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Leading interior designer Kelly LaPlante, who taught the design community that “green is a standard, not a style” is raising the bar once again. Sustainability now represents only a single component in LaPlante’s ever-evolving criteria– a criteria which will illuminate this fall with the launch of LaPlante’s first periodical publication,  Standard.       

The February 2010 issue of Traditional Home Magazine names LaPlante among the “Twenty Young Designers to Watch.” Her work has also been published in magazines such as Elle, Vanity Fair Online, California Home and Design, Blackbook, Interior Design, Hospitality Design, Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Magazine . She regularly appears as an expert on programs including Sundance Channel’s The Lazy Environmentalist and Big Ideas for a Small Planet, Discovery Home Channel’s Greenovate, Good Day New York, KTLA News, Good Day Dallas, Good Day Atlanta, and Martha Stewart Radio. LaPlante was also the executive producer of “Brilliant Green,” a special for Ovation TV which aired in January of 2009.       

LaPlante’s first book, écologique (benefitting The Blank Theatre Company and Global Green USA) was released in 2008. She is co-founder of jak, a luxury eco-furniture collection designed in collaboration with designer James Saavedra.        

I am thrilled to share this conversation with Designer Kelly LaPlante, known for her “Green” design long before it was cool to be eco-friendly.  Today her new online magazine, Standard debuts and I’m sure it’ll make a definitive mark in the publishing world.  Kelly’s work ethic is astounding;  juggling family, interiors,  furniture design, a book and now an online magazine and amazingly, she happens to be one of the nicest people around.  Hope you enjoy her interview as well as the fabulous Standard magazine!       

TSL:  Kelly, congratulations on the launch of  Standard Magazine! You must be very excited—what exactly inspired you to start the magazine and what kind of content can we look forward to?        

KLP:  I just felt it was time for a magazine where sustainability is not touted as a special feature.  For a long time I have been saying “green is a standard, not a style” and I got to the point where I felt like green should just not be special anymore… it should be bottom-baseline criteria.  And journalism runs deep in my blood so I guess it was only a matter of time before a publication came into my circle of projects.       

Kelly’s original Venice Beach loft       

TSL: I’ve had a sneak peek at the magazine already and it’s quite exiting! I love your manifesto–design should be captivating, timeless, built to last and, of course, produced in a way that honors people and the planet. What originally captured your interest in green design— did a shift occur or was it something you’ve been conscious about from the beginning?       

KLP: When I started my design company I was just out of college.  I’d been working at some very high-end firms through school and I was so young and broke that it always made me want to cry to see the beautiful things that our clients would be throwing out in order to facilitate a new design.  So when I started with clients of my own, I always worked in what was existing.  I didn’t know that I was being “green,” at the time, but I started thinking then about how else things could be re-used and then, a few years later, the design industry started evolving and before I knew it I had sustainable NEW materials to work with (that was amazing to me!)  12 years later, I feel like it is SO easy to design sustainably.       

Lexus Hybrid Suite Washington DC       

TSL:  What would you say is the biggest misconception of eco-friendly living out there and can you offer any tips to being more eco-friendly?        

KLP:  I think people still think that eco is a style, which cracks me up.  I’ve designed sustainably for clients with incredibly diverse tastes.  My best tip is to really evaluate what you already own and how you can use it.  Nothing is more green than not buying anything new.  In the premiere issue we have a feature about two friends who moved in together and did not buy one new thing, even though they are both total design-aficionados.  They just used what they had and it was incredible. 
       

  Private Residence Hancock Park      

TSL:  Nothing could be easier or more cost-effective than not buying something new, but it seems impossible to be completely “green” in this modern world. What’s the least “green” item in your home that you can’t seem to let go of?   

KLP:  My 16 month old.  He wears disposable diapers but I cannot let him go.       

TSL:  Ha!  I’m sure he’s worth hanging onto, even with the disposable diapers! You know, you’re always referred to and revered as an eco-friendly designer, but apart from that, you’re really an incredible designer, eco or not.  What would you say most influences your aesthetic?       

KLP:  I suppose it is the same things that affect us all… politics, music, art, fashion, world events, nature.  I let these influences run around in my head until they collide into one another and create unexpected combinations.  I love a good juxtaposition and to infuse a little bit of humor in my work.       

Lexus Hybrid Suite, San Francisco     

KLP:   That was incredibly fun.  I met Heather and Jon through my brother who is a journalist in Salt Lake City where they live.  It was a quick turn around—we were doing the design for inclusion in my book and we were on a deadline—and so we all got to know each other really quickly (and over many drinks!)
      

Private Residence Hancock Park       

TSL:  You graciously contributed your time to The Upward Bound House Family Shelter in Culver City by designing one of the rooms.  What were some of the trials and tribulations?
(Note: Upward Bound House is a Santa Monica-based agency, which provides transitional housing for homeless families with children. The project united some of L.A.’s most well known designers to makeover an 18 unit converted motel in Culver City. All designers gave freely of their own time and worked with a minimal budget and donated items. Zia-Priven is proud to have been one of the contributors providing lighting for many of the rooms.)       

KLP:  Lack of budget, lack of running water, lack of electricity and a two-week long rainstorm.  It was such an incredible experience, though.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.       

Upward Bound House        

TSL:  Alright, time for the fun questions…Can you name 3 living people you’d love to have dinner with?       

KLP:  Richard Branson, Barack and Michelle Obama (I’m counting them as one but I really want them both to be there) and an incredibly powerful and unapologetically self-actualized woman like Madonna or Angelina Jolie (whomever will be the most forth-coming.)       

TSL:  Nice choices. I have to respect a woman secure enough to sit down with Madonna or Angelina!  What is the worst thing a client has ever requested?         

KLP:  That I listen to all of the ideas her friends and (non-immediate) family had for the house.          

  Private Residence Silverlake       

TSL:  Oh my. I can’t imagine how you got past that. Touchy situation.  The next question is a bit easier… or is it? If you had only $100 to spend on something for your home—besides paint—what would you buy?       

KLP:   I’d pay the piano tuner to come out for an hour to work on our 1928 baby grand.        

TSL: Great piece to have… And if you only had $20?     

KLP:  A big white phalaenopsis.  They last so much longer than cut flowers and need almost no maintenance.