining investment pieces and big-box finds in the same space. She’s also a proponent of mixing textures: marble with rush weave; linen with travertine; satin with velvet. She can get away with pretty much any fabric choice thanks to the fact that her rescue dog, Pogo, doesn’t track much dirt into the house. “He’s a saint,” she says with a laugh. 

While Pogo will occasionally plop down for a nap on a slipper chair, his favorite place to be is the backyard. “The first thing I do when I wake up is open the doors off my bedroom and he runs outside and lounges in the sun,” says Cumming. One of the previous owners was a landscape designer who had a “Marfa meets YSL in Marrakech” vision, she says, hence the big pomegranate and orange trees and hedging that turns white with jasmine in the springtime: “It’s like a perfect little oasis within the city for me.”

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