Los Angeles-based designer, Stephen Kenn of Stephen Kenn Studio, alongside his wife and business partner Beks Opperman, use their furniture as a conduit for connection. Partnering with several artisans, they are opening a curated Los Angeles loft this fall designed for community, hospitality and an elevated shopping experience.
The Studio
“I’ve always learned from taking things apart,” says Los Angeles designer, Stephen Kenn. Astonishingly, this Montreal native never received formal design training, but it was instead his ability to form meaningful connections with local artisans and makers that allowed for him to learn and create, eventually establishing Los Angeles-based Stephen Kenn Studio seven years ago.
Today, Kenn and his wife Beks Opperman, the soul and drive behind the operations of the studio, share their space with those who hold mutual love for exceptional goods and meaningful connection. Their showroom doubles as their home, in an effort to create a more personal shopping environment and allow for the furniture to be experienced, rather than observed.
“Once people are all sitting on the furniture, conversation happens, and that’s what we’re really interested in,” says Kenn.
The Inheritance Collection
Kenn learned how to make sofas by deconstructing a thrifted one. He found himself more interested in the internal components than the external—so much so, that he wanted the typically concealed bones of the structure to be the highlight of the piece.
A chance encounter with a military supply warehouse led to Kenn’s first Los Angeles-made furniture line in 2011, the Inheritance Collection. Upholstered with vintage military tent canvas and held in place by Swiss military-issue mule belt replicas, the original Inheritance sofa was met with immediate success that continues through today. Catching the eye of companies such as Tommy Hilfiger, J.Crew and Deus Ex Machina, there is a distinctive draw to his unique materiality and forms.
The freedom to customize upholstery, finish and accents, has allowed for many customers to engage in the design process and create a piece that captures and enhances their space. This flexibility has allowed for this particular sofa to continue to hold its relevance through the years even as the consumer’s gaze shifts towards emerging design trends.
“As material trends come in and out, we can adapt and play in that space. Not to say that we want to just respond to what’s trendy, but participate in what’s happening in culture through this vehicle that’s just a sofa,” says Kenn.
Worthy of Repair
With a focus on minimal designs, local manufacturing and intentional material, Kenn’s design motto is “creating objects that are worthy of repair.” And it is with this foundation that Kenn challenges the typical understanding of sustainability.
“If you create these love relationships between people and objects, I think they’re going to care for their objects more, and then pass them along and that’s, in some ways, more sustainable,” says Kenn, “I’m always looking for materials that appreciate rather than depreciate.”
The Loft Project
The pair recently took a trip to Edinburg, Scotland, where they stayed at the pleasingly minimal architect-designed home, Porteous’ Studio. It was this small apartment, utilized by design-focused travelers and local makers, that inspired Kenn and Opperman with its attention to detail and cohesive vision, achieved by younger creatives looking to connect likeminded individuals, says Opperman.
“It’s fun to know that our intention is also being done by people around the world in these small communities,” says Kenn.
The intention being hospitality. Kenn and Opperman moved into their original loft not knowing a soul. In an effort to change this, they opened their garage door every morning and would make a pour over for anyone who stopped by, in exchange for conversation. This simple gesture soon expanded to Back Door Coffee Club (BDCC), evenings in their space with like-minded people as a chance to connect and learn.
The Loft Project is Stephen Kenn Studio’s newest development. Kenn and Opperman purchased the light-filled design loft next to their showroom in order to fill it with their furniture alongside other curated goods and products, creating an elevated shopping experience, and forming a seamless duality between curation and creation.
It will be available for overnight stays as well as smaller scale events, including BDCC. The hope is that each individual who stays in the loft will get the intentional time with the products in order to make an educated purchase.
“What you like and what you’re drawn to is often times subjective to your experience, “says Opperman, attesting to how their purchasing habits have been influenced by the shopping experience itself.
However, beyond that, Kenn and Opperman hope to create an environment where people leave feeling cared for and attended to. Situated in an industrial part of Los Angeles, the loft is a tangible representation of the potential of space. Filled with fine curated goods, such as light fixtures by New York-based lighting studio, Allied Maker, and fine gym equipment by Osaka-based furniture studio, Truck Furniture and new neighbor, Tok Kise, the hope is for users of the space to be inspired by quality pieces and relationships.
“Because we shop that way and we travel that way, looking for human connection with the things we’re doing, the food we’re eating, the products we’re buying, this was always a dream to be able to somehow create that for our customers,” says Opperman.