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Design Studio Exterior Image

Before & After, Projects

Before & After: Design House P.1

Projects
September 21, 2020

We’re elated that the day has come to give you all an inside look into the very place we call home each day — our MGD Design House. A few years ago, Mindy and her good friend Kayla Adams of Hati Home searched far and wide to find a space that could house their growing teams and creative pursuits. When they saw the structure of the studio (which was formerly a roofing showroom!) they knew that it had the foundation and potential to be just the kind of place to call home. And so, the building was lovingly demo’d and restored to become the beauty that it is today. It’s situated in Westside Costa Mesa, an area that’s now home to many retail stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and creative work spaces — and it’s a short ten minute drive to the beach. Follow along below to see some great before & afters and hear all of the design details!

Design Studio Exterior Image
After

Exterior

The beauty of finding an old, run-down space is that there is endless opportunity to update it to be just as you want it (which is, not surprisingly, a designer’s dream!) The outside of this building came clad with industrial corrugated metal, and while we loved the look of the metal itself, we wanted to give it a little personality by painting the entire exterior in a dark hue. We also tore out all of the original landscaping and replaced it with the most perfectly California greenery: little ollies, westringia, star jasmine, a climbing rose, and succulents. To top it off, we added in a dutch door for air flow and enlisted a local Costa Mesa artist to paint our building signage. It all comes together to be a place that we love pulling our cars up to every day!

Before
Before
Design Studio Exterior Image
After
Design Studio Exterior Image
After
Design Studio Exterior Image
After
Design Studio Exterior Image
After

Showroom

Once you enter through the dutch door, you land right in our showroom — a front area of the office that shows a variety of furniture and accessories for our clients to experience first-hand the things we design and sell, as well as the materials we use within our homes. It’s the kind of place you want to stay awhile and dream in!

This room was completely gutted from the get-go, where we reimagined the space to be a big, open, and dreamy showroom. We added drywall to the walls for a more refined finish, kept the industrial exposed ceilings to highlight the building’s character and past, and painted everything white (of course!). We worked with our friends at Warren Christopher to create a better residential feel in the space by adding engineered wide plank oak wood flooring throughout. To finish it off, we filled it with all of our favorite furniture, decor, and material samples. Stop on by so you can experience the showroom for yourself!

Design House Before Image
Before
Design House Before Image
Before
Design Studio Showroom Image
After
Design Studio Showroom Image
After
Design Studio Showroom Image
After
Design Studio Showroom Image
After
Design Studio Showroom Image
After
Design Studio Showroom Image
After
Design Studio Showroom Image
After

That’s all for part one of our tour, friends! Thanks so much for following along and we’ll be back next week to show you the ins and outs of the heart of our home — our working area! Stay tuned. 🙂

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IMAGES / Vanessa Lentine
Comments (5)

Comments

  1. Caroline Nelson says

    March 22, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    I adore The dark painT! We are thinking possibly of going super bold and painting our hoise either a really dark gray or even black – siding and trim like you did! Can yoU share the hue?

    Reply
    • Mindy Gayer Design Co. says

      March 25, 2021 at 4:26 pm

      Hi! Thank you so much – We love it too! It’s Black Panther by Benjamin Moore 🙂

      Reply
  2. Katie says

    May 8, 2021 at 1:25 pm

    Where are these dutCh doors from? Love!

    Reply
    • Mindy Gayer Design Co. says

      May 13, 2021 at 3:20 pm

      The door is by Pinky’s Iron Doors!

      Reply
  3. Candace says

    October 18, 2023 at 1:46 am

    Beautiful, would you mind sharing the names of the landscaping plants? Looking to landscape our flowerbed against our black siding. Love the pop of white & green against the dark.

    Reply

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