The sectional sofa that Jose and Kitty Menendez were murdered on in 1992 by sons Lyle and Erik, is quite literally, bloody chic.
Interior designer Jared M. Clark, who also owns the store The Clark, a favorite of collectors and decorators, in Pound Ridge, NY, needed to find the perfect, modern sectional for a picky client. One night while watching Ryan Murphy’s hit series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” inspiration hit him. “I found the most killer sofa,” Clark tells Avenue with a laugh. “It just happened to be the sectional that Kitty and Jose were shot on.” To copy the piece, Clark screenshot the grisly crime scene and painstakingly photoshopped out all the blood stains. Despite the gruesome provenance, the sofa was perfect for his client. “She wanted a modern sofa that could sit several people that wasn’t too low and had a little flare,” he explains. “The Menendez sofa was a curved arm sectional with a corner seat and a rounded bump. It fit the bill.”
The “Kitty Sofa” being made
Clark brought his concept to a furniture maker who made the piece, reporting that other top decorators also loved the design and wanted versions made. “I said it’s not my design, it’s Kitty’s,” says Clark. “Thus the ‘Kitty Sofa’ was created.”
Viola: The “Kitty Sofa” is reborn
Clark’s client even chose a similar white woven textured fabric for the sofa. “I never mentioned where the concept for the sofa came from,” he confesses. “With real estate, you must disclose if there was a violent crime at the location. Is that true for furniture too? Why can’t a sofa style be resurrected to live another day? It is truly a killer sofa design.” – PETER DAVIS
Chloë Sevigny and Javier Bardem as Kitty and Jose Menendez on that famous sofa in “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story“
