Meet Lane Young | Interior Designer & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lane Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lane, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
While both of my parents are from the East Coast, I am a quintessential California girl. Most people know my hometown, Gilroy, as the “Garlic Capital of the World,” but I know it as a place that is stitched together through storytelling. Drive 30 minutes in any direction and you’ll see California not just as a beautiful backdrop of scenery and palm trees, but as a character with mysteries to uncover, if you can see through the fog. Walk through Monterey or Salinas and you’ll feel the spirit of John Steinbeck humming in the air. His writing taught me to appreciate the soil, sea, and sand beneath my feet. It taught me to appreciate dust from the farm roads and salt from the bay and what it means to be working class. I learned to take my own story and let it be a living novel, take it day by day, just as one would take it page by page.

San Juan Bautista, a mission town with sun-soaked adobe arches and weathered storefronts, carries the weight of California’s beginnings. Walking down Third St, you step into a memory that belongs to no one and everyone. The mission centered in the town feels more like a companion, reminding you that we are all part of history. Each breath is layered with voices and stories far beyond our own. Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography became a huge inspiration to me, knowing the land itself was complicit in telling a story of spiralling memory and desire. Rib fest and car shows are a bonus, too.

Santa Cruz taught me to be playful and restless. The buzzing boardwalk town put me into a forever give-and-take of the grounded and untamed. The Lost Boys turned a familiar coastline into a stage for rebellion and the thrill of the unknown. It showed me that the places I thought I knew could hold entirely different stories depending on how you looked at them.

Penultimately, San Francisco will always feel like the last verse of a song. A city so romantic, unruly, and forever cinematic will always be there when I close my eyes. Any moment in my life when I feel I’m throwing caution to the wind, I imagine myself with wind whipping across my face, rolling down Lombard Street on my longboard. (You would have to be out of your mind to actually do that, but we all feel a little scrambled sometimes, don’t we?) San Francisco taught me to embrace. I learned to embrace the disorienting, the exhilarating, the unforgettable. All of life’s offerings are a delicious jolt, like getting the wind knocked out of you.

California is the blood running through my veins. From the coast to the valleys, the rolling hills to the sun-kissed fields, or the endless horizons, it pulses through me. I see the world through poppy-colored glasses.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have lived in a wind tunnel while navigating learning, risk-taking, and chasing dreams as a creative professional in Los Angeles. Like many, I started as a wide-eyed and eager intern, wet behind the ears as I worked my way through the art department for film and television. I’ve been a set dresser, art director, prop master, and kicked and screamed my way to being a production designer. Each step of the way, I discovered the art of storytelling and the sparkle covered storm of bringing ideas to life. I used to say, pompously as a way to set myself apart from the rest, that I’m a movie maker! I’m not a filmmaker! But as I’ve gotten older, and the grays have begun to whisp around my crown, I’ve realized I’m a pretty maker. I want to make the world beautiful, not just what you see in movies, but the scenes you live in day to day. We are all the main characters of our story, and everyone deserves a beautiful backdrop.

Making the decision to leave the film industry was one of the hardest brick walls I’ve splattered into, road runner style. And just like a Looney Toons character, I always felt I had an anvil hanging over my head and the rope was unraveling. As the years went on I felt the twinkle in my eyes begin to fade. It was the same feeling as someone turning the radio down and static was all the music left in the world. LA is filled with daydreams, and I am no outlier. As a child, looking at people’s houses flying by from the backseat of my dad’s jeep, I’d imagine I lived in each one and I’d paint a picture in my head of what it could look and feel like. What color were the floors? Carpet or hardwood? The windows need a curtain, of course. One day last spring, I was enjoying my pity party when I remembered a conversation I had with a friend in high school. She drove me home one day, we weren’t very close, and I asked if she ever played my house imagination game. “No… that might be just a Lane thing.” She gave me a look that I had been on the receiving end of countless times far before her and far after her. This memory was like an electric jolt straight to the heart. I’m a weird girl, with weird ideas. I have velvet skin and granite bones and I need to do something about it.

Flash forward. I’m currently studying at UCLA, finishing my certification in Interior Design while working as an assistant to iconic interior designer Amy Devault. Blending aesthetics with real-world experience, interior design made me embrace the avant-garde. This city was woven on a loom of history, personality, and life. From mid-century gems to bold contemporary spaces, each home and interior reflects the people who inhabit it and the culture that surrounds it. LA’s electricity deserves to become tangible, and I’m so grateful to be instrumental in doing that. There is a reason the entire planet flocked here to showcase the beautiful, which should not only be seen but also be felt.

