Walking through Modernica Inc.’s Frogtown showroom could make a visitor feel like he or she had died and gone to midcentury modern heaven. Aisles of pristine vintage sofas, armchairs and lamps stretch out forming a jewel-toned rainbow across the 60,000-square-foot warehouse.
But unlike the furniture maker’s Fairfax District retail store, Modernica’s Eastside warehouse functions as a prop shop, renting its furnishings to entertainment industry studios for film, TV and commercial shoots.
It’s a small segment of Modernica’s business that’s been growing lately thanks to the company’s investment in a wider array of eclectic vintage decor and last year’s implementation of an expanded $330 million state tax credit program that’s been luring movie and TV production back to Los Angeles.
“These last several months, really ever since the incentives, our business has been way up,” said Frank Novak, who co-owns Modernica with his brother Jay.
Frank Novak reckons business has increased by 50 percent since the credits were instituted, with rentals now bringing in almost $2 million a year. Though the prop shop only represents about 15 percent of Modernica’s overall business, Novak quipped that it’s “90 percent of the fun.”
The complementary business line also presents a good branding opportunity, the brothers said.
“There’s a thing in furniture where people like to buy something familiar,” Frank Novak said. “A lot of furniture we make has ended up in TV, movies and commercials thousands of times.”
The pair started buying items specifically for the Hollywood rental market about a decade ago. Walking through the showroom one might recognize a mirrored credenza from Roger Sterling’s office on AMC’s “Mad Men” or a sleek white couch and matching armchairs that sat in Ari Gold’s waiting room on HBO’s “Entourage.”
“It’s well curated, everything here is interesting to me,” said production designer Elizabeth Burhop (also Frank Novak’s live-in partner), who first met the Novaks 22 years ago when she came to Modernica’s store looking for a coffee table rental before there even was a full showroom.
Desks and donuts
The siblings launched Modernica in 1989 mostly selling antiques but also beginning to make midcentury modern furniture back when nobody was manufacturing revivals, Frank Novak said.
Manufacturing is done in a Vernon facility with about 90 employees. The store’s inventory is about 95 percent new products; the prop house’s inventory is about 10 percent new.
The shop quickly began renting its antiques and reproductions simply because set decorators and stylists started inquiring about their availability. Though it’s now a common practice, Modernica was one of the few vintage furniture shops back then to enter the rental business because others were too squeamish about it, Jay Novak said.
One-week rental prices typically start at around 20 percent of an item’s value, though prices are negotiable depending on how expensive an item is and how long it’s needed, among other factors.
“We do have some really expensive pieces but you can only take it so far,” Frank Novak said. “If this chair is worth $8,000 or whatever it is, we don’t rent it for 20 percent of that. It’s whatever makes sense.”
Other items have predetermined price points, such as high-quality dining chairs, which Jay Novak said rent for $60 each.
Niche market
Modernica’s showroom, which holds at least 6,000 rental items but focuses more on larger pieces such as furniture and other décor, differs from other prop houses across Los Angeles.
For instance, the website of Mid-City’s Hand Prop Room boasts more than 1 million objects available for rent, but its items are generally defined by their ability to be picked up by hand, from hairbrushes to phonographs and just about everything in between. Whereas Baldwin Hills’ Modern Props might be known for its futuristic computer consoles and sci-fi set dressings, midcentury modern and eccentric furnishings from other eras are Modernica’s niche.
The Novaks credit part of their recent uptick in business to a decision they made a couple of years ago to move their rental supply from a smaller downtown L.A. space into the massive Frogtown warehouse, which is north of downtown Los Angeles and south of Glendale. Hostess Brands once made Ho Hos and Donettes in the building, and when the brothers first arrived every surface was covered in congealed sugar.
The Novaks started expanding their inventory after the move, buying more contemporary and rustic pieces to broaden beyond just midcentury modern furniture.
Most purchases of vintage pieces are done on eBay and Etsy as well as flea markets held at the Rose Bowl.
“It’s kind of like casting, I just look for character,” Frank Novak explained of the brothers’ buying philosophy. As an example, he pointed to a gaudy gold-tinged ensemble that was used in the Sacha Baron Cohen film “The Dictator.”
“When you look at that furniture, you can just imagine some guy in the Mafia or somebody who won the lottery,” he said. “It’s got a comic element to it.”
Jay Novak also attributes the success of the business to swift customer service and six loading docks that help production crews arriving with trucks pick up and drop off their orders quickly.
Though it’s a roll of the dice whether or not a beloved new acquisition will actually garner interest with production designers, Frank Novak said the prop shop will always be a source of pleasure.
“We have a passion for this stuff,” he explained. “It’s fun creating these collections.”
