Subtle palettes of taupe and tan, luxurious materials from suede to cashmere - Jenni Kayne has long been known for their dreamy aesthetic intrinsically tied to the spirit and sweeping vistas of Southern California. So when they reached out to Maiden Home to contribute to their latest, and most exciting project yet, we jumped at the opportunity.
We sat down with CEO Julia Hunter whose own home in the mountains of San Bernardino has become the canvas for Jenni Kayne’s latest entrée into the home category: The Jenni Kayne Lake House. From her top interior design tips to how they selected the perfect Maiden Home pieces for the space, we’re diving in.
Tell us a little bit about The Jenni Kayne Lake House, how did this project begin?
We have been wanting to find an opportunity to showcase the Jenni Kayne lifestyle in a more holistic way for some time. When we launched Jenni Kayne home product a couple years ago, we renovated a vintage Airstream and toured it around the country as a traveling pop up shop. It was so well received that we knew we needed to do something like it again, and have been working through the idea ever since.
Lake Arrowhead is a beautiful part of California, why did you choose it to launch the first Jenni Kayne Home?
My husband and I visited Lake Arrowhead a few years ago and fell in love on our first trip. It’s such a beautiful place in the San Bernardino mountains with redwood trees and nature everywhere and a gorgeous 2 mile wide lake, all only 2 hours from Los Angeles.
Jenni Kayne has such a unique, iconic aesthetic - how did you go about translating that into a full home renovation?
Jenni herself has such a distinct point of view on interiors, and she has experience designing her own homes so she already knew what she liked and how she wanted the house to feel when it was finished. Jenni loves to mix form with function, so everything needed to be elevated and warm in design sensibility but still comfortable and easy to live in. This meant there would be lots of natural elements like oak wood floors, white brick, and an emphasis on letting the lake and tree views play a major role in setting the tone for the feel of the house.
What other inspirations were a part of your design?
Jenni’s home in Lake Tahoe was a major source of inspiration, since she had put so much love and care into it. She was thoughtful about how she wanted family and friends to feel when they visited, so each bedroom was designed to feel spacious, minimal, inspiring and comfortable, not cluttered or too eclectic. The common areas like the living room, dining and kitchen in Tahoe are set up for entertaining, with lots of seating and open space to move around, and we wanted to recreate that here.
Tell us a bit about the renovation process - how did you transform this home?
The house needed a lot of work when we bought it - so we basically gutted it and only kept a couple of the previous elements, like the fireplaces and a beautiful vintage barn door in the mudroom. Otherwise, it felt like a blank canvas. We wanted to let the lake views be the focus, so we kept consistency throughout the house with the perfect white paint from Farrow & Ball and French oak wood floors that we used throughout the home. We were lucky enough to partner with Waterworks and Heath Ceramics, so we let those brands help set the tone for the brass and nickel hardware fixtures and soft white ceramic tile in each of the bathrooms and the kitchen. We tried to be thoughtful about selecting a few statement pieces like the Hallman range and the vintage clawfoot tub in the master bath, and otherwise kept the design very simple and clean.
How did you find Maiden Home, what made it the best fit for this project?
We found Maiden Home on Instagram! Actually a few of our team members had each independently seen beautiful photographs of the Dune sofa and the Hayes chairs on different Instagram accounts, and when we visited the Maiden Home website, we fell in love with the overall aesthetic of the brand and found so many pieces we were excited to incorporate in the home. Because we wanted to keep the furniture relatively neutral, we knew we needed to use pieces that were the most perfect version of themselves, with elevated materials and exceptional craftsmanship, and Maiden Home was the best partner we could have asked for.
Tell us about the living room, what Maiden Home pieces did you use?
We designed the room around finding the most beautiful white couch, so when we found the Dune sofa, we knew it was exactly what we had been looking for. It’s classic and timeless, and the White Performance Washed Linen is soft and comfortable but still elevated. We loved the edge detailing on the pillows to give it a bit more character. The Hayes chairs were the perfect accent chairs, we loved the beech wood and snow hair-on-hide materials since they fit so well with the design of the house.
What other design elements make this space feel unique?
We wanted the floors to be soft and comfortable so thought the Atlas rug from Armadillo was a perfect addition, and we layered it over their Sahara rug. We love the vintage pieces from Elsie Green and found the perfect coffee table there. Choosing art pieces is always one of the last steps in our design process, and when we found ones we loved from Uprise Art they ended up really completing the room.
The Wythe bed makes a beautiful statement in the bedrooms of this space. What was the inspiration for these rooms?
Jenni loves a beautiful white linen bed frame as a centerpiece of every bedroom - it makes her and her family and friends feel peaceful and relaxed at the end of the day. The Wythe bed is truly the best version of this classic piece so we really designed the rooms around the bed frames.
Which other brands brought the bedroom spaces to life, why did you choose them?
In each of the bedrooms, we incorporated our favorite luxurious linens and bedding from Parachute. We used a mix of lighting pieces for the different spaces, including more statement rattan woven overhead pieces from Lulu & Georgia, and more classic brass and oil rubbed bronze sconces from Rejuvenation. We also wanted the rugs on the floors to be cozy at bedtime and used soft weaves like the Malawi from Armadillo.
Looking ahead, how do you see the Jenni Kayne Home concept continuing to grow and evolve?
We have so many different paths we’re exploring to continue evolving the Jenni Kayne Home concept. We’d love to do more in the hospitality space, so we are looking at partnerships with some of our favorite boutique hotels where we could design not only the interior decor, but also help create memorable guest experiences like workshops and special meals.
What five tips do you have for designing a beautiful home from scratch?
- Less is more! It’s easy to get carried away when you are starting with a blank canvas, but it’s always best to start simply - you can always add more details if you need them later.
- Consistency is key. Each room in a house should feel connected to the rest of the home through cohesive materials and color palette. We love introducing special moments and cozy corners, but these work best when the rest of the home feels unified.
- Pinterest is our go to for curating inspiration. We create boards for each room of the house and are constantly going back to our inspiration photos during every step of the design process to make sure we incorporated every element that we intended to.
- Bring the outside in. Anytime you have the chance to use views of nature like trees, landscapes or water, we think it’s great to let those have an important place in the layout and design of a home.
- Use natural materials. Warm woods like oak and maple are timeless and will hold up well against wear and tear. We love brick, marble or travertine stone in bathrooms and kitchens because they are neutral in color palette but beautiful because of their own unique and natural characteristics.
The Jenni Kayne team chose The Dune sofa in White Performance Washed Linen, two Hayes chairs in Snow Hair-on-Hide and Beech, and The Wythe bed in Oyster Performance Linen
Ready to design your own perfect space? Start with swatches to feel the quality of our materials in the comfort of your own home.
