WAS [the newsletter] #35

The Wheel of (La)Fortune

#35

I’m Paige Wassel. WAS the Newsletter is your weekly dose of design inspiration, where (La)fortune favors the bold.

I’m home in LA and back to work after a nice vacay in Chicago. To kick off my return, I have a new Check Out This F***ing Home coming this Sunday!

All the fortune idioms are a heavy clue as to who I’m featuring. If you didn’t already guess, I’m talking about the one and only Lulu LaFortune!

Lulu is an LA-based designer. Her furniture and lighting has been seen in Elle Decor, ArchitecturalDigest, AD Italia, Town & Country, and Vogue. She designs heirloom pieces with a focus that merges function with ornate beauty, drawing on her obsession with pieces from the 17th and 18th century.

So of course we all want to see the inside of her f***ing home. Not only did she let me into her house, she sat down for an interview with me and here’s what she had to say:

What’s inspiring you right now?

In terms of designing products, I’ve been really inspired by jewelry lately. I’ve been looking a lot at the MET archives. These intricate and detailed pieces have incredible materials.

Where do you find inspiration for your home outside of interiors? For example, are there particular books, films, paintings, environments, etc. that are important to your sense of style?

Inspiration from our home comes from our lifestyle. I don’t really look at art, books, or film when creating an environment to live in. I look at what’s functional for us at this stage in life. Like a chest of drawers that can store all my bits and bobs, or a kitchen island that can be altered to the height we need. When I do follow interior inspiration, it never feels like it fits right in our house.

Of course, there are aspects that have been inspired, like when I was looking for an island. I knew I wanted something primitive. Ultimately, each piece in the house has to have a function. The space is too small to not operate in a way that helps us in our lives.

At the core of all your collections is a whimsical approach to color. How has your relationship with color changed as your sense as a designer has evolved and why is color important to you? How can people who might be a little afraid of bright colors incorporate them into their homes?

My approach to color has evolved in that I don't feel like I need to scream and be loud about it anymore. When I debuted my furniture and lighting collection in 2020, I wanted to be different and make it known what my brand was going to be about.

Now that it's been established, I’m interested more in softer colors, and how they can still have a big impact on your home. For those who might be afraid of bright colors, I would say to start small. Like the yellow barstools in my kitchen, I think they feel really approachable because it's not a huge commitment and honestly, they just kind of disappear.

In your opinion, what's the most important piece of furniture to invest in for someone in the process of redecorating their home?

I would invest in a really well-made vintage sofa and have it reupholstered. The modern sofas that don't cost an arm and a leg are an absolute waste of money because their lifespan is so short in comparison to what the price tag is. [Paige here: I could not agree more.]

What's the biggest challenge you've faced as you've designed and styled your home? And your biggest success?

It’s taken a lot of patience to find the balance of my and my husband's style. He's very industrial, loves modern art, and absolutely requires something to be functional. But for me? I love a more romantic style, Renaissance art, and I think things can be there just for beauty. I would say our biggest success is the kitchen design. We both really love our kitchen and it’s the only space that hasn’t changed an inch in the last 4.5 years.

As a furniture, designer, what's your favorite part of the design process?

My favorite part of the design process is the research and production. I love diving into archives, finding amazing color combinations, and looking at unique methods of fabrication. But what I love more is seeing it all come to life. I love going to vendors and seeing the process of manufacturing.

Was interior design an important part of your childhood? If so, what early memories do you have important spaces or your first exposure to good interior style?

I honestly felt like it wasn't super important to me until I started my own brand and I really discovered that the design in my childhood has absolutely shaped who I am as a designer. Dramatic, but true.

My earliest memories of spectacular interior design would be my grandparents’ lake house. It was designed/decorated in the late 1970s and nothing about it has changed to this day. Growing up, I thought it was completely normal to stay in a house with lime green carpet, floral sofas, and color-themed bedrooms that had matching printed wallpaper and bedding. But I'll never forget when I brought a friend to visit and they stepped into the house and very loudly said, “Oh, my God!” To me and my family, it was perfect and normal; I never thought it would be so startling to anyone else. So, if you can design a space that makes lime green carpet look good for fifty years, that will always be my definition of good interior style.

What feelings do you try to evoke with your personal homestyle? How do you want people to feel when they enter your space, and how do you try to achieve that?

I supposed I want my personal home style to reflect who Cameron and I are as individuals, so when you enter the space, I hope it's unique. I think we achieve that by collecting items that have great meaning to us. It’s important not to feel rushed when decorating your home. We have a lifetime to find great art, beautiful books, etc. Be patient and let things fall into place.

Describe your home’s style in three words.

Functional, comfortable, and meaningful.

What’s a design detail in your home that’s really important to you, but might not necessarily be noticed by everyone else?

To me, it’s important that every day I interact and use things that bring me joy. Like, I love that our hand towels in the kitchen are the napkins from our wedding. I love that the cup and saucer I drink my coffee from was from my grandmother. I love that the artwork we hung up and framed was done by a friend of ours in college.

On a more basic level, I love having nice hand soap! Coming into the house, you wouldn’t know the history behind all the items or the joy they all bring me, but it’s very important to me.

What are the small details in a home that make the biggest difference to you?

Lighting tone is really important, so I make sure the lamps are using lightbulbs that are all the same warm tone. My favorite lightbulb is the one in our hanging pendant in the kitchen. It's a Wi-Fi bulb that hooks up to our Google accounts so Cameron can set the brightness and timing of it. I love that he sets it to come on in the morning when we are making coffee and to start to dim while we are winding down to go to bed.