On-Trend Geometrics and Punchy Color Define This Family's Desert Oasis Home

Lauren Lerner — founder and lead designer of Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm Living With Lolo — creates spaces in the sweet spot between "choices that’ll still make sense in a decade" and "the best and brightest of what’s going on in the design world right now." That was her goal in reimagining this five-bedroom, five-bath home for her clients and their two nine-year-old daughters; they’d already lived in their home for several years and knew it was high time to shake things up. “Their main priority was making the kitchen more functional,” Lauren explains. “It is actually quite small and had no pantry and little cabinet space.” Starting from scratch, she reinvigorated their once stale rooms with crowd-pleasing and dynamic patterns, vibrant colors and rich finishes that resonate with current trends and will brighten the family headquarters for years to come. Take a closer look at how Lauren coaxed these spaces to life, and deploy her moves to help your own rooms live happily ever after.

To put it bluntly, “the entryway needed a refresh,” Lauren says. That meant reconsidering both architectural details and key accents. “We completely updated the stairs in this home. The initial stair railing was a very ornate and dated wrought iron that needed to be brought into modern times. The entry itself isn't large, so we had to prioritize pieces that were not only beautiful but also functional. And since we were working with a small footprint, we had to have a rug custom-made. We found this gorgeous black and ivory wool rug at Jaipur Living [an ethical, sustainable rug and home accessories company]. They had it custom-made for us overseas, which during COVID was not a quick process. It really tied up the space together.”

“Since you see this room and the backs of the chairs when you first walk into the home, we knew we wanted the backs of the chairs to be special and a main feature of the space,” Lauren says. With a striking combination of rattan caning, neutral upholstered panels and angular ebonized wood, these Japanese-tatami-inspired barrel chairs fit the bill perfectly.

The white sofas are the first pieces Lauren and her team selected for the living room. “We used a Crypton fabric for this sofa that allows families who have kids to choose colors and fabrics that they might not have otherwise chosen because it is durable and very easy to clean,” she explains. “The pillows are from Square Feathers. When styling the tables we love to mix items of various textures and heights to keep your eyes moving around.”