It’s always a dream of an interior designer to work with a client who takes risks—someone ready to break from the beige, boucle interiors that are the au courant interior style of the moment. So that’s why Nina Freudenberger, an interior designer who makes regular appearances in Architectural Digest, agreed to do Department M’s offices in West Hollywood.

The independent production studio founded by producers of Academy Award-nominated films like Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Martian was eager to transform their new office space into one worthy of a modern creative-minded business: “Normally film companies have posters or one-sheets hung everywhere,” says Michael Schaefer, who co-founded Department M along with Mike Larocca. “We didn’t want that. And we didn’t want to buy office furniture. We wanted to make it seem like a living room.” It was a design directive right up Freudenberger’s alley.

Oh—and because Larocca is her husband.

She admits that she may have never taken a plunge on a commercial office if he wasn’t: “I had to really try and exercise some design muscles that I don’t typically use,” Freudenberger says. She’s known for her earthy, warm, and geometric residences, many of which were published in her best-selling decor books Mountain House, Surf Shack, and Bibliostyle. Plus the space was a challenging one: a former parking garage, it was all concrete and exposed wires.

Along with an architect and a contractor, they got to work. Those ugly exposed wires were replaced with Charlotte Perriand-designed sconces. Concrete was covered with oak paneling. And with the exception of classic Eames executive chairs, there wasn’t a cubicle-looking piece of furniture in sight. Instead, a rare Frank Gehry plywood coffee table graces reception, bathed with the warm glow of a Noguchi lamp.