Kelly Wearstler transforms a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival into the Santa Monica Proper Hotel

Prolific Los Angeles–based interior designer Kelly Wearstler adapts a 1928 Arthur E. Harvey–designed building into a new 271 room luxury hotel. Located in Santa Monica’s downtown core, the new locale features Spanish and Moorish details that accentuate the historic building’s original Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.

The new lodging venue is the first of its kind in the Southern Californian city in over two decades. Throughout, the use of woven textiles, textured patterns, stone finishes, and tambour furnishings evoke an airy and beach-like yet refined aesthetic. Soft earth-tones, evoke the area’s ample amount of sunlight and ocean breezes. Dark woods and amoebic forms are juxtaposed by striking plant life.

Geometric furnishings add a contemporary twist to the design. (The Ingalls)

The use of dark tiles throughout the hotel harkens back to a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival aesthetic. (The Ingalls)

Joining other Kelly Wearstler-designed properties in Austin, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, The Santa Monica Proper Hotel was conceived to reflect its surrounding geography and history. This iteration features three restaurants, a fitness center, a yoga terrace, a rooftop pool, deck, and bar. The Surya Spa from internationally celebrated Ayurvedic guru Martha Soffer, which will offer individually curated programs that foster and support the physical, mental, and spiritual well being and balance through therapeutic massage, steam and oil treatments, cooking, yoga, and meditation.

.cls-1{fill:#1d1d1b;}