Name: Celeste and Nicolai Iuul
Location: Marina Del Rey — Los Angeles, California
Size: 1700 square feet
Years lived in: 2 years in March — Own
Last month we saw a sneak peek of Celeste and Nicolai's loft, and I was immediately intrigued. The original artwork, photography, paint colors and amazing wallpaper all draw you in instantly as you walk in the door.
Celeste says that when designing a home it's all about "Layers! Sort of like a 4D movie." She is drawn to color and texture, while Nicolai veers toward a more modern simplistic approach. With their photography and art collection, visitors are immersed in a modern gallery of current artists — well curated into the loft space of a family of three.
Celeste and Nicolai designed and reinvented the open floor plan by building two enclosed bedrooms for the master and their son's room. Then they designed a raw beamed lofted open guest room. All the while strategically taking full advantage of the gorgeous natural light that pours in, "Light, light and more light. My husband is obsessed. "
I enjoyed seeing their playful approach to a kid friendly environment with all the soft textures and fun textiles. They even have a nice outdoor patio with a covered seating area to entertain during the warmer seasons. I love that they have created and maintained their love for urban style living in a beachside town.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Our Style: Blending our design styles was probably one of the most difficult challenges of our relationship. Nicolai is all about big, modern spaces with a classic Scandinavian composition, whereas I prefer to be surrounded by color and a lot of texture - so in respecting each others desire to contribute, we based the foundation on Nicolai's vision and (as soon as he went out of town) I incorporated color and put a lot of focus into creating pockets of intimacy.
Inspiration: Growing up in Copenhagen, Nicolai has always been inspired by the high-quality craftsmanship at the heart of Danish design, and now as a filmmaker he has found his more rebellious side, picking up Buddhas in Burma and Banksys in London. For me, I am wholly inspired by the potential of a space. I will visualize a room a hundreds different ways, then based on either my mood, work-life, history or passion projects, I choose a concept that is going to most reflect back the way I want to feel when I spend time in the room. With this particular loft, my inspiration was truthfully my one-year old son, I tried to create spaces that were smart, yet playful, not intimidating and definitely not meant to be taken too seriously.
Favorite Element: We are both Scorpios, so our natural element is Water - moving here from London last year it was essential that we live near to the beach, and we are fortunate enough to have several fountains outside our bedroom window. From an interior perspective, our big dream was to feature an aquarium within the wall that divides the entryway and the kid's room, but that turned out to be slightly too high-maintenance for our current lifestyle, so we opted for another preferred element, and designed an asymmetric set of untreated white birch box shelves on the entryway side with a very generous wardrobe on the other.
We also used untreated wood for the stairs and in the building of the loft guest room, giving us a small sense of nature in the midst of a big city like Los Angeles.
Biggest Challenge: Working with such high ceilings, you have a massive canvas at your disposal, however agreeing on how to make use of it takes a certain coming together of the minds. We each were really passionate about what we wanted, so much so that we decided Nicolai would have the East wall and I would take the West wall, however we slowly realized that with these two walls essentially framing the inside of the house, we needed to find some synergy that would marry our two ideas.
What Friends Say: "How did you possibly imagine a space like this?" I take that as a compliment! After looking through many loft design books I began to realize what a difficult task it is to make them feel and look like a proper home while still honoring the openness of the space.
Biggest Embarrassment: Definitely our (temporary) Ikea pieces - but you need somewhere to put your books and I like to take my time in decorating, living in a space for a while until I discover a 'perfect fit', similar to pieces to a puzzle.
Proudest DIY: Unquestionably my proudest do-it-yourself project will always be my son's room. I have never worked so hard on anything in my life, and it is still a work in progress, as he gets older and I learn more about his personality, I continue to adapt it. The horse belongs to his grandmother and the artwork is all his own.
Biggest Indulgence: The floors. The quick and easy thing to do would have been to just call Lumber Liquidators, but I really felt that the flooring would, and could, be one of the most important design aspects of the house, so we decided to put down white oak, then stained and buffed, and stained and buffed, and stained and buffed, eventually attaining that 'lived-in' look, and it will no doubt continue to change as the sunlight comes in and the children play and families come and go.
Best Advice: Create a space you actually want to live in, envision a scenario where if you were confined to your house, what would you want to see there?
Dream Sources: My dream source would be an Etro for Roche Bobois sofa or rug (if it existed), and then if I could afford to buy it.
Resources of Note:
PAINT & COLORS
- •Behr Premium Plus Ultra - I like Behr because it is a fairly low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint.
