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Bitium’s Soft Industrial Office

Bethany Nauert
Bethany Nauert
A Los Angeles photographer with a weakness for adorable house pets and quesadillas.
published Jun 6, 2014
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(Image credit: Bethany Nauert)

Name: Bitium offices, designed by Kate Strickland of West Haddon Hall
Location: Main Street in Santa Monica, California
Size: 3,500 Ssquare feet, 2 floors
Years worked in: 1 year

When Kate Strickland completed this office design project, she asked me to photograph it for her portfolio. However, I immediately felt its incredible design deserved to be showcased in a workspace tour. Kate has completely brought together the industrial warmth of a residential loft with the community feel of an office space. Bitium’s employees enjoy multiple work stations, meeting rooms and lounges, and of course fresh ocean air from the coast, just blocks away.

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Reception/ Waiting area (downstairs) (Image credit: Bethany Nauert)
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(Image credit: Bethany Nauert)

Kate’s design for this office allows beauty and organization to coexist perfectly with form and function. The big open windows, the shared office spaces, and the cool, neutral color palette are just some of the details that went into this amazing space. They’re still growing to fit their new location, but Bitium is already right at home here as their company looks toward the future.

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(Image credit: Bethany Nauert)

Apartment Therapy Survey:

Style Of The Space: The office is masculine, collected, personal, and organic. Its cohesion is created through consistent materiality choices throughout, including raw wood, leather, and black powder-coated steel, along with an assortment of succulents, branches, and pressed botanical prints. The collected look is achieved by mixing everything from neoclassical architectural fragments to a groovy 1970’s inspired channeled sofa. By limiting the color and material palettes and then filling the space with sentimental objects and organic materials, we feel that we created an office that feels soothing, home-y, and totally customized and original.

Inspiration: We wanted to achieve a very personalized and more high-style look that’s not ordinarily seen in a startup tech office. Along with the company founders, we wanted the sitting areas to feel like the lobby of a boutique hotel or someone’s personal sitting room. The Bitium founders asked us to incorporate muted blue, as it’s their company color, and to utilize lots of beautiful wood textures and leathers, so we started there.

Favorite Element: The custom round black powder-coated steel bookcase.

Biggest Challenge: There is one room with no windows that feels like a glorified closet. We branded it “The Project Room” to be used for “long periods of deep collaboration.” We styled it out with mirrors and cozy pillows, and the employees love to take private calls there, and they even use it to watch HBO and sports after working hours.

What Friends Say: “Dope, dude!” and “That KITCHEN!?!”

Proudest DIY: Probably the spiked “Punk” sconce that we designed and had the glass hand-blown in downtown Los Angeles. Does that count as a DIY?! If not, we also sponge-painted a $3 vase one half black and one half white in hopes of making it look like a Kelly Wearstler piece!

Biggest Indulgence: The 10’ sliding glass doors.

Advice for Organizing Tech into the Office: Wrangle cords below workstations and conference tables so they’re out of sight and as neat as possible. For a quick fix— screw wire management trays onto the underside of each workstation and use zip ties to keep them all together.

Dream Sources: JF Chen.

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(Image credit: Bethany Nauert)

Resources of Note:

PAINT & COLORS

  • Farrow and Ball Black Blue

RECEPTION WAITING AREA (DOWNSTAIRS):

PROJECT ROOM (DOWNSTAIRS):

LAPTOP BAR (UPSTAIRS):

LOUNGE (UPSTAIRS):

CASUAL MEETING ROOM (UPSTAIRS):

KITCHEN (UPSTAIRS):

CONFERENCE ROOM (UPSTAIRS):

OPEN WORK ROOM (UPSTAIRS):

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Thanks, Kate + Bitium!

• HOUSE TOUR ARCHIVE: Check out past house tours here.
• Interested in sharing your home with Apartment Therapy? Contact the editors through our House Tour Submission Form.
• Are you a designer/architect/decorator interested in sharing a residential project with Apartment Therapy readers? Contact the editors through our Professional Submission Form.

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