Los Angeles - Susan Sager has been surrounded by beautiful things all her life. The former model with the prestigious Ford agency in New York City, Sager moved on to become a fashion coordinator and image consultant, all experiences that made her transition to luxury interior designer a natural one. These days, based in Los Angeles, California, Susan Sager Interiors strives to create elegant, sophisticated spaces that feature her eclectic style in the form of top quality materials, fabrics and surfaces.

When Sager designs with any type of tile surfacing material, from porcelain to glass mosaics, she recognizes how important is to partner with Jimmy Reed, the President of Rock Solid Tile, Inc. Most recently, Susan Sager Interiors and Jimmy Reed collaborated on the extensive renovation of an outdated, 2,500 square foot luxury condo unit inside the 18-story, Regency Wilshire Condos of Los Angeles. The full-service high-rise sits in a row among the glitzy skyscrapers, historic LA hotels, and many other luxury high-rise residential towers along the famous strip of Wilshire Boulevard known as “Millionaire’s Mile.” The major east-west arterial for the metropolis begins its journey east from the lazy coast of Santa Monica before traffic famously snarls between Westwood and Beverly Hills in the “Wilshire Corridor” of this well-traveled 15 mile stretch of road running to LA.

For Sager, the entire process/project took a full-year to complete. The designer prefers to source all her tile and stone surfaces exclusively from Walker Zanger, which she did for all six different applications throughout the condo that were flawlessly installed by Reed, including the entire kitchen, 2.5 baths and the oversized exterior terrace of the single-story unit.

“Jimmy (Reed) does beautiful work,” said Sager. “He’s very high-end. I follow his advice a lot when it comes to making sure my tile and stone design details can work. I might have the greatest idea for a particular space but you still need to make it happen. That’s where Jimmy comes in, his work is perfect. He’s top-notch. I’ve never been disappointed.”

In the kitchen area alone, Reed installed textured 24” x 24” Ecotech porcelain tiles to surface the 15’ x 25’ space. He also fabricated and installed the countertops using slabs of White Carrara polished marble. For the kitchen backsplash, Reed used Walker Zanger's 2” x 4” Tribeca series “brick field” and accented the full-wall installation with two framed, feature “basket weave” patterns with black dots behind the sink area and behind the stainless-steel Viking cook top & hood. Without a window, the light-colored natural stone walls and flooring tiles were meant to brighten and visually expand the open kitchen area.

Susan Sager Interiors continued on with the prominent use of natural stone materials for the complete remodel of the master bath, too. In fact, everything in the room besides the fixtures and three clear glass shower walls are surfaced in beautiful travertine slab or honed marble tiles from Walker Zanger. Reed meticulously installed gorgeous 18” x 18” Palatino travertine stone flooring tiles for the space. He also custom fabricated and installed the same Palatino travertine material for the tub, the tub deck and face, shower bench, columns and the vanity top sink. He also came through with another
precise installation of the rectangular subway-style Palatino travertine marble mosaics for the wall above the tub, as well as for each wall of the glass enclosed shower.

“Susan (Sager) is an elegant, classy lady. Her intellect and insight are the main keys to the outcome of her interior design plans,” said Jimmy Reed. The Regency Wilshire condo project was so outdated that pretty much everything left behind in every room was demolished. It gave Susan the opportunity to design the entire program herself and the results speak for themselves.”

Reed still had plenty of square feet of tile and natural stone to install even at this point. Sager recreated the entire powder room into an elegant space with vertical rows of stacked rectangles using 12” x 24” Walker Zanger Roku glass wall tiles in a matte finish. The signature design of this bath is the one vertical, stacked rectangular strip that features Walker Zanger’s “Tracciato” stone tiles with a hand-applied gold leaf surface in their Circolo pattern. Sager used bold rectangular wall sconces in a whimsical circular pattern to match the gold Circolo tiles. Reed completed the powder room using beautiful Calacata Gold marble for the custom slab vanity top and the 18” x 18” diagonal flooring tiles. Calacata Gold marble is found almost exclusively in the northern hills of Tuscany. Calacata Gold is a beautiful, pure white stone highlighted by its signature golden veining. For reference, Michelangelo’s famous statue of “David” was sculpted from a slab of this timeless, most regal stone.

Sager knew the final guest bath would be mostly used by the new owner’s two grandchildren, both active boys. The bath features much darker colors and rougher surface textures that Sager also hoped “wouldn’t show dirt or stain.” The kid’s bath features a multi-colored blend of 1" x 2" Hida Silk glass mosaic tiles by Walker Zanger. The collection features narrow, rectangular shaped glass mosaic tiles with a textured surface. With another mix of glass rectangles, the beautiful mosaic that surfaces each wall ranges from a rustic gray to charcoal and even sporadic shadowy brown and black tiles.

This kid’s bath is one of flashiest spaces for the luxury condo unit designed by Susan Sager Interiors on the third-floor of The Regency Wilshire on Millionaire’s Mile in West LA. The dark brown, large-format Tobacco Brown travertine floor tiles that beautifully match the Espresso Travertine vanity top. Reed also custom-designed the strip of natural dark brown travertine stone full-tub surround that pulls the entire room together and reinforces the rectangular theme at the same time.

“It’s my job as the designer to make sure each client feel comfortable in the rooms or houses they helped bring to life,” says Sager. “I treat every project, whether it’s just one room or a full-home, with the exact same goal of creating a finished-look that says a lot about who the client is and how they live their lives.”

Jimmy Reed is widely-regarded as the top expert and installer of glass mosaic tile in the United States. His mastery of this medium has been accumulated over his 35 years of experience installing the pools and spas of the stars in California, speaks volumes about his incredibly consistent results and truly unmatched talent. Reed is not limited to Beverly Hills or West Coast water features for that matter. He also accepts certain prestigious, high-profile interior projects where only the best will do.