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Celebrating the versatile beauty of concrete, Concrete Collaborative offers hand-crafted surfaces that can endure real life—from cool patterned tiles to colorful terrazzo tabletops—in modern style.
For most people, a view of the ocean is more than enough of a connection to the outdoors. But for Leah Bradley—an avid surfer (and the daughter of a professional surfer), who grew up chasing waves in Southern California—recreating a beach vibe indoors is equally essential. What she didn’t expect was for that vision to take two tries before fully coming to life in her kitchen.
Six years ago, the interior and landscape designer and her husband (a fellow surfer) purchased a ranch-style mid-century home in Costa Mesa for their family of five. One of Bradley’s main goals was to give the space more flow and a laid-back coastal feel in keeping with her upbringing.
Out came two non-load bearing partitions in the kitchen, opening the room to include the entryway and dining area. Next, she replaced the original vinyl flooring with engineered oak planks and added an island and custom oak cabinetry. To balance out the soaring pitched ceiling and abundance of windows and skylights, Bradley swapped the white porcelain tiles for unglazed terracotta ones.
After living in the space for a while, however, she realized all that wood and brown tile had created an endless sea of earth tones. “I knew I needed a little pop of color,” she says.
Bradley vowed to refurbish the room with something that more closely aligned with her love of the Pacific. In a stroke of luck, she soon spotted her muse: Domino’s new line with Concrete Collaborative, a curation of hand-pressed concrete tiles in ready-to-ship colorways inspired by sun-soaked coastlines. Beautiful yet durable, they imbue any space with an artisanal quality (plus, they can be used outdoors).
Another bonus: easy-to-maintain concrete could hold up to the comings and goings of Bradley’s busy family, without having to sacrifice style. “The kitchen is where we spend most of our time—kids on the counter helping cook, and art supplies scattered about during paint mornings,” Bradley explains.
When it came to picking a color, the choice was obvious. “I need to either be floating in the ocean or to feel like I’m floating in the ocean,” she says with a laugh, regarding the hue she landed on (appropriately named Rain). “It’s a subtle but beautiful blue that’s peaceful and perfect for our beach home.”
Instead of installing the four-by-four tiles in traditional monochrome, Bradley played around with simple patterns, like a sporty checkerboard. Ultimately, she went with stripes, using Concrete Collaborative’s Blonde color in alternating rows to create a gentle splash that wouldn’t overpower the mid-century architecture. “I love how the kitchen feels open, welcoming, and breezy,” she notes.
A pleasant surprise: The crisp vertical lines draw the eye up to a series of shelves where Bradley displays cherished treasures from her and her husband’s travels to surfing locales around the world—old wood objects, books, and vintage art. “They were getting lost with all the brown,” she explains.
Now, “the tiles flow so perfectly with the hints of creamy sea foam and Pacific blue,” she says. “It reminds me of the ocean currents.” Even a sliver of the stripes running below the picture window points to the view outside: a rack with all the family’s surfboards, ready to be put into action.
In Bradley’s case, she gets to make waves, as well as ride them.
