Rosa’s Wonderful Creative Space

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Name: Rosa Beltran, Interior Designer
Location: Silver Lake — Los Angeles, CA
Size: 1 room office/ converted from a garage
Years lived in: 3 years

Once in a while I’ll shoot a space and become so enamored of it that I want to just hang out. Like, forever. This happened when I recently shot Rosa Beltran’s office. She’s a super talented Interior Designer/Decorator so she’s got a one up on most of us. Not only is she naturally skilled in piecing together a space to make it functional and savvy but she’s pretty crafty and gives great DIY charm to any project she tackles.

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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

This office is in a converted garage located in Rosa’s backyard; perfect for anyone who wants to work at home, but be able to still separate personal life from business. She created charming touches throughout, such as reclaimed French double doors, simple track and recessed lighting and some amazing pops of color. Plus she’s not afraid to spray paint. Every time I’d point something out I liked, she’d simply say “oh thanks, yeah I found that for like $20 and then I just spray painted it gold.”

As an interior designer who believes in simple DIY projects and clean functional design, she has transformed this space into a truly noteworthy and organized work place. I love her use of all the wall space and that she truly utilizes every corner. Inspiration is abundant here, and it is a great working example of her style.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Apartment Therapy Survey:

My Style: My home itself has a very neutral color palette because it’s small and I find that keeping the colors quiet in there works better and is more soothing for me. But I do love color so I wanted to play it up in my detached design studio.

The inspiration for my home office: I’m an interior designer now and I’ve ALWAYS been a highly visual person. I spent the bulk of my 20s traveling the world (in a Lonely Planet, shoestring budget kind of way) and drew so much inspiration from the visual richness and aesthetic variety I encountered along the way.

Favorite Element: My giant and colorful mood/inspiration boards that feature a constantly rotating assortment of what’s exciting me in design at the moment.

Biggest Challenge: It’s small. It was originally the garage, which, since we live in Southern California, functioned as a storage space for us instead. I knew I had to retain SOME storage, so I walled off 1/3 of the garage and installed floor to ceiling shelving. The rest remained open and became my office. I solved the dark and dank problem by installing not one but two sets of French doors found on Craigslist.

What Friends Say: They love it. You’re just surrounded by color and imagery and textures and fabrics…it seems to get everyone’s creative juices flowing, myself included! It’s a great space for meeting with my clients.

Area WhereThere Is Room For Improvement / Future Projects: It’s pretty packed to the gills in here, so it’s ultra-important to maintain order…everything in it’s place….so that I don’t drown in fabric samples! (Although for me, that wouldn’t be such a bad way to go.)

Proudest DIY: Look around…nearly everything in here has my DIY stamp on it. I treat my own home and office like my design laboratory, and I am constantly trying out new DIY projects to see how well they work. I appreciate couture high-end design as much as anyone, but I think a mix of high and low design is what’s realistic for most of my clients, and there’s a special satisfaction that comes from pulling that off really well.

For instance I really love this decorative metal sheet from Home Depot that I sprayed gold and turned into a magnetic bulletin board. I love the delicate gold metalwork combined with the graphic geometric pattern…it’s like jewelry for the wall! My design blog is largely dedicated to sharing all my DIY projects and design inspiration like this.

Biggest Indulgence: The garden views and natural light I enjoy all day long through my Craigslisted French doors.

Best Advice About Organizing Or Incorporating Tech Into The Home: Hide the wires!! Nothing worse than a tangled jumble of cords from your electronics. I’m sorry, but if you have to drill a hole in the back of your vintage credenza-turned-media-cabinet…just do it!

Dream Sources: Rose Bowl flea market. You can’t create one-of-a-kind rooms that truly sing with all retail décor…you must mix in antique and vintage for a look with any depth or soul to it.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Resources of Note:

OFFICE TECH AND APPLIANCES

FURNITURE

ACCESSORIES

LIGHTING

ORGANIZING TOOLS/ ACCESSORIES

ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Thanks, Rosa!

Images: Bethany Nauert

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