• Master Bath - Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Edgy Red
• Guest Bath - Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Evening Hush
• Master bedroom- Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Evening Hush
ENTRY
- • Modern Masters Metallic Silver for Front Door
• Custom White Birch freeform box shelves by Matt Lieberman
LIVING ROOM
- • Wallpaper is Matthew Williamson for Habitat (UK)
• Swan + Egg chairs by Arne Jacobsen
DINING ROOM
- • Table - Outdoor dining table, Habitat (UK)
• Art - Diver Lovers by Banksy
KITCHEN
- •Custom painted mural by Matt Lieberman
• DIY center island
MASTER BEDROOM
- • Custom closets + shelves by Matt Lieberman
GUEST LOFT
- • Custom stairway designed by Matt Lieberman
• DIY Headboard by Celeste Iuul
• Pillows from Miramax Films
CHILDREN'S ROOM
- • Horse picture by Annie Iuul, was then made into a mural and mounted onto a painted wood frame
• Bunk Beds - Ikea
• Artwork - Jackson Iuul
Thanks, Celeste and Nicolai!
Images: Bethany Nauert
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I love your window treatments! How did you hang the curtains? Great space!
Love the patterned wall in the first image. Gorgeous!
Loved the tour and the art. I'm interested in a lot of the art that was around the house. Like the "Diver Lovers by Banksy". Where does one go to buy art like that. Someone please help! Thanks
@pranav A lot of specialty poster stores will have prints like that, if you have one nearby. Additionally, if you just put the work into Google - something should come up!
I LOVE this place. My apartment is like the poor man's version of this.
BEAUTIFUL! i absolutely love this loft.
I love the staircase and the use of the lower staircase shelving!
Such a fun space! I'm dying to know where the aluminum/stainless deer head is from! :)
This is fantastic. Was I wrong in seeing multiple loft spaces?!? Very cool!
The silver/red wallpaper is very pretty, but not girly, and the surfboard over the bed is way too cool!
The eyes on the loft railing creeps me out. It is the only thing in the entire place I didn't love!
Where did you get your living room curtains?
can you tell us the names of some of your favorite artists on your walls???
Absolutely breathtaking!
So different, and awesome. I love all the levels, the bold colors, the finishes. NOT a house tour that makes me think over and over, "wait, haven't I seen this before?"
This is really, really COOL, and I mean that in the true sense of the word. I could wander around looking at everything for hours. Thank you for sharing!
cara o'd - you can get similar curtain lines at Ikea (the Dignitet series), they can be mounted to the wall or ceiling, and have pieces for going around corners: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=dignitet
Love the use of color! Great style.
I'm in love with this space~everything about it!
wooo, where is that bookcase/shelf set in photo 11 from? Did you make it? awesome!
Wow. I really love this. It is like, minimally cluttered. Warm but simple. I just love the cohesive feel through the whole space. I don't know how to describe it, but this is fantastic design. Nice job!
I LOVE this space.
@*Lili*, You can get a Deer head just like that (if not the same one) from Graham & Green in the UK. I've never seen them anywhere else and have no idea if they're even available in the US (Quite of few of the items here appear to be from the UK) but here's the link to their website: http://www.grahamandgreen.co.uk/deer-stag-heads-with-antlers-426
@AndyLloydSmith Thank you so much!!! This is totally going on my Christmas wish list! :)
I LOVE EVERYTHING about this space. EVERYTHING. Great job to the owners.
This space is super cool. I love the graphic elements - the pops of red with the steely blue. Really nice.
I hate the deer head.
the dead deer head really ruins a totally fabulous place. it makes no sense to me why anyone would put a decapitated animal head on their wall; it really looks out of place.
i like the metallic deer head, but hate the real dead one. it's just offensive.
nice place other than that. although you mentioned that you try to change your son's room as you learn about his personality... i just hope that you also let him participate in the process as much as possible! kids should have a say in how their room looks, it's their space after all.
Wow, these people have a very good sense of proportion - both with scale and intensity. None of it is my style but I surely admire their talent and application. Don't apologize for the Ikea. Everything is very harmonious unto itself. Can AT do periodic updates of some of these homes? I'd enjoy seeing what they evolve to in even 5 or 10 years. Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic photography Bethany! You nailed it!
Cool Paul
Wow, this is one of the nicest homes I've seen on this site in a long time. It looks like it was done by professional designers. There is just a great balance and flow to the space that works. The color palette is not for me -- I don't care for reds, and oranges, blacks and grey in my own environment (I go for pastels, so ...), but that still didn't keep me from finding their place really attractive. It looks like a place they can really live in and enjoy. The art work is interesting and thoughtfully placed and nothing about the apartment seems forced or contrived. I really like it.
I'd love more information about the art and the pillows. The pillow at the end of the tour cracked me up. "Seriously, don't f**k my mom." The Miramax pillows are also killer.
I love your colors! Did you have help from edenLA?
seriously?! you're place is super awesome. i love it especially the high ceiling. i love the black and red dominant colors. very functional, very inviting. contemplating of doing some of your designs in my place. would really love if I can see a picture of the exterior of the house especially the places of the windows.