My Favorite Room: Shay Mitchell keeps glam in her multiuse office
Rosewood, the fictional town where the television series “Pretty Little Liars” is set, is rife with rocky romances, mysterious antagonists and murder most foul.
There’s much less drama in actress Shay Mitchell’s new Los Angeles home, where she’s set up a calming space separate from the main property that functions as an office, lounge and hair-and-makeup studio.
Mitchell, who plays Emily Fields on “Liars,” moved into the home after putting a Spanish-style Beverly Grove abode on the market last year, selling it for $1.95 million.
What’s different in this new pad compared with the Beverly Grove place?
That was my first home. I loved it, and I’ll always remember it. But as I got older, so did my taste. It matured a bit as we worked on the design here.
Tell us about your favorite room.
It’s very cozy-cool, really fresh and bright. Out of the whole week, I’m in there probably two days, just working on ideas. I’m not distracted by TV or my bed there, so it’s easier to focus.
In the living area, there’s a couch and a coffee table and also a kitchenette. I’m going to be doing a lot of YouTube talks there. [Mitchell has a YouTube channel where she posts videos about fashion, beauty, recipes, travel, fitness and more; it has 1.5 million subscribers.]
For the glam area, I basically re-created Jessica [Alba’s] office at [her company] Honest’s headquarters. There’s a whole huge mirror and big lights all around. I have my posters from the show, and all the covers that I’ve done in the entryway, framed on a wall.
In the office, there’s a black and white tiled floor and a couple of plants. And there’s a large wall of things that inspire me.
What’s on that wall now?
There are different projects, some book ideas, a show I’m looking at producing, some art. I’ll see something in a book or a magazine and pull it out or photocopy it.
I have a huge travel bucket list, so a few years back, I had images of India, Dubai, Morocco and Bali. I managed to do all of those places last year. Now, it’s Greece, Croatia, Iceland ….
I’m inspired to work harder when I’m in there. With the inspiration board, I can see things that I want to happen really clearly.
Where do you get design inspiration?
From wherever I travel. I’m hugely inspired by Morocco — the colors and textures are so vibrant, and I have fun with the details.
If there was a fire, what’s the one thing in this room you would grab?
My computer hard drive in the office. It holds every single photo of everything I can remember. I’ve been a huge photo-taker all through elementary and high school.
What are the most and least expensive things in this room?
The tiles on the floor are the priciest. I have them in the fireplace inside my home, so I thought it’d be fun to have them here, too. Some of the picture frames are the cheapest — I get them sometimes from the dollar or thrift store.
Anything fabulous happen in the glam room?
I’m really good friends with my hair and makeup team. So it’s cool to hang out, maybe put on a fun reality show on the TV. One of the first times we were here, I had just done a music video with Nick Jonas. We watched it in my office before an awards show.
