in Rooms
Kelly Wearstler creates virtual garage for LeBron James' electric Hummer
American interior designer Kelly Wearstler has designed a virtual garage in the desert that she imagines housing basketball player LeBron James’ electric Hummer. More
California
Subterms
More stories
- in Rooms
Homework creates curves inside GoodBody hair salon in Oakland
Curved seating, shelving and mirrors feature throughout Goodbody hair salon in Oakland, California, which design studio Homework has finished with salmon-pink accents.GoodBody, which specialises in cutting, colouring and styling textured hair, is located in downtown Oakland. It takes over a building that was previously host to several dated offices.
To transform the site into a modern salon, San Francisco-based studio Homework had to completely strip away any evidence of the previous fit-out.Top image: GoodBody is set inside a spacious hall. Above: curved elements are used to break-up the space
As well as removing decorative elements, the studio tore down partition walls and knocked through a dropped ceiling to create a vast, double-height hall.
It was initially unclear as to how the space would be organised to accommodate the salon’s various service areas.A semi-circular bench anchors the salon’s waiting area
“After rounds of iterations, we developed sinuous millwork curves to promote the service functions while defining the space,” explained Ben Work, who runs Homework alongside Susan Work.
Curved elements can be seen as soon as customers walk into GoodBody – a semi-circular bench has been placed in the salon’s entryway to delineate a waiting area.Arched mirrors accompany the salon’s styling stations
The grooved, salmon-pink bench bends round to adjoin a matching desk where staff can stand and check appointments. Overhead hangs a quartet of brass pendant lamps.
Nearby sits a salmon-pink platform that dips inwards to form an arc shape. The platform is topped with chunky tiered shelves that display various hair and beauty products that are available for purchase.Each mirror is illuminated by an LED strip light
On the opposite side of the room is a sequence of styling stations. Each one has a tall arched mirror framed by an LED strip light and a comfy swivel chair upholstered in caramel-brown leather.
These complement the salon’s buttermilk-coloured walls and the gold-velvet curtains that have been hung in front of all the doorways.Curved shelving displays an array of hair and beauty products
At the rear of the salon is a huge vaulted opening which leads through to the hair-wash room.New York hair salon Hawthorne Studio is designed for social distancing
This has been completed in a darker, richer palette – surfaces have been painted what the studio describes as a shade of “peacock green”, while the sinks are made from black porcelain.
A rounded, salmon-pink cabinet visually ties-in this room with the rest of the salon.A vaulted opening looks through to the hair-washing area
Other striking hair salons to open this year include Hawthorne Studio in New York, which design practice BoND had to adapt to suit health and safety regulations put in place as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
All of the styling stations, for example, are mobile so that customers can be moved to sit six feet apart. Spaces are also divided by wooden frames instead of walls, so that staff can monitor how many people are entering the salon.
Photography is by Aubrie Pick.
Project credits:
Design: HomeworkStyling: Bianca SoteloRead more: More
Rammed-earth counter anchors Flamingo Estate pop-up in Los Angeles
Vibrant green walls surround a chunky rammed-earth counter in this garden-themed pop-up shop in LA that creatives Alex Reed and Dutra Brown have designed for lifestyle brand Flamingo Estate.Flamingo Estate’s Harvest Shop pop-up takes over a retail unit in Platform, a high-end shopping centre in LA’s Culver City area.
The shop offers an array of the brand’s holistic products for the body and home, along with its range of pantry foods, which includes items such as extra-virgin olive oil, honey and dark chocolate.
Many products are made with ingredients grown on the grounds of Flamingo Estate, which is tucked away in the hills of the nearby Eagle Rock neighbourhood. Its sprawling garden is host to 150 different species of flowering plants and shrubs, as well as a fruit orchard, vegetable beds and a hive of bees.A rammed-earth counter sits at the centre of Harvest Shop
This lush landscape became a key point of reference for the pop-up’s designers, locally-based creatives Alex Reed and Dutra Brown.
Together they sought to fashion a space that resembled “a small, secret corner of the estate itself…as if it was lifted from the earth and brought to the store”.An abstract sculpture perches on one end of the counter
At the centre of the shop is a monolithic counter crafted from rammed earth. The bottom of the counter is inset with different-coloured fragments of stone, while the top features a cluster of white-tile blocks and platforms on which products are presented.
