How to Design a Home That Feels Like a Sanctuary with Ome Dezin (Design Masterclass)

I'm Joelle and this is Jesse and we're from Omdezen. We're going to show you how to design a home that feels like a sanctuary. At our recently completed home in Los Angeles called Kent Project. So one of the first things that we really look at when designing a home is how it flows through a space. So functionality is key. It's really important that a home obviously is beautiful but before that it needs to function properly. So it needs to be organized in a way such that someone can come in and live in it in a way that makes sense to them. Yeah so the first step we do is internal layout. Maybe we look at the exterior architecture but the internal layout of the home is something that we look for first. So you know for this home all of the spaces were closed by walls or wall dividers and so everything felt very small and a bit congested and so it was important to us to open up all of the spaces so that there was a flow and connection between all the main living spaces and then all of those main living spaces open up to the exterior. I think function is so important to feel calm in your space. It's something as simple as having enough storage or the right storage. You know there's so there's not too much clutter. There's a place for everything so when we're designing a home we really put ourselves into the home and how we would live. If it's a kitchen it's like how far from the fridge is the sink the dishwasher and the range. It all is like a seamless dance that you're doing in the kitchen. So we use materials to create a sense of sanctuary across all of our projects. We really start with a base of natural materials, wormwood, stone, metals. It's kind of a brutalist approach but I think as you're closer to the earth and natural materials you always get a sense of calm and tranquility. In line with this minimal type of architecture we wanted to keep the materiality kept to a few materials and try to really work those in everywhere. So in this bathroom you can see that essentially it looks like three materials. It looks like oak, marble, and brick and while all of the key materials in view tend to be subtle and earthy there is still an opportunity for a shiny metal to juxtapose those earthy tones. Yeah I think that's a really important point that when using woods and natural materials like marble they're hundreds of years old and they're infused with history that we want to keep intact but as well as have them evolve. So sometimes when you're putting in like a natural marble they have the ability to scratch or stain and we really like to lean into that and we tell our clients and people we work with don't be afraid of the natural staining or evolving of your materials like you should grow with them and lean into it. So I think that we're always thinking about durability and how people are going to interact with materials. So as much as we love things that patina we also know that nothing can ever be too precious so we love that sort of idea of a home can actually live with people inside it and we don't have to be precious about who's inside and how they're living. Yeah so in order for your home to feel like a sanctuary it's as important that it's beautiful but also feels livable you don't want to feel like you're walking around a museum or have your kids sort of tethered it's everything can patina, stain, scratch it's okay these are natural materials and they will grow in their existence. So being that we live in a city we always try to sort of impart as much natural feel to the home as possible so we bring in woods wherever possible, we bring in natural stones, we bring in earthy tones of other pieces of earth so that we feel like we're getting a little bit of outside you know inside our homes. Yeah using natural materials and reflecting the nature that the house is situated in is so important in creating a sanctuary out of your home. I think in accompaniment to our natural materials we also use a lot of vintage furniture and items. I think you know that sense of history and character like in the materials that you use are just as important in the furniture and the fabrics that you use that there's a sense of you know longevity and history and I think like in a global sense it's great to use items that you know have existed and are not mass-produced as much it feels like a holistic approach to living and in creating a sanctuary for yourself. I mean we are renovating and restoring old homes so to then refresh those fixtures and finishes with furniture that's also been refreshed it feels so fitting so it really feels like a cohesive story from build all the way to all the items that we choose. Light and natural light for us is such a great impactful way to create a space in a sanctuary for homeowners so one way that we always do that are skylights. Skylights are surprisingly inexpensive and very effective in inviting natural light into every space of your home. We often put them in entryways, bathrooms, kitchens so as you spend more time in a home and in your home you can see where the light moves throughout the day where it hits you know in the morning to midday to the evening and it starts you know giving you signals that okay it's above me in the living room and then as it sets maybe in the bedroom when you see where the light enters you are you know signified that it's nighttime and it's time to sort of you know ease into your evening routine. So there was a project that we did last year Park Lane where two of the guest bathrooms were this you know immersive in color so one was like a blue tiled bathroom and one was a yellow tiled bathroom and they both have these skylights over the shower and one over the bath and it just created this like very beam-like light that felt really prolific and strong and immersive. It was just a really great way to introduce natural light but really provide an incredible experience for when you're using those bathrooms. There was also something really special about those bathrooms which is also seen in the skylights here where we continue the material that's around it so in the case of the showers we took the tile all the way up the light chamber so that when you're in the space you just see this continuation of tile running all the way up out of sight that then the light hits which really feels extra special and unique. So you know light is so important to your stability and growth as a human so as designers we really find ways to incorporate natural light into a space whether it being a skylight, a glass door, glass windows, glass walls, we really just want to invite the natural light into every room of your home and every time of your day. So the natural world is infinitely calming so when designing a home we tried to impart as much outdoor living, outdoor feel inside wherever possible. So we really took the opportunity to add sliders or walls of windows in any room possible so in this particular family room we decided to open up the wall behind me so that when people were enjoying this space they truly felt like they were sort of in this extension of the outside and we opened up all sides around that courtyard so that when anyone is in a space you're immediately looking in to really feel like that courtyard is a part of the home. And so when you're able to use the outdoor as much as you are the indoor it just expands your livability of a home really just emphasizing the sanctuary that like between your walls whether it be trees or gates that sort of enclose your space create for you it's just an expansion of your bedroom or your living room or your kitchen and that's why they should so seamlessly work together that you're able to walk from one to another and feel like you're still in the same space just you know one is outdoor and one is in. So for indoor outdoor blending the exterior and interior materiality is really important to us so we often use the same materials outside as we do inside or vice versa we use things like in this house the brick that you see in the kitchen and the bathrooms also were used outside in the entry in the carport so that when you're walking from outside to in your mind just feels kind of like these two worlds are really blending and blurred together. I think the connection of indoor and outdoor is so integral to designers because biologically we are meant to be spending more time outdoors you know as children as much as adults really taking your shoes off and being in the grass or being amongst trees is just so healthy for your mind body and soul so in creating a sanctuary having these elements around you and having them connected to your interior spaces is so important. And even if you're not interacting with the outside world you're seeing it from the comfort of your own home so you're sitting in you're a living room but you're surrounded by nature and you're getting that glimpse sort of in either direction that you turn. So I think within our design practice a sense of playfulness creativity innovation is always really important to us we don't want to have too many constraints or parameters within the way we work I think it helps us evolve and also helps the end product just be you know more vibrant and feel like a sanctuary because in a sanctuary in the same way that you blur lines between the interior and exterior we also want to create a sense of openness in mind and soul and so infusing color and creativity also allows the people living in the home to feel like they can be open and express themselves. I think because the base materials are all natural calming colors and materials that always brings a sense of serenity to your sanctuary that when you impose the pops of colors or a little bit more playfulness it's not over you know overarching or overstimulating it's just stimulating enough it just you know sparks little moments of joy or little moments of creativity amongst what's really a soothing calming color and material palette. If someone's trying to achieve a super serene environment but goes with all neutrals sometimes it actually counterbalances what the objective is so here we went with this really soft all over neutral color palette and then infused furniture and art throughout that really brought like a special sense of color and dynamic nature to the space. Yeah and a sense of life you know I think that's we always come back to with our materials and our our furniture and our objects and art it's always you know pieces and you know materials and colors that we feel like have a sense of life and history and purpose you know it's really about thoughtful purposeful decisions that we make. It's been really fun sharing our home and our projects with you we hope you learned something about building a for yourself. Thanks for watching see you soon.