Leah Ring interior & product designer and founder of Another Human, purchased a plot with four small abandoned buildings that she used as a blank space, in order to express her unique professional vision. She transformed the place to a utopian field by mixing bold colors, lively shapes and custom with vintage pieces.
After years of visiting the Yucca Valley, interior and product designer Leah Ring of Another Human decided in 2021 to purchase property that she could use to experiment with an extreme version of her design sensibilities. The property, a fixer-upper, consists of four small buildings in various states of disrepair, providing Ring with a blank slate to work.
Leaving only the envelope of the structures intact, Ring was able to push her imagination and creativity to make spaces that mixed bold colors and lively shapes with custom and vintage pieces that embody a sense of fun. The property serves as a second home and a showcase of her interior and furniture designs.
Color is an important element in Ring’s designs. Each structure is its own bright color. For instance, the main house is purple and the bunkhouse (guest house) is peach which sets them apart from the browns of the desert and the grays of the hardscaping. Amongst the buildings is a neon yellow picnic table on top of a squiggly poured concrete slab, which acts as a gathering place. Ring created an outdoor bar out of green and blue tiles connected to the main house with a passthrough from the kitchen allowing for food and drink to easily be brought outside.
The main house consists of seven rooms. As part of the renovation, Ring transformed the screened porch into a sunroom and added the primary bedroom and laundry room. As its exterior might suggest, the main house consists of a palette of cool colors. Each room is painted in a different color which complements the furniture, a mixture of Ring’s own design, California designers, key vintage pieces, and Moroccan rugs.
For instance, the blue living room pairs a sofa designed by Ring that mixes three shades of denim with a coffee table she designed. In the nook she brings together a custom table by Objects for Objects with benches designed by Fire on the Mesa and vintage chairs from Germany. She used hand-dyed fabric from India for the curtains and the bench cushions. Vintage butterfly scones adorn the walls along with an Elyse Graham clock purchased from a one-off studio sale and artwork by Sarah Jones, an LA-based artist.
Deep saturated colors can be best seen in the kitchen and bathroom which both use the same blue Cambria quartz for the countertops along with a combination of blue and green tiles. In the kitchen, she off-set the deep blue counters with light lime green custom cabinets and aqua blue pulls. This keeps the space feeling bright and airy even with the small proportions. The checkered floor linoleum is mirrored in the checked lime and aqua tile backsplash. Meanwhile, the bathroom changes the pattern of the green and blue tiles where green gives way to blue as you move down the wall. Hot pink accentuates the bathroom in the form of a Peter Shire toilet seat, Vola faucet, and pink plumbing fixtures. Ring designed a custom vanity which uses resin nugget pulls by Chen Chen and Kai Williams. To make the mirror functional, but special, it was cut to go around a RBW sconce. These sconces can also be seen throughout the home.
In the bedroom, the lime green walls are accentuated by tricolor custom curtains. A commissioned Liliah Rose soft sculpture hangs above the vintage Paul Frankl headboard. Ring combines a custom-made nightstand made by Objects for Objects, inspired by Jean Royere with a vintage lamp.
Ring designed both her home and the bunkhouse with the idea of hosting guests.
For the sunroom, she designed a sofa that can double as a bed due to the twin size mattress depth that Judd style base and storage. She paired the sofa with a vintage Malm fireplace that was retrofitted and Another Human chair.
Warm colors define the bunkhouse. The bedroom has a deep red custom-designed linen native shape headboard and a deep red bedspread with a magenta fridge – both custom designed by Ring. Pale pink Componibili Bio Storage Units frame the bed as nightstands paired with red and white vintages lamps. The room is tied together with a vintage Moroccan rug and curtains made from a vintage quilting fabric with strawberries on it. Just off of the bedroom is the bathroom.
Ring was conscious of the palettes for bedroom and the bathroom as the bathroom wall can be seen in the main space. For the bathroom, she used contrasting grout with red and orange tiles paired with vintage bathroom accessories in bright cherry red.
Ring’s office, located in a separate building, feels otherworldly. The whole interior is covered with a custom cloud mural wallpaper that Ring developed with an East Coast wallpaper vendor.
To create the wallpaper Ring sent cloud reference images with the amount of white and blue she wanted, as well as the form and fluffiness of the clouds. Blue is a dominant color within the space. The color can be seen in the custom-made office desk by Fire on the Masa, Another Human magazine rack, and custom quilted armchair and ottoman designed by Ring. For the chair and ottoman, she pulled inspiration from winter coats with chunky oversized zippers.
Each room and building on the property exemplifies the design capabilities of Leah Ring.
She designed the space the way that she works with clients by developing a narrative and creating a dialog with the existing architecture through custom pieces, color choices, and sourcing of furniture that melds eras. The end result is a playful desert oasis
Credits & Details
Project: Yucca Vallery
Category: Interior design
Design: Another Human
Photography: Lance Gerber
About Leah Ring
Prior to launching Another Human, Leah Ring spent a decade honing her aesthetic and process in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, working with high-end firms including Julie Hillman Design, Reath Design, and MASH Studios. She lives in Los Angeles and recently renovated a personal residence in Yucca Valley.
About Another Human
Founded in 2017 by Leah Ring, Another Human is a multidisciplinary design firm specializing in residential and commercial interiors, as well as conceptually driven furniture. Each project tells its own story: a meticulously edited narrative of how we inhabit and interact with space and everyday objects.
Ring works closely with clients to align on aesthetic and practical aims, articulating a shared visual language to create highly personalized spaces in conversation with existing architecture. Her design process is rule-breaking and eclectic, resulting in considered, layered interiors that are equally polished and playful.
That approach also ripples through Another Human’s eponymous furniture line. Known for unconventional materials and idiosyncratic silhouettes, each collection invites onlookers into a world of vibrant color and fantasy that still retains functionality in form.
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