Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Calcite.
"We wanted our space to be the love child of playful and avant-garde—fun and inviting, but also weird enough to stop you in your tracks," say Anne Sage and Caroline Lee of Light Lab. The founders of this new LA based creative studio and event space have most certainly accomplished their goal--Light Lab boasts a bevy of visual delights and thoughtful design details that are truly unforgettable. With the help of their designer, Sarah Sherman Samuel, they chose our 6" Triangles in Calcite and Raven Matte for their kitchen and bathroom and we love the result.
Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Raven Matte & Calcite.
We talked with Anne and Caroline about the space, their design style (and the tile) below:
Here's the trio behind Light Lab, Anne Sage, Caroline Lee and Jayden Lee (FYI it was Jayden perfectly installed all the triangle tiles):
Image: Jeff Mindell
Scroll down to see more of this project, but first a bit more about Caroline and Anne:
Caroline:
My style can be described as…colorful and irreverent with a generous dose of 70’s sass.
My design philosophy is…the best design makes you stop and wonder whether you love it or hate it.
I got my start…shooting weddings and lifestyle editorial in the wilds of Milwaukee.
I find inspiration in…efficiency, adventure, entrepreneurship.
I can’t live without…a bottle of pink hair dye.
My best design advice would be…if it doesn’t bring you joy, get rid of it!
Anne:
My style can be described as…layered and nuanced, coastal minimalism meets desert zen.
My design philosophy is…your space is a reflection of yourself, of where you’ve been and where you’re headed.
I got my start…working as a consumer strategist at a boutique-scale branding agency in Manhattan.
I find inspiration in…precision, reflection, curiosity.
I can’t live without…a bottle of Perrier.
My best design advice would be…time and patience are the best designers money can’t buy.
Can you tell me a bit about the space? What did it look like before and what did you most want to change?
When we signed the lease, Light Lab was an abandoned machine shop. To say it needed work would be an understatement (Check out the before video HERE)! We replaced the cracked concrete floor, tore down the interiors walls, and painted the entire envelope white. The result was a blank slate for our design vision!
Image: Jeff Mindell
What was your inspiration when designing Light Lab?
Our inspiration was the sense of creative freedom we want to foster in the space, both for ourselves and for anyone who visits. We wanted the design to feel thoughtful, welcoming, and inclusive, so we sought to combine our disparate aesthetic inclinations into one space to represent that inclusiveness. That’s where our designer Sarah Sherman Samuel was a lifesaver; she mediated our two very different styles and created a sum even greater than their parts!
This is there inspiration board for their creative space:
Was your process different designing a more commercial space vs. a residential one?
Aside from the oversized scale of our kitchen island—it’s 8’x11’ and doubles as a photo shoot surface as well as a workspace—we pretty much approached the design of Light Lab as we would if we were designing our own homes. After all, it’s our new home-away-from-home!
Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Calcite.
Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Calcite.
What type of aesthetic or feeling were you going for?
We wanted our space to be the love child of playful and avant-garde—fun and inviting, but also weird enough to stop you in your tracks.
Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Calcite.
How did you choose the over all color palette?
We love the versatility of pink—it can skew either playful or sophisticated—but we wanted to balance it with the grounding presence of neutrals like crisp white and black. Metallic accents add just the right touch of flash.
Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Balsalt & Calcite.
How did you choose what tile color/shape/pattern you would use for the bathroom floor and bar area?
Innovation is a big theme of our process, both with Light Lab and in our own work, so we loved that by choosing Fireclay’s new triangle shape we would get to create tile installations that hadn’t been done before! Sarah did a great job exploring its versatility by designing a grid pattern for the bathroom and a statement-making frontispiece for the island!
Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Calcite.
Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Balsalt & Calcite.
How did the installation process go? Did you face any challenges?
Our biggest challenges in both the bathroom and the kitchen were the inconsistencies in the construction of our space. The bathroom floor is not an even rectangle but rather a squished parallelogram; and the kitchen floor slants more than 3” from one end of the island to the other. Tile installation is all about precision, so when you’re starting with an imprecise foundation it can be maddening! Fortunately, Caroline’s husband Jayden (he’s the third partner in Light Lab) is a master of detail and patience…he laid every tile to perfection!
Image: Jeff Mindell; Tile Shown: 6" Triangles in Balsalt & Calcite.
Loving this black and white look? Order color samples online now. Need some help? Simply call, chat or fill out our Design Assistance Form and one of our talented Design Consultants will get back to you shortly. Working on a commercial project? Contact us here!
