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Looking to upgrade your home with designer touches? Here’s a start

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Looking to upgrade your home with designer touches? Here’s a start

If you buy a product linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission. See all our Coveted lists of mandatory items here.

JK3D Limited Lake Edition Flora Decanter, $1,375

Given the color of the glass and the sand-looking base, JK3D’s Flora Decanter was born in Los Angeles to make a statement. Whether you keep this treasure on display on a shelf or put it to use at a dinner party, your guests certainly won’t forget seeing it — that’s for sure. Julia Koerner, who specializes in computational design and 3D printing, and Austin Fields, who’s known for her experimental glassblowing techniques, found inspiration in flora and fauna, light, the ocean and California landscapes when they created the Flora Decanter. The Limited Lake Edition decanter comes in turquoise, deep blue and amber, and its digitally crafted and 3D-printed base is available in ash and sand. This limited-edition version of the decanter was created for the 2023 millstART exhibition in Austria. It was made with sustainable plant-based renewable material in Los Angeles for North America and in Vienna for Europe and other international markets.

Purchase 👉🏽 here.

Tom Ford Oud Wood candle, $135

Tom Ford Oud Wood Candle

Maybe it’s time for a break from the world — a chance to get cozy in your favorite space at home. If that’s the case, turn up your favorite track from “The Tortured Poets Department,” pour another glass of sauvignon blanc and light your Tom Ford Oud Wood candle. The candle, with its scent of wood and spices, is based on the brand’s fan-favorite Oud Wood fragrance, which has a rich woodsy scent featuring notes of cardamom, patchouli and amber. (When you’re finished cocooning, you can wear the scent into the world via the new Oud Wood parfum ($445 for 50 milliliters) or the beloved eau de parfum ($195 for 30 milliliters).

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Purchase 👉🏽 here.

Carl Hansen Children’s Wishbone Chair, $845

CARL HANSEN & SON CHILDREN’S WISHBONE CHAIR, $845

Danish architect and furniture designer Hans J. Wegner was a prolific and innovative force behind Danish Modernism, and among his pieces for Carl Hansen & Son is the Wishbone Chair, which was designed in 1949 and has remained in continuous production since 1950. To celebrate the 110th birthday of the godfather of Danish Modernism in April, Carl Hansen released a children’s version of the classic Wishbone Chair. The mini version is made from solid oak and woven paper cord and involved more that 100 production steps to produce. It’s available at various retailers, including Design Within Reach, 8612 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood , and the Carl Hansen & Son flagship store in San Francisco.

Visit the Carl Hansen website to find a dealer.

Roche Bobois Apex Outdoor ottoman, $2,005

ROCHE BOBOIS APEX OUTDOOR OTTOMAN, $2,005

Bring the indoors outdoors with this adorable outdoor ottoman from the spring and summer collection from Roche Bobois. It was designed by French product designer Sacha Lakic and comes in colors including vert d’eau (light blue), forêt (green), nuit (dark blue) and tangerine. Pro tip: This ottoman, which is made with fast-drying foam, looks just like a scrumptious popover or a delicious jelly candy. With that said, you might want to have a tray of snacks, drinks and other accoutrements for relaxing on hand in case you and your guests get hungry while you’re lounging by the pool.

Visit the Roche Bobois website for showroom details.

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Kelly Wearstler Studio Echo Collection bench, $7,995

KELLY WEARSTLER STUDIO ECHO COLLECTION BENCH, $7,995

The Kelly Wearstler Studio continues to indulge the sensibilities — this time, with its new Echo Collection of homewares. Inspired by California landscapes, the collection, with pieces ranging from $5,500 to $20,000, is made up of eight pieces: a handcrafted dining table, a drinks table, benches, a totem, a side table and stool. Each piece in the collection has repetitive organic forms as part of its design and comes in white gesso, natural Douglas fir and ebonized Douglas fir. Also, the Echo Collection is made at the Kelly Wearstler Studio near downtown Los Angeles, with each piece carved by one artisan who’s an expert in timber and has a background in sculpture.

Purchase 👉🏽 here.

Opame Collective Benton Box, $4,995

OPAME COLLECTIVE BENTON BOX, $4,995

Sometimes you need the perfect designer spot to hide all of your treasures (and deep, dark secrets). That’s where Opame Collective’s lovely Benton Box factors into your life. Reminiscent of a ceremonial box, this sculptural bronze-cast box, which has a separate lid, might be at home on a living-room or office shelf or close by you — say, on your nightstand. It can be purchased through various retailers including Fred Segal Home, and there’s a limited edition of eight available.

Purchase 👉🏽 here.

Francesca Grace Somme bed collection, $3,500 and up

FRANCESCA GRACE SOMME BED COLLECTION, $3,500 AND UP

Are you looking for a dreamy upgrade to your current bed — one with a touch of whimsy, character and French inspiration? If so, you’re in luck thanks to Los Angeles home stager and celebrity interior designer Francesca Grace, who has designed the lovely Somme collection of five beds with names such as Cosette, Penelope, Amélie, Estelle and Colette. The bed-frame options come with walnut wood-trim headboards, satin or velvet upholstery and bullion fringe around the base. (The frames don’t require box springs.) Prices range from a twin at $3,500 to a spacious California King at $7,700.

