As part of our ongoing Blossoming Interiors feature, we celebrate Atacama Home, a boutique home décor provider based in West Hollywood and online that offers a terrific range of handmade products crafted throughout Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Partnering with only small studios and their artisans, every piece here is as unique as the space it will fit, something fortified by their custom-made/made-to-order status. Moreover, all products happen to be made from the finest natural materials in minimal batches, ensuring an unmatched quality. Owner Julia Camara-Calvo tells us more.
Beauty can change the world. This is the viewpoint held by California’s Atacama Home, a business with an artisanal home décor portfolio of unrivalled quality that spans everything from rugs and blankets to wall art and dinnerware. Serving both the public and the trade, this brand began life as an online shop back in 2018, before opening a physical retail store in the heart of West Hollywood’s Design District just under a year later. From this brick-and-mortar store, Julia is able to showcase her unique and quality products, something she does with the uppermost attention paid to providing a personal and faultless customer experience.
Hailing originally from Northern Spain, Julia is acutely aware of the innate beauty present throughout the items made in these parts of the world, where quality craftsmanship is blended with designs reflective of the vibrant cultures that exist in these often-overlooked major players in this remarkable field. As Julia describes, “their flavour brings a unique feel to my store that you can feel and touch the moment you walk in.” This serves as the foundation of the robust and long-lasting relationships she builds with customers and partners alike, a distinction that further underpins her lasting success in this space.
Leveraging a former career in the film industry, it was a chance call from Julia’s old boss, Dora Medrano, which led to her involvement with this project to begin with. Elaborating further on this, Julia explains, “I fell in love with the artisans and objects Dora was working with and curating, as well as with the design community, and what began as a temporary assistant gig became a full-time job as a showroom manager.” She continues, “I’m now the proud owner of this beautiful project I helped launch from day one – and am lovingly carrying on Dora’s legacy.”
A big part of this responsibility includes guiding the business through the ever-changing trends that define this industry, which, Julia tells us, is currently all about flowers and bright colours. On the back of this, “Rooms in Bloom” was the official theme for the La Cienega Design Quarter (LCDQ) LEGENDS 2024 event that was held earlier in May, and once more Julia was there representing Atacama Home – along with Rydhima Brar, Marisabel Bazan, and interior/exterior plant and design firm The Haus Plant – serving up some flowery experiences and providing a magical experience to all in attendance.
Forever inspired by the unbelievably talented team of designers and artisans that she works with from across her native Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, Julia also cites her inspiration as stemming from, “the talented local artists that help me keep my store beautiful, and in turn an inspiration for every person who walks in.” Without the artisan-made décor and home goods lovingly and sustainably crafted by these individuals, the success of Atacama Home would not be possible. These designers are true stars, and this is something that is reflected in the company’s simple and yet poignant logo, the universal star symbol.
Named after one the most beautiful places on the planet, Chile’s Atacama Desert, Atacama Home strives to empower its clients to mirror parallel beauty in their own spaces, and with Julia at the helm, this has become a reality. Closing out her time with us, Julia provides some useful advice for anyone seeking to make waves in the field of interior design, declaring, “make it personal and be kind. An object that has been made by human hands and has a story will always bring people together and add beauty to a space. As our brand ethos says: ‘beauty can change the world, and beauty expressed in behaviour is called kindness.’”
In a setting where handmade goods are becoming increasingly popular for both their unique charm and the eco-friendly materials and production methods they employ, Atacama Home’s light shines particularly bright, and we cannot recommend its exceptional products enough.
For further information, please contact Julia Camara-Calvo or visit https://atacamahome.com/
