Our story01 — Ilorin

I was born
in Ilorin.

Scroll to begin
The mosque gateway in Ilorin, with an arched metal gate and geometric floral ornaments on the façade.
Ilorin, NigeriaThe mosque gateway
A place. A person.

For the first ten years of my life, it was home. And the one constant, defining reality of those years was Lara, my mother.

02 — The name

We never called her Lara. Nobody ever did. It’s only her middle name.

It always intrigued me, however, because it made me feel something quietly unfamiliar about her. It belonged to a part of her that felt mysterious. Unrevealing. And when I began to reimagine my home in ways I had never done before, I knew it belonged there.

LARÁ Boutique Hotel, the original wordmark A name, reimagined.

I found it even more befitting because these rooms aren’t mine. They’re for strangers with whom I want to share little pieces of my home.

LARÁ room render with a warm timber headboard, clay accents, and patterned rug.
The warmth.
LARÁ room render with a green textured headboard, olive throw, and colourful artwork.
The colours.
Illustrative application of the LARÁ geometric pattern on olive bed textiles.
The texture.
LARÁ · Rooms & materialsInterior renders & illustrative applications
03 — Looking back

So I
looked back.

Pieces of home

At the vibrant colours of the late ’90s and early 2000s, right there in our living room.

At the textures of indigenous South-Western art on our walls and surfaces.

At the intricate and evocative textile works lining every street in Ilorin.

Warm rust, brown, and cream tones interpreted in a LARÁ room with an abstract mural.
Colour, reimagined · LARÁ interior render
A textured wall and vibrant abstract artwork in a LARÁ corridor render.
Art & surfaces · LARÁ interior render
Olive fabric and paper carrying LARÁ’s geometric pattern, shown as an illustrative application.
Textile, reimagined · Illustrative application
From Ilorin, into LARÁ01 — The place
The mosque gateway, the source reference for the Floral icon.
A close-up of the geometric floral ornament beside the mosque arch.
The original LARÁ Floral icon, reinterpreting the mosque ornament.
The mosque gateway · Ilorin

It was incredibly profound to walk into the idea of hosting guests in my reimagination of home.

A placement study of the LARÁ Boutique Hotel wordmark on the building’s exterior façade.
Welcoming you home · Exterior signage placement study
In the little things

Sharing deeply personal elements of my childhood with you all, in subtle ways, to bring a lot of warmth, comfort, and rest is precisely what Lara is for me.

Illustrative LARÁ key cards on a warm walnut tray.
Guest keycards.
Illustrative walnut gift packaging with LARÁ’s woven geometric pattern and a cream ribbon.
Patterned packaging.

Brand applications shown as illustrative mockups.

A warmly lit LARÁ room render, with a timber headboard and deep green textiles.
04 — For you

And now,
for you.

LARÁ Boutique Hotel · Ile-IfeInterior design render