Home Store
Klein Agency has launched Home Store, a new boutique in the Los Angeles Arts District, showcasing their unique collectible furniture and homewares alongside vintage finds and European artisan pieces.
Storied, local and simple: these three qualities underpin the creative ethos of Klein Agency, a furniture, lighting and interiors studio led by husband-and-wife team Jon and Maša Kleinhample. Touching down in Los Angeles from Belgium nine years ago, they are well known for their innovative manufacturing techniques, unique material-led furniture and community focus – and now they are trying something different. “Klein has always had many faces,” says Maša. “A wide array of projects and scales have always attracted us. And the smallest of design scales – individual product items – that fit into homes and spaces we design has been an avenue we wanted to tackle for a while now.”
Their bricks-and-mortar boutique, Home Store, was launched in June this year. It is located within Signal Shops, an adaptive reuse project designed by Klein Agency themselves that houses retail and hospitality businesses with an office and central courtyard. “Home Store by Klein introduces a mix of our new smaller products – from wooden bowls, glass plates and aluminium shelving to sandcast aluminium hardware and whiskey glasses – into the world of Klein,” she says. “At the same time, it’s a space where we can curate and mix our own designs with vintage objects, art, music and books that we love.”
Within, you can find an expansive range of items such as 1960s Poul Kjaerholm PK1 stools alongside Klein’s collection of Balloon stools, debut pieces from Eindhoven-based designer Pierre Castignola and handblown crystal glassware from Slovenian artisans. “We want the space and products to feel approachable while new and inspiring,” explains Maša. “You can walk out with a one-of-a-kind aluminium stool prototype by Klein that will cost you a few hundred dollars, or a $25 badass European butter knife.”
The boutique’s wall-hung aluminium shelving and audio system is typical of Klein Agency’s practice and was created specifically for Home Store. “All aluminium shelving has been developed as a modular system and we’ve been working hard to integrate and develop an audio system that fits seamlessly within it,” she notes. As with all their products, it is fully designed, fabricated and finished in Los Angeles – and received such attention on the launch that they are releasing it as a product in September.
The Arts District is a neighbourhood that continually inspires the couple. “It’s wide and open with space and possibilities,” says Maša. “The Signal Shops project has definitely played a major role in the growth of our studio … and we love that we are able to have our Home Store live within a wider architectural language that has also been defined by our studio.”
