Unconventional is a term often used to describe Welcome Projects. The Los Angeles–based studio, founded by Laurel Consuelo Broughton, approaches projects by borrowing vernaculars to inject a sense of place and play. This is true of the buildings the studio makes as well as the wacky objects and toast-shaped handbags sold on the sister site, Welcome Companions.
When a client in Venice approached Welcome Projects to update a 1947 postwar bungalow and convert a two-car garage into an ADU, it was a quirky match made in heaven. The clients, themselves collectors of funny objects, cared less about modernism than honing a structure’s innate character. Thus, the architects riffed on the storybook style that suffuses the area—with an exaggerated hot pink rickrack trim. The former garage, aptly renamed Rickrack Cottage, is planned for the client’s teenage son to use as extra space. His design request was also untraditional: Make it black.
For a team that usually deals in color, the request was a curveball. They kept the existing structure and open floorplan to center around a recreational area (which could also be used as a bedroom if needed). Within a neutral base of white walls and wood floors, the studio then relegated black to the full kitchen and bath, delivering a surprising contrast. The bold departure gives the kitchen’s all-black casework and glossy tiles a playful spin, making any objects that sit within it feel brighter.
The same holds true for the bathroom, clad in black tiles that cover the steps up to a soaking tub, another request for the client’s son. The architects inserted a skylight above the glossy tiles to ensure the space would still be lit despite its dark color palette. Again, black acts as a base to make objects within the space feel fun, especially the campy, oversized toothbrush in the corner, which belongs to Welcome Projects.
“It’s an architectural model from a competition entry that we did for the Chicago Architectural Biennale,” said Broughton. The entry: a toothbrush-shaped kiosk in a park near The Bean, the metallic sculpture in Millennium Park, which is officially titled “Cloud Gate,” by Anish Kapoor. The form was borne from Broughton’s observation of how many times The Bean is cleaned a day due to people touching it. “I thought it would be interesting and funny for a park to actually have a toothbrush-shaped kiosk that would then distribute large toothbrushes,” continued Broughton. “With the client’s interest in playful things, it just felt right to add.”