To ensure the tiles could be used again post pop-up, a simple mixture of mud and earth was used as grout.
A corner of the counter is dominated by an amorphous sculpture that Reed and Brown created using scagliola – a type of plaster typically made from gypsum, glue and pigments.A mural depicting trees and rolling hills acts as a backdrop to the counter
“For Flamingo Estate’s first physical location, we looked to the company’s ‘hands-in-the dirt’ ideals of what is luxurious and covetable today,” the pair said.
“We’ve utilized our respective expertise to design and build a project centred around materiality – this collage of organic material and sculptural form, together with provenance and fantasy, celebrates what we love about Flamingo Estate.”Frida Escobedo segments Aesop Park Slope with rammed-earth brickwork
The garden theme continues onto Harvest Shop’s walls, where LA-based artist Abel Macias has painted a rich, green mural.
“Richard [Christiansen, owner of Flamingo Estate] and I talked about a concept based around Snow White, the enchanted little forest that she lives in that’s sort of dark but very magical and green in a way,” explained Macias.
“We came up with this landscape that’s rolling hills and swirly trees, keeping everything in the tonal green world so that it feels verdant and very lush [in the store].”
Emerald-coloured paint covers a wall on the opposite side of the shop, which is mounted with rows of glass jars filled with various natural ingredients.Another wall is mounted with rows of glass jars
Flamingo Estate is overseen by creative director Richard Christiansen. Beyond the estate’s garden lies a Spanish colonial-style house that, since the beginning of 2020, has operated as a chic retreat for creative people in Los Angeles.
Its Harvest Shop pop-up isn’t the only retail project to have made use of rammed earth. Last year, Mexican architect Frida Escobedo applied rammed-earth bricks to the walls of an Aesop store in Brooklyn, New York, to emulate the facade of the brownstone townhouses seen around the area.
Photography is by Adrian Gaut.Read more: More
Fashion meets art inside Dries Van Noten's inaugural US store
Luxury fashion label Dries Van Noten has opened its first US store in Los Angeles, which boasts interiors filled with artworks from creatives across the globe.Dries Van Noten’s LA store takes over two buildings that sit on a huge parking lot along La Cienega Boulevard. The first building is a two-floor property that has been dubbed Big House, the second, called Little House, is a 1950s-era bungalow completely shrouded by ivy.
Together the buildings measure 8,500 square feet (790 square meters), making this the Belgian fashion brand’s largest retail space to date.Dries Van Noten’s LA store is split into Big House and Little House
Clothing collections are presented inside Big House, with womenswear on the ground floor and menswear up on the first floor.
The brand’s in-house design team took charge of the interiors – founder Dries van Noten, who was stuck outside the US due to coronavirus travel restrictions, would “visit” the space every evening via FaceTime calls with staff members.
Simple white-painted walls and concrete flooring appears throughout. A few elements in the store, like the accessory display plinths and chesterfield-style sofas, are a sunny shade of yellow – a colour deemed synonymous with Dries Van Noten’s brand identity.Big House displays the brand’s fashion collections
Decor is provided by striking artworks from a roster of local and international creatives. Some pieces, such as the mixed-media collages by LA-based artist Jan Gatewood, have been executed directly on the store’s walls as murals.
“I didn’t want to have that gallery feeling where everything is mercantile…it’s more like graffiti,” Van Noten explained.Artwork and musical instruments have been dotted throughout
“While showcasing the Dries Van Noten collections this place will be a haven for creative encounters and gathering experiences that embraces the creative pulse of Los Angeles and its creative and fashion community” added the brand explained in a statement.
“These experiences can be as light-hearted as they can be profound, yet they will always be welcoming to all and informal.”
Sculptural furnishings by Rotterdam-based designer Johan Viladrich are also on display, as well as busts of tattooed human heads by Czech artist Richard Stipl.Big House includes an archive room that presents pieces from old Dries Van Noten collections. Photo by Jeff Forney
Big House additionally includes archive rooms which are haphazardly plastered with old catwalk and campaign imagery of Dries Van Noten designs.
