Our Sabai team is small but mighty! From designing sustainable furniture to handling operations to sharing digital content, every member on our team works hard and contributes their unique talents to improve our company.

Today, we'll be taking a peek at Krista's home. Krista is our Senior Design and Marketing Specialist and we'll be learning about her personal design style and more!

 

 

Where are you located? 

Southern California! Near Los Angeles! 

 

How would you describe your interior style?

A mix of Japandi, artsy and modern. I have a pretty small apartment so all my furniture is definitely cramped and styles might be intermingled. 

One day when I can afford a home (haha), I’m very into open concept but also really like Spanish-style homes with a great use of tiles or stones. So my aspirational style would include elements of midcentury, boho and Southwestern styles on top of Japandi. Also not sure if this is related but a must have is natural light!!!

 

 

What tends to catch your eye when decorating?

I like clean lines but also fun shapes, forms, and different types of negative space. For example, my dining chairs and table have these really nice curves and angles that make it a statement piece. I also have a lot of artwork on my walls, so cool paintings or drawings catch my eye! My fiancé and I like wood accents too.  

 

What types of color palettes do you like?

I would say I gravitate more towards neutral colors, but don’t mind a pop here and there if done tastefully. Love greens and beiges. My current home is off-white, dark wood, with aqua and sage green accents. I do think when I have my own home, I’d want to have some muted, earthy tones on the walls. I also love black and whites. 

 

 

What are some key elements that you wanted to incorporate into your home?

I’ve been living in my current apartment with my now fiancé for the last 2.5 years, and it was the first space we could decorate ourselves which was quite freeing. So I wanted it to not feel like a college apartment with a futon. It also needed to feel like a safe place that wouldn’t clutter my mind. That included a lot of wall art, hanging up our film photos and having imperfect pockets of collected trinkets that represented traveling and loved ones. We spend the most time in our main living room/dining room, so I made sure the furniture that surrounded me while working from home was beautiful and special. 

 

 

Would you describe yourself as a maximalist or minimalist (or in between)?

I would think in between. I have a lot of things but I think I just need more storage! I'm a very sentimental person so I tend to hang on to a lot of things.

 

How do you feel about prints and patterns?

I like them if they are not too crazy! 

 

What kind of home do you live in (house, apartment, condo, etc.)?

I live in an apartment!

 

 

Do you have a larger or smaller space? How do you think that affects the way you decorate your space?

I have a small space. It is actually one of the smallest units in my apartment complex. It's definitely a struggle to decorate in a small space just because we don’t have a lot of storage, so the bedroom tends to become the “stick everything in there" room when we have guests over. Furniture can also feel too close together at some places, but with the space we do have, I think I was able to make it feel homey and yet still clean. Plus having art on the walls helps tie everything together. I don’t mind smaller homes in general (less to clean). 

 

Do you feel like your home reflects you (and/or your partner’s) personality?

It definitely reflects mine! But also my fiancé let me do most of the decorating. He has a minimal style. 

 

 

What was the most easy and most challenging part about decorating your space?

Honestly decorating a home is A LOT more work than I thought it would be. But that may have to do with me being indecisive at times and online shopping making me tired. I would go back and forth a lot or some things I loved were way too expensive. So not sure if there was an easy part.

Another challenging part was hanging up all our art. Luckily my mom came over and did it for us. She’s a pro at that kind of stuff. It gives me a headache thinking about one day moving and having to do it again. 

 

You’ve had our Essential Sofa for over 2 years. What has your experience been like while owning it?

It’s funny because I actually bought my sofa before I worked for Sabai. My fiancé and I had moved into our apartment in August 2020 and I really wanted to find sustainable furniture. So I happened to try out Sabai and then 8 months later I saw they were hiring!

I’ve loved having it, and since I work from home I probably spend a lot more time on it than the average person. I'm also a big TV watcher, so it gets a lot of action. Both of us find it very comfortable to nap on and we've had friends sleep over on it too!

 

 

You purchased a Sabai sofa prior to joining the company. What drew you to buying our furniture?

For my first real sofa purchase, I wanted something sustainable. But that actually wasn't as easy as I thought. After a deep dive on Google, Sabai popped up and I liked the simple and modern design, as well as it being nontoxic, made to order, and BIPOC- and women-owned. I was really excited to get a white sofa too, so I was sold on the easy cleaning and stain resistant fabric. At that time, they didn’t even have the Essential Loveseat, so it's crazy to see how far the company has come! 

 

Explain a bit about how you styled your Sabai sofa!

I actually style it plain. I always wanted to add unique throw pillows, but again the indecisiveness kicked in and so I never bought any! 

 

What’s your favorite thing to do on your Sabai sofa?

Binge watch shows/movies, nap, spend time with my fiancé, and hide from the world when I don’t feel like being social. 

 

 

What do you like the most about your Sabai sofa?

Other than it being where I spend all my time, I like the mission behind it and everything we are doing together as a team. I love that it can be easily repaired with replacement parts and that it has end-of-life solutions when our furniture reaches the end of its life cycle. 

 

 

What’s one sustainable tip that you have for decorating your space?

Mixing in vintage or secondhand pieces — even if that means asking your parents for their unwanted furniture! For example, I have a shelf that used to be in my bedroom at my parent's house. I found out it's been with them since their first apartment before I was born. They also gave me a coffee table. And if I did buy new, I made sure they were quality items that would last a long time. 

 

What does your home mean to you? 

This apartment means everything to me. Prior to this, my fiancé (boyfriend at the time) and I lived with his parents. It turned out to be a very toxic situation and those 2-3 years was a very dark time. So moving into this place together was literally a clean slate. It was the first time I got to completely decorate a space how I wanted and feel more like an adult. 

 

 

If you'd like to order our furniture and have any questions, feel free to email us at customer@sabai.design or send us a DM on Instagram @sabai.design.