Rich Velvet & Bold Color: Never Out of Line

Maybe you’re a fan of her popular social media-focused podcast cheekily entitled “Out of Line.” Or perhaps you saw her India Mahdavi-inspired home makeover featured recently on Design Sponge. Or, it could be that you’re one of her nearly 80,000 followers on Instagram. Whether or not you’re familiar with Caroline Lee, her story will almost certainly inspire you.

Fueled by the digital economy and an abundance of creative energy, she has become an authority on boldly embracing entrepreneurship and living life on one’s terms. In her case, a very colorful and plush life in a recently renovated Los Angeles bungalow that she shares with her husband, composer Jayden Lee. Their photography and content creation business Woodnote Photography is based here, as is their multimedia “production collective” Echo & Earl, which also includes her brother Robert Ingraham, a videographer. Their creative services also encompass illustration and printing and they’re co-founders with Anne Sage of the nearby photo studio Light Lab. If you’re thinking it’s a lot, it’s a LOT.

When they’re not shooting on location or traveling the world, this Atwater Village home is where Caroline’s work-hard-play-hard ethos unfolds daily in rooms covered in several very forthright colors of our performance velvet. “I love living with this much color,” says Caroline. Velvet, by its nature, resonates color with more richness than most other textures of fabric, so if you love color, go for some velvet, and you’ll see the beautiful intensity even as you sink into the delightful softness. Watch the video to see just how much fun it can be:

Caroline fearlessly combined deep teal, gold, chartreuse, and purple velvets throughout the house as upholstery and window treatments. The richly colored velvets take center stage, but great art and object collections are also neatly worked into the design.

Caroline hosts leading social media personalities here for her podcast, and she and Jayden host music studio sessions, and there are countless get-togethers along the way both personal and professional. So Caroline’s home needs to have a great and flexible layout while reflecting her sense of style and her undeniable penchant for whimsy. By using both color and texture to the extreme in repeating bright and jewel tone velvets on all of the major furniture, Caroline has achieved a decidedly unique point of view that’s also fun, chic, and comfortable. Inspired by 80s color blocking, she kept the lines clean so the colors could be outrageous.

She has no need to worry that all of this velvet might perish at her next party, photo shoot or recording session because it is all performance velvet with Crypton technology. This is feet-up velvet, wine-time velvet, move-the-furniture-around velvet, and pet-allowed velvet. It falls right into Caroline’s core belief that life is not perfect, no matter what it looks like on one’s Instagram feed. By preparing for the occasional spill or mishap, her hard-earned design, with its vintage furniture finds and sleek new club chairs and sofa by Verellen, will stay looking great.

It’s the perfect spot in so many ways to be the point of origin for her podcasts. “Out of Line” explores the insta-perfection conundrum in insightful interviews that reveal how major social media influencers approach a life/work blur centered around a disruptive and ever-evolving technology. She calls social media “this generation’s automobile invention” and seeks to distinguish best practices and dish out practical advice for those who would venture into it as a vocation.? With her guests, she examines the business of content creation. The upside includes things like the freedom to work from anywhere, assemble the team you want, do work that inspires you, travel, and make your own schedule. They also look at the very real potential pitfalls of a world where false constructs, phony perfection, self-centric content and out of control FOMO are dangerously common, and authenticity is at once an over-used clich? and a rarity. We recommend this podcast to those who would – and do – create.

We’re happy to say that Caroline, Jayden and Robert have become part of our Crypton extended family over the past year as they’ve shared the story of their home/workspace. We’re passionate about creating technologies for fabrics that enable people to live their best lives and have the freedom to enjoy beautiful things without worry. Those are stories we want to hear! Are you a designer with a cool project that features our performance fabric, or a creative using it in interesting ways, or a design lover/pet owner/parent with a story about the miraculous survival of your performance fabric sofa, chair, headboard, etc? We love it all! Please contact, tag, DM, or email us on our Insta. Maybe we’ll tell your inspiring story, with your permission, of course. There’s always room for more family here!