2019 COTY Inspires Jason Lai of L2 Interiors

We recently unveiled our 2019 Color of the Year, Spice of Life (DET439), and partnered with Jason Lai of L2 Interiors to see how the hue inspired him to create a fresh and cozy design aesthetic for his new home.

As a native Angeleno, Jason has a lifelong love for the city. The culture of L.A. is permanently ingrained into his personality and design, and it continues to inspire him. Lai co-owns a design firm with his business partner Stephanie Leese in Santa Monica, Calif. Through the years, they’ve completed a variety of design projects — both residential and commercial — blending their design expertise with client needs to create stunning outcomes.

With this experience, along with his prior work partnerships on a variety of design projects such as the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, we asked Lai to infuse Spice of Life into a project and surprise us with the outcome. Of course, we loved it!

Taking stock of the collaboration experience, Lai said, “Working with Dunn-Edwards on Color of the Year has been so much fun! Colors play a huge part of my life. I love following trends in interiors and fashion and think both coincide with one another. I also love that I can accommodate this beautiful warm color into myself. As a designer, it's hard to commit to things for our own spaces, but Spice of Life has really brought another dimension to my space. It's such a good color and it makes you feel super yummy inside.”

Spice of Life is a strong, warm, exotic color. What did Lai think of the choice? “The color can be a chameleon. You can make it fun and modern or moody and dark. Either way, the color is such a great color that it can pair which any style. I would tell people not to fear it!”

Background

Lai began his design career by chance, taking a design class at Mt. San Antonio College while
studying marketing and communications at California State University, Fullerton. He thought to himself, “This is the easiest thing I've ever done in my life, and I'm good at it!" After becoming certified, Lai started working
right away.

L2 Interiors

Currently, the design firm is blessed to be working on a couple of dozen projects, including a new residential development in Bel Air, Calif., and a full home renovation in Culver City, Calif. Each project brings its unique set of design challenges and inspirations, including the use of color. Lai, who enjoys a variety of
color ranges, said, “Color is VERY important to my designs — it either makes or breaks the room! I have a very keen eye for color. Thankfully, just a slight color change can turn me off. I love using color as accent colors. There's never a favorite color I can decide on because all the colors of the rainbow are my favorite color, and I'm also a huge fan to mixing colors.”

See more of what inspires Lai and the team at L2 Interiors at l2interiors.com/.

All photography by Bethany Nauert Photography