Tailored Salon

The design of the Tailored hair salon and art gallery in downtown San Francisco seeks to balance flexibility with economy, accommodating multiple spatial configurations using a set of modular furniture components. The 1200 square foot space simultaneously accommodates the everyday workings of a salon, while transforming into an art gallery for special occasions. The custom ‘toggle stool’, inspired by the Shaker chair rail, is a multi-directional furniture piece designed to variously stack and cluster as seating, tables, counters, or product shelving that can hang from the wall on a grid of pegs.. Because of an extremely small elevator cab, all sheet materials had to be delivered in half (4’ x 4’). Every material seam in each piece of furniture was calculated and customized to accommodate this.

Styling stands, custom designed with salon equipment holsters, contain concealed, dimmable lighting at the top of the styling mirrors to illuminate clients as well as the art and can be rolled into place for styling or be pushed into gallery wall configurations for art openings. Each stand has a picture rail routed into the top on both sides so that in a gallery configuration, the stands act as backdrops for artwork. A custom mural in the restroom coordinates geometric details with the modular furniture and millwork.

This salon is meant to serve as a first flagship for what will be an expanding chain of hair salons. Working with a very small budget, short timeline (start to finish from design concept to opening in less than 6 months) and a client who was doing much of the construction themselves, provided an opportunity to design a process for communication and construction, and ultimately a design system that can flex and expand depending on the client’s growing needs.