Gulla Jónsdóttir Makes a Hotel Sweet Home in Hollywood

Gulla Jónsdóttir has been tearing down the aesthetic walls separating residential and hospitality design for years, creating spaces for guests of the Kimpton La Peer Hotel, Mayfair Hotel, and Interior Design‘s Best of Year–winning Macau Roosevelt to feel right at home. Now, with The Line Lofts, a new luxury apartment building in Los Angeles, she goes one step further: designing and custom building a few walls of her own.

Jónsdóttir, who designed the lobby and common areas, commissioned Guerin Swing to fabricate the sculptural concrete façades at the garage entrance and reception by hand and onsite, of eco-plaster and paint. “This art greets every resident when first arriving home and is the last thing they see when leaving,” Jónsdóttir says. “That makes the unique piece very special to me.”

Hotel touches abound, often in the form of her own furniture: her Cuff Chairs, for example, offer a perfect place for a cup of coffee and a spot of work in a social area of the lobby. A recreation room on the second floor includes plush sofas inside and a pool deck in the sun. And she commissioned Hollywood’s own Jesus Banuelos to photograph the neighborhood, giving residents a chance to see their home with the fresh eyes of a sightseer.