Londubh Studio (pronounced Lon-Dove/rhymes with love) was founded in Los Angeles in 2011 by Lisa Donohoe and Brynn Gelbard, two women dedicated to living life on the edge in full color and shimmer and whose art and surface designs are an unapologetic love letter to maximalism and glam. Specializing in the creation of custom art, surface designs and products for residential, commercial, hospitality and experiential spaces, Donohoe and Gelbard are a secret weapon of the design world, with some of the most notable names in the industry seeking them out for their pristine craftsmanship, unparalleled artistry, and boundless creativity.

Their work features painstakingly ornate 2D surfaces that over the years have included everything from building facades to diving boards, large-scale murals to bathtubs and every interior and exterior surface imaginable, each taking 100s of hours of meticulous handwork. “Surfaces are ultimately canvasses for expression,” says Gelbard “and through the convergence of art and design we have the opportunity to transform generic spaces and elevate the human experience.” In addition to their numerous private residential commissions, much of their body of work is built to last in prominent high-end (as well as unexpected) spaces including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, The Jean Georges Restaurant at the Beverly Hills Waldorf Astoria, Tom’s Los Angeles HQ, ROW DTLA, the Wattles Mansion and The San Francisco Museum of Asian Art. They’ve also been increasingly creating showstopping one-off moments for brands and designers including set design for Dita Von Teese’s lingerie launch and the now-iconic In Style elevator at the 2020 Golden Globes, created in collaboration with AD100 designer Nicole Hollis.

Their art has been showcased at national and international design exhibitions including Salone del Mobile in Milan (where Vogue highlighted their group installation as one of the top 8 to see that year), La Cienega Design Quarter LEGENDS and the Wattles Mansion Designer Showcase. Often engaged for specialty projects because of their mastery of material and technique, they are also responsible for facade restorations of the legendary Clifton’s Cafeteria in Los Angeles and the reinvigoration of original brick hallways in Frank Wynkoop’s 1951 Butterfly House in Carmel, as designed by Jamie Bush. They regularly collaborate with industry-leading designers like Hollis, with whom the pair recently completed a San Francisco historical mansion project showcasing their work in a way never seen before, and Sasha Bikoff, who tapped them to create a pair of 80s revival Art Deco screens exhibited as part of LEGENDS in 2019, that took 300 hours to complete.

Donohoe, who grew up in Dublin, was an artist before anything else, heavily influenced by the cultural history of Ireland, Celtic and Medieval architecture and the country’s deep connection to the past – Londubh means “blackbird” in Gaelic. After relocating to San Francisco, she worked at Willem Racke Studio, where she learned all of the traditional decorative arts techniques on high-end residential and commercial projects for designers like Ken Fulk, Jay Jeffers and Peter Marino. There she became fascinated by materials like 24- and 23-karat gold leaf, leather, fine plaster work, natural waxes and glazes and how to use them in novel ways.

Gelbard grew up on the periphery of New York City, which she credits for exposing her to the vast array of art, design, and cultures that inspire her. While studying Environmental Studies and Psychology at Bowdoin College in Maine, she took her first architecture course, which as part of her major, required her to design sustainably. After graduation, she moved to San Francisco where her work in high end restaurants and on various commercial and independent productions honed her sense of design flow and utility. She also immersed herself in the LGBTQ rights movement, ultimately traveling around the US documenting other same-sex binational couples like herself and Lisa who were willing to share their struggle to remain together together in the US with the Defense of Marriage Act in place. It was when the US Supreme Court struck this law down that Gelbard finally began to work with Donohoe and became half of Londubh Studio.

As partners in life and in work, Donohoe and Gelbard ever egg each other on to push the boundaries of their craft. Using their materials in unexpected and pioneering ways to breathe new life into techniques that have been used for hundreds and even thousands of years, they delight in marrying tradition with their unapologetic maximalist style.

In 2021 Londubh Studio introduced its debut collection of wallcoverings, making the duo’s art and designs accessible to the public for the first time without the months it takes to develop and execute the complex, hand-made creations for which they are known. The collection, dubbed “High Style”, features 6 intricate designs in their signature style, with bold graphics, metallics, color and typically unexpected and far-ranging visual influences from Celtic and Art Nouveau traditions, to the Chemical Brothers, cannabis and psychedelics. They’re recently dropped second collection, “Illuminate”, features designs inspired by Art Deco, Arts & Crafts, Mid-Century, and Moorish styles. This marks the beginning in what will be a growing collection of carefully created products slated to be released by the studio. As queer artists, they cherish the opportunity to make their designs more easily available to a wider audience of design lovers and fellow maximalists. The wallcoverings can already be found gracing the interiors of Desert 5 Spot at the new Tommie Hotel in Los Angeles, as well as countless residential projects. “We’re not aiming for the perpetual minimalist,” say Lisa and Brynn collectively. “We dedicate our work to those persisting through this monumental time with a fervor for seizing the moment and making a statement.

Welcome to the world of Londubh Studio where creativity is unhinged, craftsmanship is pristine and love is in the work.