"WHEN YOU FIRST WALK INTO OUR PLACE AND LOOK AT THE INTERIOR DESIGN YOU THINK, ‘HMMM… KIND OF BORING'. BUT WHEN YOU SIT HERE FOR A WHILE, YOU NOTICE ALL THE INTERESTING DETAILS. PRETTY GOOD, MOM.."
Mary Jane Bolton - aka MJ - co-owner of Twenty One Tonnes, lives with her son Roman in a loft in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of north-east Los Angeles. MJ has filled the bright open space with vintage pieces inherited from her mother, furniture built by her stepfather, and an ever rotating collection of Twenty One Tonnes samples - the latter being easy to swap in and out since MJ lives in the same building as the Twenty One Tonnes studio.
"It's the best! I have the shortest commute in LA. And as a busy single mother it’s so convenient to be able pop downstairs to deal with whatever might come up..."
MJ inherited her love of design - and her sourcing prowess - from her mother and godmother, who both collect furniture and art. She remembers her mother having at least 30 chairs in her apartment in Vancouver at one point. MJ often sources vintage and antique pieces and lives with them upstairs before they make their way downstairs into the Twenty One Tonnes studio.
Some of her most treasured objects include a Noguchi Akari BB3-33S floor lamp, a Sori Yanagi butterly stool, Faye Toogood's puffy chair, and Frama Copenhagen's aluminum rivet box table.
Anaïs Wade photographed MJ and her home recently, and we're so pleased to share the beautiful images she took.
Anaïs is a Los Angeles based photographer and writer, born and raised in Paris and Milan. She has shot for various publications including the New York Times' T Magazine, Cereal Magazine, and Kinfolk Magazine, and she has exhibited her photography internationally.
Here are some of the TWENTY ONE TONNES pieces that MJ currently lives with, including the newest addition to our lighting collection -
