When multidisciplinary artist and designer Alex Proba left New York City for Portland, she filled a soaring, modern house in the woods with her signature explosive use of color.
Styling by Margo Latka
Words by Lydia Geisel
Photography by Kaitlin Green
For two years,
Alex Proba and Ian Coyle did the whole bicoastal, long-distance-relationship thing. At the time, Alex, the designer and artist behind Studio Proba, had called New York City home for more than a decade; Ian, who runs the creative agency Enjoy the Weather, had put down roots in Portland, Oregon. When Alex would visit the Pacific Northwest, they’d often find themselves out on Sauvie Island, an area that’s nearly double the size of Manhattan, in acres at least. “We would always pass this house on the way there, and I was like, ‘That’s the coolest house in Portland,’” she recalls.
Nerd Stools, Muuto; Cookware, Our Place.
Mags Sofa, Hay; Pillows, ProbaHome.
Flowerpot VP1 Pendant Light, &Tradition; Colonna Stool, Kartell; Rey Chair, Bruno Rey; Cabinets, Montana; The Paw-fect Bed, ProbaPaws; Rug, ProbaHome.
Flor Double Sink, Kast Concrete Basins; Components Faucet and Handles, Kohler; The Island Mat, ProbaHome; Cabinet, USM Haller; Spot Surface Mount, In Common With.
Mirror, Ready to Hang; Wall-Mounted Vanity and Sink, Duravit; Allegheny Sconce, Schoolhouse; Purist Faucet, Kohler; Custom Wallpaper, StudioProba x Wallpaper Projects.
Shelf, Montana; Painting by Zachary Schomburg.
Above: Connect Modular Sofa, Muuto; Shape Table, Pillows, and Rug, ProbaHome; Bench, Ryan Belli; This Is Not a Fruit Bowl, Supertoys Supertoys; Laurent Light Fixture, Lambert et Fils. Opener: Dining Table, Hay; Nerd Chairs, Muuto; IC Floor Lamp, Flos; Art by Alex Proba.
Being German, I care a lot about neat, minimal architecture.”
We would always pass this house...and I was like, ‘That’s the coolest house in Portland.’”
Sam, though, prefers not to sit on his mirror image or even the cozy ProbaPaws dog bed named after him. Like most four-legged friends, when he’s in the living room, he’s curled up on the couch. “We bought the sofa pre-Sam. [Otherwise] I would never have bought a light gray sofa,” says Alex, laughing. But when their pup is up and about, he keeps his owners busy in the best ways. “He needs to go out rain or shine. We’ll enjoy nature together for an hour and get soaking wet,” says Alex, “I don’t think I would do that without him—but it helps me take a break and just chill.” With a clear mind, she returns to her prototype-filled office and lets her imagination take over.
![Sam, though, prefers not to sit on his mirror image or even the cozy ProbaPaws dog bed named after him. Like most four-legged friends, when he’s in the living room, he’s curled up on the couch. “We bought the sofa pre-Sam. [Otherwise] I would never have bought a light gray sofa,” says Alex, laughing. But when their pup is up and about, he keeps his owners busy in the best ways. “He needs to go out rain or shine. We’ll enjoy nature together for an hour and get soaking wet, but it helps me take a break and just chill for a second,” says Alex. “I don’t think I would do that without him.”](https://media-s3-us-east-1.ceros.com/domino/images/2023/12/15/3683a0e58a714498b18d2451b6893d8f/36.png)
Still, the designer isn’t a stranger to commissioning works by other creatives. A longtime admirer of fake-food art, her souvenir collection started innocently 15 years ago: Rather than buy a keychain on her travels, she’d take home little candies made of Murano glass or a garlic bulb crafted from marble. Her favorite is a 20-by-20-by-5-inch ceramic mortadella sandwich she bought in New York and lugged home in her carry-on bag. As for her most convincing piece? It’s easily the spilled cup of coffee she often keeps on a windowsill: “We were [redoing] our exterior last year, and every 20 minutes a painter would knock on the door and say, ‘Hey, you spilled your coffee.’”
Naturally, many of the faux meals are displayed in the kitchen. Also on the art-filled open shelf are a variety of sculptures of the couple’s dog, Sam. Every year, they have artist Fiona Finlayson craft a different rendition out of felt (there’s a Sam digging in the sand, a Sam standing with a ball in his mouth, etc.). But this year, to celebrate his fourth birthday, Alex went all out. She had L.A. artist Ryan Belli make a 6-foot-long Sam bench for the living room. “Ryan has a bench of his own dog, and I was like, ‘I need that,’” she says.
