The American interior designer combined the rich history of the City of the Angels with colorful global influences on this hotel that features 136 unique tiles founded in Downtown LA.

A former private club that was designed by architecture studio Curlett & Beelman in the 1920s gained a new life and was turned into this eclectic 148 room hotel full of joy and different designed tiles.

In fact, to realize this project, the real estate developer, The Kor Group, teamed up with Kelly and transform not only the 148-room into the whole building and made it be the Downtown LA Proper hotel we can find nowadays with Wearstler spearheading the interior design.

From the designer’s point of view, the design embraces LA’s “creative scene” but also the colors and forms inspired by Mexico, Morocco, Spain, and Portugal. Besides that, obviously, the professional took into consideration the location where the hotel is, Downtown LA combining it with the previously stated inspirations to get to what she defines as “bold and eclectic choices”.

As a designer, she took most of the inspiration on the communities and the history of the city and, as such, used mostly deep, warm tons to create a cheerful and colorful environment that expresses the rich culture and history of the city of Angels. There we can see a vast collection of tiles exposed on the overall hotel comprising 136 unique types of tiles, from the vintage to the custom.

The experience starts from the entrance. Visitors can still see the building’s original ornate archway, which is flanked by column-like cactus in the rustic pots, where is met with a graphite reception desk designed by the ceramicist Morgan Peck (image above). More than that, the original pink and white checkerboard floor tiling was kept in this space, while the ceiling is decored with a hand-painted multicolored mural designed by Abel Macias, which drew on the fauna and flora of Mexican folktales.

This eclecticism can be also spotted in the Downtown LA hotel’s guest rooms where Kelly blended contrasting elements such as chunkily-patterned headboards with smooth wooden floors, while the walls might vary within the spectrum of charcoal, mauve, dusty blue, ecru and umber.

In the building can be founded three eateries including the lobby-level Caldo Verde restaurant and bar which was designed to match perfectly with the rest of this Downtown LA place.

On this space was installed a collection of vintage rugs and seatings, cocoa and sandstone tiles, and jungle-like plants against a bespoke stained glass installed by Judson Studios to create the restaurant delimitation and doorway. But more than that were used some Mexican brutalist hand-carved chairs, woven pendant lights from the south of France, and stone mosaic tables to bring up to this Downtown LA Proper hotel a brighter and bolder atmosphere.

The place itself is a total explosion of the history and the culture of the city which the team wanted to keep as much as possible leaving, for instance, the original integrity and fabric, like the window casing and brickwork yet elevating it with contemporary jewel tones, patterns, and plasterwork.

According to the designer, Kelly Wearstler, the project aimed to embark on “a spirited exploration of materiality, color, and form, to share with guests a hyper-localized flavor of the city and create a hub for local creatives”.

This woman definitely has a lot of history and has been designing multiple places throughout history attending to the needs and surprising every time and this one couldn’t be different.