Nail art is always perceived as something extremely cheesy, therefore completely uninteresting from a true designer’s point of view. Set up usually in a giant mall’s lobby, nail departments are all about an ad-hoc abundance of colours and rhinestones - nothing that is valuable for an architect of impeccable sense of aesthetics. Tasteful manicure, however, has its own place in the beauty realm, and therefore in the design field as well, calling for minimalist, cleaned up, bright space. Mexican architecture office Estudio ALA  was ready to set out for the challenge of designing a fun, functional, and contemporary nail salon, that, while is still reflective of the service it offers, is compatible with more refined tastes as well.



The aptly named ‘Nail It’ studio was set up in Zapopan, Mexico, with a layout that can be easily repeated at different locations and settings while maintaining the atmosphere of an intimate and compact studio. To keep things clean, the service area operates entirely in white, with a set of custom-made, specifically design furniture that ensures the continuity of the space. Bright nail polish colours are recalled in the ceiling installation: an abundance of individually attached, yet cohesive line of colourful sticks are hanging from down below.



The 7000 nails (in the tool sense of the world) are painted in bright hues recalling the best of nail varnishes, while their graduality and change in colour signals the designated area of each manicurist who is working below. The floor area’s whiteness, which ensures bright working stations, is broken only by the children’s zone at the very back. Here, colouring is reversed, and a bright pink floor ensures a fun and playful playground for the little ones, while their mothers are going through their beauty ritual.







Source: Contemporist