Here customers are able to purchase pieces from past collections – some of which date back to the 1990s – and once health and safety restrictions have been lifted post-pandemic, re-sell garments from the brand that they no longer want.
“It’s not only about sustainability reasons, but it’s the whole idea that a beautiful garment stays beautiful even if other people have been wearing it – and I like the idea that you have new clothes and old clothes all together in the same store,” added Van Noten.Foliage-filled plant beds line the outside of the store. Photo by Gareth Kantner
To access Little House, shoppers must walk past a series of plant beds overspilling with tropical foliage, which were included in homage to Van Noten’s passion for gardening and the brand’s frequent use of botanical prints.
The bungalow acts as an exhibition space which, going forward, will showcase different furniture, textiles, ceramics and photography from both established and emerging creatives.
Currently on display is a collection of porcelain tableware created by Van Noten’s longtime friend, fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester, and Belgian brand Serax.Dries Van Noten pays homage to Verner Panton with colourful SS19 collection
The brand also hopes that, in time, the parking lot can host large-scale events, and has plans to transform it into everything from a drive-in cinema to a food-tasting space.
Little House will serve as an exhibition space. Photo by Jeff Forney
Dries Van Noten’s Los Angeles store joins branches in Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Paris and a flagship in Antwerp – but the brand’s founder already has his sights set on opening the doors to a store over on the east coast of the US.
“Of course the space is very important, it really has to be the right building – the moment we find that, we’ll be in New York.”
Photography is by Jim Mangan unless stated otherwise.Read more: More
Rapt Studio fashions soothing interiors for Goop HQ in Santa Monica
Design agency Rapt Studio has used curved furnishings and soft colours to create a calming ambience inside the Santa Monica headquarters of lifestyle and wellness brand Goop.The two-floor HQ measures 55,000 square feet (5,109 square metres) and provides a unified workspace for Goop, which was founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Prior to this team members had been scattered between different buildings.
The lobby of Goop’s Santa Monica headquarters
“We designed their new, light-filled headquarters in Santa Monica to preserve the buzz they’d maintained in close quarters, while giving big ideas room to roam,” explained Rapt Studio.“[Staff] needed a place to concentrate their energy and efforts to propel the brand into its next phase of development.”
A corner of the lobby is dominated by a sculptural metal desk
Employees enter the head office via a spacious lobby. One corner of the room is dominated by a custom-made desk made by Los Angeles-based studio Artcrafters.
The desk comprises four bulky metal blocks which are meant to mimic the rounded shape of the letters that feature in Goop’s company logo.The headquarters includes a kitchen where staff can test recipes
Curved forms go on to feature in the adjacent waiting area where a pink, crescent-shaped sofa and bench seat perch on a woven circular rug. An oversized white pendant light is suspended overhead, while behind stands a golden wire-frame screen.
The lobby leads through to a sequence of work areas – this includes a lab for developing new products, a podcast-recording studio and a fashion workshop where designs for Goop’s clothing line, G Label, will be drawn up.There is also a product showroom on-site
A test kitchen finished with jet-black joinery offers a spot for staff to experiment with recipes and film cooking tutorials for Goop’s YouTube channel.
There is also a small showroom on-site. At its centre is a chunky stone-topped counter inbuilt with a sink where the beauty and skincare products on display can be trialled out.Goop staff work around bespoke desks
Staff have been given bespoke workstations. For formal meetings they can head to one of the conference rooms, which are decorated with past and present examples of Goop merchandise.Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop brand launches first home collection with CB2
Expansive floor-to-ceiling panels of glazing flood spaces throughout the HQ in natural light.
This is seen best in what employees refer to as the “All Hands” area, which boasts views of the palm tree-lined LA skyline.Conference rooms are decorated with framed Goop merchandise
The room is used for casual catch-ups or large-scale staff gatherings. It includes a light-hued timber kitchen and a trio of arched niches that accommodate tan-leather seating banquettes.
There are also a couple of grey modular sofas that can be rearranged to suit different-sized workgroups.Light-hued timber lines the staff kitchen
“The intent of the material palette was to evoke a sense of calming familiarity,” said Rapt Studio’s president and creative director, Sam Farhang.