![Still, the designer isn’t a stranger to commissioning works by other creatives. A longtime admirer of fake-food art, her souvenir collection started innocently 15 years ago: Rather than buy a keychain on her travels, she’d take home little candies made of Murano glass or a garlic bulb crafted from marble. Her favorite is a 20-by-20-by-5-inch ceramic mortadella sandwich she bought in New York and lugged home in her carry-on bag. As for her most convincing piece? It’s easily the spilled cup of coffee she often keeps on a windowsill: “We were [redoing] our exterior last year, and every 20 minutes a painter would knock on the door and say, ‘Hey, you spilled your coffee.’”
Naturally, many of the faux meals are displayed in the kitchen. Also on the art-filled open shelf are a variety of sculptures of the couple’s dog, Sam. Every year, they have artist Fiona Finlayson craft a different rendition out of felt (there’s a Sam digging in the sand, a Sam standing with a ball in his mouth, etc.). But this year, to celebrate his fourth birthday, Alex went all out. She had L.A. artist Ryan Belli make a 6-foot-long Sam bench for the living room. “Ryan has a bench of his own dog, and I was like, ‘I need that,’” she says.](https://media-s3-us-east-1.ceros.com/domino/images/2023/12/15/dabf555539e84e0095ead52bbe1c0b74/35.png)
Of course, it wouldn’t be home without a mural that makes you feel like you’re, say, lying in a field of daisies. The explosion of shapes in the couple’s bedroom and en suite bathroom is an Alex signature (though Ian, a designer himself, lent a hand by mudding and sanding the walls and doing a bit of painting). While most of her murals take around 10 days to complete, including the one she did at the bottom of a swimming pool, this undertaking lasted four weeks due to the number of corners and the nature of the rich colors (some shades required nine coats). And she didn’t stop there: She even made a 3D headboard to match the scheme with the help of artist Megan Ladd. “This whole bedroom-bathroom is an immersion of Proba,” she notes.
She’d later learn that the cube-shaped building that caught her eye was named the Skybox House due to its unique shape and 16-foot-tall windows. It also turns out the home (or more likely the universe) had ears. The same day the couple decided they’d had enough of standing in airport security lines and navigating different time zones—and that Alex would move to Oregon—their dream house came on the market. They put in an offer right away.
Alex loves the three-story home’s blank-box feel in part, she says, because of her upbringing in Europe: “Being German, I care a lot about neat, minimal architecture.” Many of the choices that the original owner, a Swedish product designer, had made when he built the place back in 2005 reminded her of the types of houses she grew up around. Over the years, other residents had put their stamp on it by switching out the plywood flooring for modern oak boards or adding more storage to the kitchen, and now it was Alex’s turn to inject her personality.
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Shop the Story
The “Fur” Blanket, ProbaHome
Fiore Hooks, Alex Proba x Vero
Cast-Iron Perfect Pot, Our Place
Hourglass Planters, Ferm Living
Spot Surface Mount, In Common With
Credenza, USM Haller
Mirror, Ready to Hang
Nerd Chair, Muuto
Credenza, USM Haller; Hourglass Planters, Ferm Living; TRN C4 Lamp, Pani Jurek; Flower Light, Supertoys Supertoys; Frosted Bon Bon Mega Bottle, Helle Mardahl; Painting, Holly Osborne.
Miro Bed, Gabriel Tan for Design Within Reach; Custom Headboard, Megan Ladd; Neotenic Table Lamps, Petite Friture; The “Fur” Blanket, ProbaHome; Bon Bon Wall Lamp (on ceiling), Helle Mardahl; Paint, Benjamin Moore; Custom Mural by Alex Proba; Flooring, Stuga.
The house is an assemblage of her work, spanning prototypes that were never put out into the world to renderings of to-be products (peep the collage in her office that inspired her Samsung Bespoke refrigerator collaboration) to just-launched items like a 15-foot-long rug. The property’s lush Forest Park setting is fitting for ProbaHome products, given Alex’s designs are largely rooted in nature and in memories of her grandmother, who was once a florist. “She wears pattern-on-pattern every single day; she embraces color and loves flowers,” says Alex. “She’s the one who made me appreciate those things in life.” Ian, she notes, has also come to adopt her bold ways: “He’ll wear my floral coats and get more compliments on them than me,” she says with a laugh.
