Kenneth Brown Shops the Rose Bowl Flea Market
Let’s spend a Design Junkie’s dream day together in Pasadena, California as we scour a world-class marketplace for decorator finds with one of the planet’s top designers. Watch and learn from Kenneth Brown, acclaimed interior designer and host of HGTV’s reDesign as he shops the legendary Rose Bowl Flea Market.
We get up with the sun and comb the Rose Bowl with Kenneth, a member of his design team and a client. Follow along by video as the team tackles the “West’s Best Treasure Hunt,” scoring vintage furniture and accessories for clients and for themselves. All the while Kenneth shares his savvy flea-market tips and strategies for finding the “goodies,” negotiating your best deal and having fun!
Click the arrow below to watch the 13-minute video. Click the square icon near the bottom right to view Full-Screen. If you have difficulty viewing the video, try the low-res version.
Kenneth often hunts flea markets and finds them perfect spots to discover "the finishing touches for a project to make it unique. That's what we love about design," says Kenneth. "Mixing the good, expensive stuff with the beautiful found, inexpensive stuff."
I had a blast hanging out with Kenneth, Adam and Peter. With every find we absorbed Kenneth's contagious enthusiasm and soaked up his ever-ready design tidbits.
We're starting a band: Kenneth and the Flea Market Hunters. What do you think?
There's lots more to come. Read for our follow-up story where you can:
- View a complete slide show of the rest of our hunting fun that day.
- Learn more details about our purchases.
- Look at the rest of the beautiful and interesting pieces we saw at the Market.
- Print a list of Kenneth's flea-market shopping tips to take along on your next treasure hunt.
Kenneth Brown is one of Los Angeles' most sought after interior designers whose recent clients include tween-set superstars Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron, soccer star Mia Hamm and MLB first baseman Nomar Garciaparra. He has been named one of the top 100 designers in America by both House Beautiful and Western Interiors. Besides hosting his HGTV show, Kenneth designs signature product lines for QVC and Babies”R”Us.
The Wall Street Journal ranks The Rose Bowl Flea Market and its five miles of booths as one of the top five Antique Markets in North America. You'll find Hollywood stars, serious collectors and bargain hunters at the Market every second Sunday of the month, rain or shine.
"They have everything under the sun here," says Kenneth. I think he's right.
Photographs by Ann Revoredo, Video by Special Defect Media. Copyright 2009, HomeWorkshop.com.

Thanks this was great, inspiring, educational, and fun – not cheesy!