“Natural, warm materials and soft tones create a welcoming environment, allowing the Goop team to feel at home within the space,” he told Dezeen.This light-filled room can be used for informal meetings
Tapping into Goop’s wellness-focused ethos, Rapt Studio also made sure to incorporate a yoga room and a number of secluded lounge spots and private booths for staff.
“These spaces – cocooned and concealed – are designed for reflecting, replenishing, and recharging,” added the studio.It features arched niches with tan-leather seating banquettes
Goop was launched by Paltrow in 2008, starting life as a weekly newsletter before growing into a brand that offers wellness, beauty and style advice.
Its trendy HQ is one of several that Rapt Studio has designed – back in 2017 it completed head offices for streetwear brand Vans, including meeting rooms lined with skateboards and huge graffiti wall murals.
In 2014 it also created headquarters for e-ticketing company Eventbrite, which has break-out areas with stadium-style seating.
Photography is by Madeline Tolle.Read more: More
Clothing racks move along wheeled tracks in Los Angeles athletic store Reigning Champ
Vancouver studio Peter Cardew has designed this store in Los Angeles for an athletic wear clothing company to allude to the aesthetic of a gym.The Reigning Champ store at 115 South La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles features walls covered in white glazed tiles, concrete floors and wooden clothing rails – simple materials chosen by Peter Cardew to follow the style of a gymnasium.
“In order to connect the customer with the product the design of the Los Angeles store obliquely alludes to the domain of a gym, providing an harmonious setting appropriate for the display of athletic clothing,” the studio explained.
“The choice of materials reinforces the relationship to sporting activity with the use of functional and utilitarian white glazed tile as wall and bench surfaces, polished concrete floors, and display fixtures fabricated using western hemlock, a plentiful economic wood with a straight grain efficiency,” it added.
“All culminating to convey a functional place of activity akin to any effective sporting milieu.”Piles of folded clothes are stored in the base of the wooden clothing racks that are suspended on rails from the ceiling.
The wooden structures, which are braced with metalwork, have wheels fitted the top of the wooden structures so they can be easily moved around the store.“In keeping with this active rather than passive environment the display fixtures are infinitely mobile being suspended from concrete beams attached to wheeled tracks which easily allows for changing seasonal configurations,” the studio added.
Commune designs Serra marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles to be airy and luxurious
“In addition, to facilitate yet more changes these fixtures are simply bolted together so that they can be removed for special events, celebrations, or exhibitions.”
Photograph by Andrew Latreille
The materiality continues into the changing rooms, whose doors feature an opening with a built-in wooden shelf so customers can swap clothes with Reigning Champ salespeople.
Reigning Champ spans the ground floor of its building with two large windows offering views and natural light into the space.The project, which is longlisted in the large retail interior category of Dezeen Awards 2020, marks the first in the US for the Canadian clothing brand. It is its fifth in total following two in Vancouver and two in Toronto.
Other shops recently completed in Los Angeles include a marijuana dispensary Commune designed to be airy and luxurious, and a dramatically narrow, runway-like space Bernard Dubois designed as the first store for sneaker brand APL.
Photography is by Mike Kelly, unless stated otherwise.Read more: More
White stucco Casa Mami by Working Holiday Studio contrasts California desert landscape
Los Angeles design firm Working Holiday Studio has transformed a property in the California desert into a shoppable holiday home that “stands out” against its desolate landscape Casa Mami is located in Pioneertown, California, an unincorporated community outside of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.
After visiting the area Carlos Naude and Whitney Brown of Working Holiday Studio wanted to purchase a house of their own to spend holidays in and to rent out to overnight guests.The 92-square-metre stucco house has an adobe-style construction and is situated on five acres (1.6 hectares) overlooking the barren desert landscape.
To make the tiny building “stand out” against its surroundings a black portico contrasts the updated white exterior and light-coloured gravel around the property juxtaposes the sandy ground.
“Most houses around the desert in that area try to blend in with the environment through earthy and brown tones, we wanted the opposite, we wanted our house to stand out which is why we chose to surround the house with white gravel to create a separation between the desert ground and house and painted it white and black, which not only made it really stand out but also brought a Mediterranean feel to it which is a good contrast to the dry hot desert,” Naude told Dezeen.
