Photos by Spacecrafting
Architecture by SALA Architects
Build by City Homes
When Stephanie Lalley, owner of Liquidpink Interiors, realized her samples were sprawled across every table in her house, she knew she needed a studio to call her own. After decades in the interior design industry, and about three years into establishing her own business, it was about time.
“Like so many designers, you might start in a small room of your house and quickly you’re overwhelmed with the amount of things that you need,” Lalley says. “We were getting a little bit overwhelmed with how much I was spread out around the house.” Luckily her small 1950s farmhouse, now at capacity with her family and business inside, was on an ample 12 acres—with a few unused sheds on site. “My husband jokingly was like, ‘We should just turn one of those sheds into your studio,’” Lalley says, and the idea stuck.
Lalley selected a pole barn off the home’s driveway. She wanted to keep the existing framework, trusses and all, but outfit the spacious interior for her work. To figure out if this was possible, she called upon the expertise of friend and frequent collaborator Bryan Anderson of SALA Architects who came out to the property to assess the structure.
“The poles all seemed to be in pretty good shape, and the barn itself was made up of various sheets of overlapping metal, so it needed a little love,” Anderson says. It would need a foundation, insulation, structural support, and, of course, windows. “But the idea of playing out whether we could take the bones of it and make it something was really exciting.”
From the outside, the studio still resembles a shed—but the interior has been completely transformed into a contemporary open workspace.
Inside the New Studio
Storage, natural light, and ample uncluttered space were Lalley’s top priorities for her studio. “Having a place to put things away is so important in my process,” she says. “If things are messy, my mind gets a little bit cluttered.” The front of the studio has ample open space for her to receive and unpack shipments. She installed a countertop that lines the perimeter, with plenty of drawers, cabinets, and even a kitchenette. A large display board where she can hang swatches and pin photos cleverly divides the space, held up by an L-shaped wraparound countertop that’s also a desk, creating a designated office space surrounded by large-format windows.
“Some design things I love are that I did all white plumbing and door hardware,” she says, except for the kitchenette station—where she installed green, 1980s cabinet hardware, a hand-me-down from a client. All the white elements of the space fade into the spacious backdrop of the studio, making all the colorful accents throughout pop, like sprinkles on buttercream.
Now that Lalley has been in her studio for a year, one of her favorite functional features of the space is a custom tile, counter-height table, allowing her to stand and move while working. It’s on casters so it can be moved around, and has a pastel gingham curtain that hides more storage underneath.
Another furnishing she loves is her desk: a two-desk unit where her business manager and husband posts up to work beside her.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Collaborating with other industry professionals came as no surprise for either Lalley or Anderson, who says that their conversations about the project were “shorthand” and design-forward. This kind of industry-side collaboration was familiar to Anderson, and reminiscent of his 26-year history working with SALA—which he sees as a collective of architects who influence, play off of, and learn from each other.
“From an architectural standpoint I wanted to keep it really simple and let Stephanie do her thing,” Anderson says. And their collaboration left a unique mark on the space: “We created a bearing line that takes the weight off the truss system and is keeping the existing trusses in place—and in the computer model I couldn’t help playing off the Liquidpink name by showing those columns and the steel beam in pink,” he says. “To see her keep it and embrace it in her interior design was pretty fun.”
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