Hollywood Boulevard: Trinket hunt yields conversation-starters

Interior designer Frances Merrill steps inside Phukaw, a new import shop chock-full of traditional Thai home goods, apparel and vintage textiles. It's one of those inexplicable Hollywood Boulevard juxtapositions — authentic design from Thailand's northern hill tribes, adjacent to Jumbo's Clown Room, the pole-dancing club where Courtney Love worked. Merrill grabs a roll of indigo-colored embroidered fabric, a handmade necklace and hair fob to be repurposed as room decoration, and a gingham towel.

By Lizzie Garrett Mettler

March 8, 2013