For the interiors, the designers took cues from Scandinavian and Japanese design styles. This was coupled with bright colours found in work by Mexican architect Luis Barragán and a mix of pattern and shape used by French interior designer Jacques Granges and British designer Terence Conran.
“I would say that we borrowed Luis Barragán’s use of colour – like the monochromatic yellow hallway, Jacques Grange’s ability to mix styles – between Scandinavian and Japanese, and Terence Conran’s incorporation of playful shapes and silhouettes,” he added.
An Aesthetic Pursuit designs shoppable Airbnb in Maine
Beige walls are paired with white moulding and painted grey floors throughout the house. In the kitchen the cabinets and drawers are punctured with a tiny hole to form a handle instead of with a traditional metal knob.
A set of translucent glass doors with black trim is situated between the open-plan kitchen and living space frames the desert landscape, which is speckled with vegetation. Another pair is located in the master bedroom furnished with two semicircular nightstands and black light fixtures.
In the living there is blue couch with rounded cushions and a circular coffee table topped with a terrazzo surface. The furnishings face a white, sphere-shaped fireplace installed to heat the tiny home.
Photograph is by Candida Wohlgemuth
The studio worked with over 30 brands to decorate the space with furniture, appliances and houseware items that guests can purchase online, forming part a new trend to design “shoppable stays”.
Others include a holiday house in Maine designed by An Aesthetic Pursuit to showcase its new furniture collection and a rental property in Long Island Studio Robert McKinley has decorated to double as a showroom.Other details of Casa Mami are a hallway with bright yellow walls, decorative potted plants and an outdoor patio nestled into a corner of the structure.
It is also powered by solar panels and a hauled water system, so the homeowners and guests are more conscious about their energy and water usage.Casa Mami has been longlisted in the hotel and short stay interior project category of Dezeen Awards 2020, with shortlists set to be announced at the start of September.
Working Holiday Studio is a Los Angeles design studio led by husband and wife duo Carlos Naude and Whitney Brown. It worked with Francesca de la Fuente on the renovation of The Ruby Street co-working space in Los Angeles.
Photography is by Carlos Naude, unless noted otherwise.Read more: More
Greek islands inform design for Monastery Studio facial spa
A pale green lacquer table and dried plants are among the references to Greek architecture and “Californian freshness” in this spa in San Francisco designed by Jacqueline Sullivan.Monastery Studio is a spa and retail space in San Francisco, founded by Athena Hewett, that offers a range of facial and body services.
The light-filled space is designed to take cues from Hewett’s Greek heritage and her time spent in the Cyclades.“Monastery Studio is inspired by Athena’s Greek heritage and memories of summers in the Cyclades – sun bleached architecture, ancient pottery, soft stones, the salty sea, diffused sunlight,” Sullivan told Dezeen.
“Though the space has an old world feel it also has a distinctly Californian freshness and sensibility,” she added.
Walls and flooring in the space are painted white to provide a neutral backdrop for the custom-built furnishings, ceramics and dried floral sculptures.At the centre of the shop there is a chartreuse-coloured lacquer table with chunky circular legs and rounded edges designed by Shin Okuda of Los Angeles furniture studio Waka Waka. The surface forms a display area for the spa’s range of oils and serums.
Bottles of products and other trinkets, including dried flowers, rocks and pottery, are arranged across the thin boards that comprise a massive built-in shelving unit.
Proem Studio uses muted shades to design Cheeks & Co facial spa
To add texture to the space Sullivan installed a curving sculpture of brown and red plants that extends from the ground to the ceiling onto one of the walls.
“We played with shape, texture, colour and scale in a way that feels informed by the past but simultaneously very contemporary,” the designer added.
“Ultimately, we wanted the space to feel soft, special and thoughtfully considered, just like the Monastery oils themselves.”Curved archways lead into the treatment rooms which are also painted white and flooded with natural light from a row of windows. The rooms are outfitted with a wood chair for patients, wooden stools and potted plants.
The exterior of the spa and store is clad with planks of black wood and fronted with three large windows.Other facial spas include a skincare studio in Los Angeles with light pink accents designed by Proem Studio and a skincare store in England with cane and ash wood cabinets.
Read more: More