Regarding my endeavors of writing a blog about being a hot LA girl, I was inspired to make this city as much of a main character as New York City is in Norah Ephron movies. Joan Didion has and always will be a guiding voice for me. Her writing showed me how to capture the contradictions, the glamour, and the grit of being a woman in Los Angeles and to do so with honesty and clarity. While I write my silly musings, I observe deeply, feel fully, and curate chaos into the personal and universal. Life is laden with challenges, but a city built on the blood, sweat, and tears of dreamers deserves to be celebrated and captured even if it’s just a few sentences you’ll hopefully read on your pocket computers.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Los Angeles is the city of what I like to call “archetainment.” This town knows how to give you the front row seat to the weird and whimsical. I will say this on my deathbed, but the most LA activity we offer is Cinespia. There is nothing more macabre and show-stopping than watching a movie in a cemetery surrounded by the resting places of the stars? Toto from The Wizard of Oz may just be a monument since his actual resting place was destroyed to build the 170, but nothing beats cuddling a ghost dog while watching a blockbuster. I wouldn’t live in West Hollywood if I didn’t shout out The Grove. From shopping to people-watching, the Grove is a must. Even as a former elf for The Grove’s Santa Claus House, I can confidently say it is a mix of charm and vibrancy that makes for a nice weekend stroll. Not far away is the Design District, which is a feast for the eyes. You can see chic boutiques, beautiful showrooms, and if you’re looking to linger, Zinque will effortlessly deliver a stylish European cafe. While you’re in the area, hit Bagel Broker for hands-down the best bagels in town, and Bobby’s Pizza comes as close as you’ll get to a New York slice on the West Coast.

I love a silly little game. Check out the Arts District for skii-ball and barcades. You can stumble upon other downtown LA classics while you’re on that side of town, like Angel’s Flight, The Last Bookstore, Grand Central Market, and the Bradbury Building.

For my design lovers, Barnsdall Park offers sweeping views of LA paired with the architectural wonder of the Hollyhock House, a Frank Lloyd Wright special. Go on a Friday during the summer and a wine tasting will put you true city of stars spirits.

This city is a playground, and you’ll feel unstoppable while you’re here, even if it takes you 45 minutes longer to get to your destination than expected.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Who in my life DOESN’T deserve recognition? I always say that I am the luckiest girl in the universe to be surrounded by the absolute salt of the earth. Brilliance, creativity, and unwavering support absolutely vibrates through the smartest, funniest, coolest, and endlessly inspiring cavalry in my corner. Someone tell me what I did right, bottle it and sell it because you will make a fortune from people trying to find their people. Or at least stop someone lonely and vulnerable from joining a cult, and who hasn’t at one time or another felt lonely and vulnerable?

That being said, the list is long, and for that I am grateful. My dad, AJ Young, has been my number one cheerleader since day one. From practicing my cabaret routine for the fifth-grade talent show (yes, I performed Cabaret when I was 10) to answering all of my many, many phone calls day or night, my father has always instilled the importance of finding my path, my passions, and my people. He told me, whatever your dream: do it right and with all of your whole being. He gave me the confidence to fall into the rhythm of life.

My brothers, Ryan and Morgan, made me tough and funny. I’m a five-foot-tall woman who can hold her own, call the shots, and talk around any situation. They taught me I can get by just upon a smile. That’s all their fault.

My childhood best friends, Hannah and Bella Marquez. If you’re reading this, please know you both have given me the ability to play, create, and dance. You are forever the links to my past and the people who will stick by me for the future.

This may seem random, but I wouldn’t even be in Los Angeles if it weren’t for my fourth-grade teacher, Mr. H. He showed me that curiosity, learning, and creating don’t stop at the classroom door.

The real stars in Los Angeles are not in the sky nor on the Walk of Fame. The stars have names, and they are as follows: Alina, Allie, Kelli, Erin, Mary, Rachel, Dirk, and Bryan. Day to day, these people not only listen to my incessant ramblings but laugh, cry, and smile at whatever I throw their way. They have supported my wild and crazy ideas and are wishing for the day I decide to do stand-up comedy.

Morgan and Sophie in Scotland, Maddy and Nikki in Seattle, Aunt Liz and company in Tennessee, Pilat Posse in North Carolina. From every corner of the globe, I have people rooting for me while I turn chaos into magic.

To my best friend, my partner, my boyfriend, Travis Pilat. He reads everything I write, even the most inane scribblings. He makes me laugh when the world feels heavy. He is a creative mastermind and sees the beauty and possibility in the everyday. Travis has shown me that kismet isn’t just a word and enlightened me to the threads of life that are stitched together by chance and magic.

I also want to thank Los Angeles. For 10 years, I have been divinely inspired by the beautifully messy and the unexpectedly sweet. Even the days I find myself sobbing in my car in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I know I have found my home.

Website: https://fivefootonfairfax.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fivefootonfairfax/

Image Credits
Dirk Fenstermacher Jr.