The Designer Hasn't Missed a Beat While Readying the Relaunch of her Beloved Cozy•Stylish•Chic Home Goods Shop to include a Monogram Experience Center this Fall. 

Pasadena-based interior designer and influencer Jeanne Chung is arguably still a relative newcomer in design—she started her business in 2013—but few designers have been as singularly instrumental at changing the very fabric of their community as she has. The Pasadena-based designer’s acclaimed upscale home goods shop on West Dayton Street, Cozy•Stylish•Chic (which grew out of her popular style spotter blog of the same name) has won her fans across L.A. and beyond, and her work has become a fixture of the Pasadena Showcase House, an event she’s regularly attended since childhood. Plus she’s a natural networker, regularly hosting events in her showroom to draw her local and greater L.A. design community together. Altogether, she’s quickly risen to be one of the key players in Pasadena who’s continually proving that you don’t need to go across town to find design-forward furnishings, fabrics and more.

This fall Chung is further cementing her place in Pasadena’s design scene: Her shop, housed in a striking 1928 former carriage house, is expanding to include a Monogram Experience Center—a showroom within a showroom, per se. It’s a project that’s been in the works ever since Chung and Cozy•Stylish•Chic took over the entire building around two years ago (the space was formerly shared with a high-end hair salon). “Once we had the space, my intention was to add a small kitchen for designers to use. But when I talked to Monogram about installing one, they said, ‘We don’t have a showroom in L.A.—how about putting in a whole Experience Center?’” recalls Chung. 

Rendering of the Monogram Experience Center space designed by Chung.

Set to open in September to both the public and design community, the new Monogram Experience Center is being built around the perimeter of the north end of the building, wrapping around to the east end. There will be several vignettes, including a tricked-out statement kitchen with the latest sleek organizational systems, as well as a gigantic 20-foot island adjacent to the 24-odd appliances the showroom will feature. “When Monogram asked me what I wanted, I asked for what everyone else doesn’t have,” says Chung. “So we’ll have a stove, a brass hearth pizza oven, glass-front refrigerators… Monogram is under our showroom, and they gave us guidelines for how things should look, but as a designer I need to put all the bells and whistles in—just like at a high-end home.” For example, Chung plans to make the most of the building’s high ceilings and skylights by utilizing rolling library ladders into the designs. Also new to Cozy•Stylish•Chic will be various acoustical pods, ranging in size from a one-person work space to an eight-person meeting area. The shared workspaces, ideal for designer-client sit downs, are another way Chung is aiming to build community and encourage camaraderie. 

Cozy•Stylish•Chic / Monogram’s planned September opening timeline is set to coincide neatly with the upcoming 2020 Pasadena Showcase House, rescheduled from April to late September due to coronavirus concerns. “COVID-19 almost worked in our favor this way,” the designer jokes. Chung is also designing the Showcase House’s morning room, a tiny breakfast nook adored by the homeowner’s nine-person family. “It’s their favorite room in the house, the place they’d gather for three meals a day, so I want to make it fun,” she says. “And we definitely did.  We took the whole theme of sustainability to another level. The wallpaper is made out of recycled newspaper and we upcycled luxury goods, deconstructed, embroidered and remade into art.”

Chung’s personal history with the Pasadena Showcase House and the building that houses Cozy•Stylish•Chic runs deep: As a longtime Pasadena resident, she grew up regularly visiting the yearly unveilings of each Showcase House, and her parents have owned her building since 1994 (she leases it from them now). Chung herself even worked as a fashion designer in the building before swapping clothing for her true calling, interiors. She’s an area insider who’s seen the changes to Pasadena first-hand, right from the rise of Old Town’s popularity to the luxe condos popping up everywhere. 

“If you don’t pivot and change with the times, you’ll be left behind,” the designer says. “I wouldn’t be where I am if not for the blogging I did initially.” We’d argue too that she wouldn’t be where she is and who she is without Pasadena—a place that’s shaped her as much as she continues to give back and shape it. 

Follow Jeanne Chung and Cozy•Stylish•Chic via Instagram @cozystylishchic