Lalo Salon

Chesterfield, MO

Designer
Jennifer Chapman

Photographer
Karen Palmer

In the last four years, this salon has successfully grown to a point where they were busting at the seams. They needed to expand the space to accommodate more stylists and clients a well as a more functional makeup station.

When they opened the salon, they only built out a portion of the space to accommodate their needs at the time, with the hope that they would eventually need to build out the remaining portion. While this portion of the space was technically finished- it was basically an empty shell ready for design and finishes. We needed to connect these spaces with a common theme so that it felt like one cohesive space, but we also wanted to change up the design a bit to address some of the things that were just not working for them on the other side of the salon.

There were three main things that they wanted to improve on- the amount of counterspace, the amount of storage, and the quality of lighting. We wanted to use the same reclaimed wood they had on the other side so we worked with the original fabricator, Reclaim Renew, to create the cabinetry, wall cladding and even the metal countertops and metal frames for the mirrors.

The 28' long metal countertop is a showstopper, but it also makes the space feel much larger and it gives the stylists the counterspace they were looking for. The reclaimed wood cabinets provide more ample storage and each has a tilt-out to hold their styling tools. When designing the metal framed mirrors, we decided to hold them off the wall to create some dimension to this long, linear space. The metal legs seem to run right through the countertops to the floor, which helps to ground the dark metal frames.

The small reclaimed wood shelves underneath the countertop provide clients with a place to plug in their phones and set their belongings. We added a custom framed wood make-up mirror with plenty of front facing lighting as well. We added both pendant lighting and recessed lighting at each station to provide them with adequate lighting. In addition, we added some additional track lighting down the main pathway. We created a recessed wall niche with matching reclaimed wood cladding to hold hair products. This keeps the countertops much less cluttered.

Overall, we achieved the rustic, industrial feel of the other side and were able to address the stylist's needs in a creative way. The space feels warm and inviting- just the space to pamper yourself!