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Purchase 👉🏽 here.

Casa Branca x Nine Fair backgammon board, $2,500

CASA BRANCA X NINE FAIR BACKGAMMON BOARD, $2,500

It’s the perfect time to learn backgammon and other board games thanks to a host of fashion and lifestyle brands producing them with colorful designer touches this season. Take for example Casa Branca x Nine Fair’s fun and festive backgammon board collaboration. (We particularly like the mushroom design and we can’t stop thinking about the Apple TV+ show “Palm Royale” whenever we look at these boards.) Produced by Nine Fair, the boards were hand-painted by artist and Casa Branca collaborator Margot Larkin. They come in three fresh designs: malachite, mushrooms and what’s being called a graphic version of wicker.

Purchase 👉🏽 here.

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Lifestyle

'Wait Wait' for June 1, 2024: Our (Almost) Summer Spectacular!

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'Wait Wait' for June 1, 2024: Our (Almost) Summer Spectacular!

Inductee Bob Seger performs onstage at the Songwriters Hall of Fame 43rd Annual induction and awards at The New York Marriott Marquis on June 14, 2012, in New York City.

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Larry Busacca/Getty Images North America

This week, we celebrate the return of summer with some of our favorite guests, including Bob Seger, Dakota Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jon Wilson and Molly Seidel!

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Lifestyle

Texas Elementary School Hit With Two Ugly Scandals, Murder And Revenge Porn

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Texas Elementary School Hit With Two Ugly Scandals, Murder And Revenge Porn

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'The Dead Don’t Hurt' is a tender love story and a subversive Western

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'The Dead Don’t Hurt' is a tender love story and a subversive Western

Viggo Mortensen plays Holger Olsen in The Dead Don’t Hurt.

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Marcel-Zyskind/Shout! Studios

One of the many charms of The Dead Don’t Hurt is that you can’t immediately tell whether it’s trying to be an old-fashioned Western or a revisionist one. It has a lot of familiar genre signposts: men riding horses across rugged landscapes, a bloody shootout in a saloon, and two actors, Viggo Mortensen and Vicky Krieps, who bring traditional movie-star charisma to a tender love story.

But at times the film feels casually subversive. The first of those horsemen we see is not a cowboy but a knight in shining armor — a figure out of a child’s fantastical dream. And then there’s the way the movie plays with time: That shootout, which technically happens at the end of the story, is instead shown at the very beginning.

Mortensen, who wrote and directed the movie, trusts us to know the Western well enough by now that he can play around with the form without losing our attention. He isn’t attempting a radical reinvention of the genre, but he is using its conventions to tell a different and politically resonant kind of story.

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It’s especially significant that the two lead characters are both immigrants. Mortensen stars as Holger Olsen, a wandering Danish-born carpenter who finds himself in San Francisco in the 1860s. That’s where he meets Vivienne, a French Canadian florist, played by Krieps, who’s every bit as independent-minded as he is.

Vicky Krieps is a French Canadian florist in The Dead Don't Hurt.

Vicky Krieps is a French Canadian florist in The Dead Don’t Hurt.

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Marcel Zyskind/Shout! Studios

The two fall in love, and Vivienne moves with Olsen to a dusty Nevada town called Elk Flats. Because the story is told out of sequence, we already know some bad things are headed their way, but for now, the mood is light and even comical as Vivienne grouchily sets about tidying their wooden shack of a home.

Vivienne isn’t one for domestic confinement, and she soon gets a job bartending at the saloon, where she catches the eye of one of the nastiest customers in town: Weston Jeffries, played by Solly McLeod, the brutish son of a wealthy rancher. Meanwhile, with the Civil War under way, Olsen decides to join the Union Army, to Vivienne’s fury.

One of the best things about The Dead Don’t Hurt is that it honors Vivienne’s grit and capability while also acknowledging how alone and vulnerable she is in this hostile, male-dominated environment. Several months after Olsen leaves, Vivienne gives birth to a baby boy under circumstances that are shrouded in some mystery. Years later, Olsen returns to Vivienne and the child, but it isn’t an entirely happy reunion, and they face a grim reckoning with the town and some of its most corrupt individuals.

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Mortensen made his feature directing debut with the 2020 drama Falling, in which he played a gay man trying to take care of his ailing, bigoted father. With The Dead Don’t Hurt, he uses a story set in the past to comment on issues that are still with us in the present, from male violence against women to the complexity of immigrant relationships with their adopted country. Even as Vivienne embraces her life as an American settler, she proudly clings to her French Canadian roots, sometimes dreamily recalling the stories her mother told her about Joan of Arc — an obvious hero for a woman trying to forge her own unorthodox path through life.

As a director, Mortensen handles the material with quiet assurance; even when he cuts back and forth through time, he never loses the narrative thread. He also gives a gently grounded performance as Olsen, a decent man who sometimes makes impulsive, reckless decisions.

But this is ultimately Krieps’ movie. She’s often played women chafing against their proscribed stations in life, in dramas like Phantom Thread and Corsage. Here, she captures the indomitable spirit of a woman who’s making her way in a strange land and is determined to find and nurture beauty in even the harshest circumstances.

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