Though they arrived in Los Angeles from Belgium only eight years ago, the husband-and-wife team of Jon and Maša Kleinhample behind Klein Agency has more than made its presence known in the city’s architecture and furniture design scene.
It helps that their work often balances material honesty with playful minimalism, allowing details to shine without breaking the bank. “Early on, we realized how inflated construction costs can be in California,” Maša told AN Interior. They began pricing out their own millwork and consistently came in under typical market rates—and with better results. This technique, which includes working with local fabricators in Boyle Heights and Sun Valley, has been their routine for years.
It also helps that they work from two of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods, with a street-facing office and gallery space in Silver Lake and a home store within a 40,000-square-foot courtyard building of their own design in the Arts District. Having worked on the latter project for over four years, the Kleinhamples came to know the developer well. “Our languages, designwise, just clicked,” Maša recalled. “He was open, supportive, and trusted us to do it right. He knew what we could do.”
They soon found themselves designing the developer’s holiday home in Ojai, a small, peaceful town 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. There, the client purchased a 15,000-square-foot property just a short walk from the main drag. “There was this little 600-square-foot pioneer shack on it,” said Maša, “and the rest of the lot was filled with beautiful old growth trees—including an ash tree that’s probably 30 feet tall.”
If all went well, the holiday home would initiate a following set of larger commercial projects on the site. “The first step was to test the ground, build a structure, and see how it integrates with the land and the surroundings,” she added. “The small house was a prototype that would indicate the potential for a larger hospitality project—still intimate, never oversized—that might include a few larger units for group stays.” The point was to maintain sensitivity to the land and context.
Klein Agency sought to preserve the character of the site, starting with the century-old brick structure, which it doubled in size while maintaining and responding to the structure’s material essence. “At around 1,200 square feet, we had to focus deeply on each detail,” said Maša. “It’s intimate. You can’t hide anything.”
The duo used solid Douglas fir for the millwork; solid stone and fixtures designed by John Pawson for Cocoon for the sinks; and cast-in-place concrete for the kitchen island. Even the glazing system can be described as bespoke. With the help of its metalworker, Klein Agency installed 38-millimeter solid aluminum sliders that are “just on another level,” as Maša put it. “They have presence, sound, and weight—you can feel the difference immediately.”
The original shack was adapted to include one of the bedrooms and a bathroom, which bear the details of the original brick and other antique remnants beneath a newly constructed ceiling. Beyond the original footprint, muted brick pavers from ORCA unite the elements of the added open-plan common space. Even beyond that, the flooring continues outside to constitute the 500-square-foot deck, where the old growth of the site comes into full view.
The whole interior, of course, also acts as an unofficial showroom for the firm’s furniture line. Everything from the decorative lighting and furniture bears its signature balance of material and form, including the “pillow sofa” luxuriating at the center of the living room. It invites an afternoon snooze, which can be enjoyed while the leaves of the ash tree sway in the middle distance.