The Duplex, Right Side: Jean & Dylan’s Playful, Working Hideaway

Name: Jean Lee & Dylan Davis of Ladies & Gentlemen Studio
Location: Ballard, Seattle, Washington
Size: About 900 square feet
Years lived in: 5 years; owned (co-owned)

Remember Chika and Jared from the Duplex Part 1? Jean and Dylan make up the other half! Owners of Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, Jean Lee and Dylan Davis live in the right side of the duplex (the studio connects to each home), where they work side by side on their line of textile accessories: R&L Goods.

I love the freshness of Jean and Dylan’s space. It has a Scandinavian feel to it, with bright wooden floors, an open-air kitchen with chalkboard walls, and a great collection of museum-worthy “tchotchkes.” Plus, I was excited to find that “the Dupe” had collectively prepared some amazingly yummy jam and mini toasts for my arrival (a first in my Apartment Therapy history!). After snacking and chatting, I was able to explore their little enclave with my camera.

Their office/workspace (upstairs) is a sight to behold, with organized designs and walls of quirky tools and paint chips. There, I also found their sweet cat Pudding, resting on his pillow. The bedroom was cozy, displaying a wall of pristinely hacked Ikea boxes that double as their dressers, plus smartly designed lighting fixtures and (I must say) an awesome mirror. Most of their greatest pieces, I came to find out, they produce themselves for Ladies and Gentlemen. Must be nice to be able to design exactly what you want for your own home. I really enjoyed traipsing around in their world for a day, and hope you will too!

Our Style: Generally speaking our style is pretty simple, warm with a mix of playfulness. We love old things for their uniqueness, stories, and character.  So the things we tend to collect/accumulate usually have some or all of those characteristics.

Inspiration: We’re inspired by a lot vintage designs, objects, and books. We’re also really drawn to the design aesthetics and approaches from Japan and Nordic/Scandinavian Countries.  We admire their simplicity and pure way of looking at everything. 

Favorite Element: All our open shelves. We like seeing our collections, materials, and findings on the shelves.  We use them like a 3 dimensional inspiration board. A lot of the pieces on the shelves are made by friends and people we like, so it’s comforting to be reminded of how awesomely creative the people we know are.

Biggest Challenge: Separating work and home life, since it all takes place right here.

What Friends Say: “Where did you find all this stuff?”

Biggest Embarrassment: The time we called Dylan’s step dad over to help with a severely clogged shower drain… only to have him discover the drain plug lever had been inadvertently flipped up (closing the drain). 

Proudest DIY: Our kitchen remodel!  We tore out a whole wall to open the kitchen into our living room…it made an amazing difference for how we enjoy our space everyday. 

Biggest Indulgence: Most of our improvements are done very thriftily, but we did splurg on new fir-framed windows that keep the cold out and the heat in and look great doing it.

Best Advice: Plan for home remodel projects in advance while keeping any eye out for deals on Craigslist, Ebay, and building salvage suppliers.   We’ve gotten incredible deals on amazing appliances, furniture, and supplies… free wood flooring, a $125 vintage Knoll sofa, high-end European appliances at significant discounts, etc. 

Dream Sources: If we had all the money in the world we’d spend it all on Wright 20.  They have beautiful original modern/antique designs of all sorts.  Besides having the famous design classics,  what we love the most are the rare, not-so famous pieces that the designers only produced certain numbers of or were experimental prototypes.  

• We use dark satin paint  in our kitchen in place of chalkable paint. It works the same, but cheaper!
• We use mostly “Oops paint” from hardware stores and mix them according to our liking.

• Alphabrass bench by L&G Studio using vintage brass lamp parts
  
• drift wood hooks by Kiel Mead
• a village of Homestead candlesticks by L&G studio on our grid shelf
• Ceramic sculpture in our grid shelf by Nicholas Nyland
• Cake stand in our grid shelf by Iacoli & McAllister
• Shelving unit from Ikea
  

• Vintage Knoll couch we scored from Craigslist
• Bertoia diamond chair from thrift store.
  
• Credenza & Coffee table built by L&G
• Wall shelving system L&G designed & built using cheap wood-grained textured paneling sheet material, oak plywood, and aluminum brackets from Rakks
• Aura light by L&G
• Tall Alphabrass lamp by L&G
• Piggy banks by L&G
• Macreme plant hanger by Ashley Helvey
  

• DIY kitchen renovation by ourselves using mostly free, seconds or scrap material—ReStore, Second Use
• Island bar table by Chadhaus
  
• Steel frame around kitchen island by Piano Nobile
• Perimeter tray by L&G 
• Most our kitchenware items are vintage thrift store finds
  
• Dansk enamel pots from ebay
• Arabia enamel heart & mushroom bowls from thrift stores
• Copper cylinder shakers by L&G
  
• Chemex coffee maker.
• Walnut with leather strap cutting board by Lostine.
• Wooden nut cracker by Pat Kim.
  

• Ikea-hacked wooden boxes with leather knotted pulls (by Jean)
• DIY clothing shelf using cinder blocks & pine boards from hardware stores
  
• Ikea-hacked wall-hung planter
• DIY clothing hanging rail made with copper tubing and cotton rope
• Rope hanging mirror by Grain
• Bedside floor lamp by Piano Nobile

• Book shelf wire frame from Ikea with DIY OSB shelves.
• Piggy banks by L&G Studio
• Lamp from Second Use
• Metal catalog filing unit from Dylan’s dad who thrifted it 30+ years ago.
  

Thanks, Jean & Dylan!

(Images: Andie Powers)

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