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“You should have seen the carpet guy’s face,” jokes Design Love Fest founder Bri Emery about when she explained her plan to cover the floor, sofa, coffee table, and credenza in her home office in a rust-colored, high-pile shag. “He was like, ‘What are you talking about?’”
But transforming the cozy space—a former catchall storage room in their Los Angeles home—into a ’70s-inspired conversation pit was all part of Emery and her husband’s master plan. When the pandemic hit, the couple realized they needed a denlike area for working, but also a lo-fi space where they could gather with a small group of friends and listen to records, be creative, and watch movies—or as Emery puts it, “Make things not on our phones.”
So with the help of Heather Spaulding of Spaulding Company, the pair installed vinyl walnut paneling from Surfacing Solution and hired local builder Santiago Mayer to construct a sofa, credenza, and coffee table that could be swathed in Shaw’s Ravishing carpet. (The color name? Chili, obviously.) The cushions got a layer of similarly toned velvet. A set of newly installed French doors, hidden by a sheer curtain, would lead to the patio.
But as any good design-minded person knows, a reference can get super-literal super-fast. To keep the whole look in the 2020s, Emery and Spaulding added modern touches, like a custom checkerboard rug from Etsy, an Entler lamp, and a Jenni Kayne sheepskin throw to keep things feeling fresh.
Not only is it a chill place to work or put on a record (the couple loves to spin disco and soul), it’s a guest room. When it’s time for bed, the modular coffee table goes up against the sofa, and the velvet sofa cushions can lie flat over the coffee table to make a cozy spot for a friend who wants to stay the night.
“The first time I stepped into the almost completed space, I felt like someone had just wrapped me in a warm blanket and I had had the best nap of my life,” says Spaulding. The vibes are so good, in fact, that the tiny nook inspired Emery and her husband to use it as a jumping-off point for their new home in New York, which Spaulding is also designing. “It’s kind of crazy because we started working on it during quarantine,” says Emery. “And then we had all these dreams about it being this ’60s- or ’70s-like den room—but now it’s manifested into our future house.”