Home & Lifestyle, Design & Style

Field Trip: The Completed Story

Lesson time 05:30 min

Kelly walks you through the various elements—color, texture, lighting, furnishing—that came together for the Santa Monica Proper Hotel.

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Topics include: Field Trip: The Completed Story

Kelly Wearstler

Teaches Interior Design

Award-winning designer Kelly Wearstler teaches you interior design techniques to make any space more beautiful, creative, and inspiring.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] - We're here at Santa Monica Proper Hotel in Los Angeles, and this project was five years in the making. I'm so excited to show you guys. It's really a complete ensemble of everything that was inspired by what I may find on the beach-- things that have plaster, shell-like finishes, tile that has a beautiful patina, beautiful worn leathers, and many different materials. [MUSIC PLAYING] The design story is a sophisticated amalgam of things that someone may find on the beach. And what's great about being at the hotel is that I get to show you a bunch of examples of things that we discussed in the lessons. For example, mixed materiality, color, lighting, texture, all of these beautiful things that come together to tell a design story. In terms of the architecture, we were given the envelope of the building. So it was up to us as the interior designer to create a design story. Things are very shell-like, very sexy forms, and it plays into the furniture, the architecture, and the accessories that we curated. With the architecture, we really wanted to create intimacy and a project that felt residential. We looked at this as a salon in creating these little living room settings that people could come and hang out and enjoy. And one of the exciting things about this is creating these alcoves where it's the place that people want to hang out and have gatherings, people watch, and everything else that you do in a hotel lobby. Because this was such a large space and there was not a lot of portals and rooms that we could design into, we actually created this beautiful opening, this sculptural portal that is skin in this beautiful wood. And that also helps delineate spaces. Some of these columns are actually not columns. We actually added a couple more to create repetition and interest in the space. In terms of the furniture, it took about four to five years to curate all the different types of furniture. And if you can see, there's quite a mix of unique designs here-- some leather, stone, coralwood, sculptural pieces. People actually love coming here and sitting in all the chairs, and it's amazing because people get a different experience. They get a different perspective when they sit in the different chairs. It's amazing to see people enjoy the space like they do. When we were designing the space, we had a floor plan, of course, and we laid all of the living room settings out. And a lot of the furniture ended up going in another different place because when you actually get these pieces here, you put them together, some of the synergies of the furniture look better with some of the other pieces. But as you start to go out and curate and find all these beautiful pieces, you have to keep the process a little fluid. These two chairs may have gone into another area, but they actually look better here. So you have to step back and look and add things as you feel that they need. The color story of this project i...

About the Instructor

Eclectic and experiential, Kelly Wearstler’s style helped redefine modern American design and influenced the rise of designer hotels. Now the award-winning designer takes you behind the scenes to demystify interior design. Make any space feel larger, and choose colors, materials, and textures with confidence. Curate collections of art and objects, cultivate your own distinct style, and create spaces that tell a story.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Kelly Wearstler

Award-winning designer Kelly Wearstler teaches you interior design techniques to make any space more beautiful, creative, and inspiring.

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