Alex Proba on Child-Friendly Interior Design & Open-Ended Play

Opening Photo: Celeste Noche for The New York Times

Some homes keep children’s things in a separate visual universe — the bright bin, the closed cupboard, the room with the door shut. Artist and designer Alex Proba has spent her career arguing the opposite: that color is emotional, that objects are made to be touched, and that the best design for children is design an adult never wants to put away.

Color Psychology in Living Spaces: Designing for Emotion

Stapelstein

You often describe color as emotional rather than purely decorative. What is your thought process behind mixing vibrant, textural palettes, and what do you want people to physically feel when they step into one of your spaces?

Alex Proba

I don’t really approach color through rules. It is much more intuitive and emotional for me. I’m interested in combinations that create a reaction, whether that is joy, curiosity, calm, surprise, or even a little tension.

I want people to feel something before they necessarily understand why. Especially at an architectural scale, color can completely shift how you experience a space. It can make you slow down, move differently, touch something, or simply feel happier being there.

Alba, Los Angeles. Courtesy of Studio Proba

Fluid Art & Interactive Play Objects: Why Design Should Invite Movement

Stapelstein

Your work moves very naturally between art, object, and environment. Do you still distinguish between those categories?

Alex Proba

Less and less. I really see it all as one practice. A shape might begin as a drawing and later become a rug, a sculpture, a swimming pool, a piece of furniture, or something monumental in a public space. I love allowing ideas to move between scales and materials rather than deciding in advance what category they belong to.

I love when art becomes part of someone’s life rather than something they feel they have to stand back from. Some of my favorite projects are pieces you can sit on, walk through, touch, climb around, or even swim through. That interaction creates a completely different relationship between a person and the work. It becomes an experience and, often, a memory.

Fernandez Pool, Miami (2024) Photos: Ori Harpaz for Studio Proba · underwater photo: Leigh Webber for Studio Proba

Child-Friendly Interior Design: Blending Play Objects into Modern Homes

Stapelstein

How do you seamlessly integrate functional, child-friendly elements like Stapelstein® into an adult living space without compromising on style?

Alex Proba

I actually don’t think children’s objects need to look like they belong in a completely separate visual universe. Our home is very colorful and filled with art, objects, textiles, and sculpture, so pieces like Stapelstein naturally become part of that landscape. I love products that are genuinely functional for children but are also beautiful enough that you don’t feel the need to hide them when they aren’t being used.

For me, the best children’s design works on both levels. A child can completely transform its function through play, while an adult can appreciate it simply as an object in the room or even find ways to use it themselves as well.

Photos: Celeste Noche for The New York Times

Open-Ended Play Environments: From Canvas to Playground

Stapelstein

Is there a surface, object, or environment you have not worked with yet but would like to explore?

Alex Proba

I would absolutely love to design a playground. It feels like such a natural extension of my work because it brings together sculpture, color, landscape, movement, and interaction all in one place.

I would love to create a playground that feels like stepping into an artwork, where the sculptures are not simply there to look at, but become things children can climb, balance on, hide inside, move through, and invent their own ways of using. Like a “Proba in Wonderland.” Especially through Little Proba, I’m increasingly interested in creating environments that encourage open-ended play and imagination.

One of my biggest wishes is to create more spaces where children are given permission to be genuinely creative without being told what the final result should look like. That is really at the heart of Little Proba. I want children to experience color, shape, making, and experimentation in a very free way and to understand that there isn’t one correct way to make something.

I’m also beginning to think more about how that philosophy can move beyond workshops and into objects, toys, environments, and spaces designed specifically around creativity and open-ended play.

Ultimately, I would love to build entire environments for children where art isn’t something hanging on the wall, but something they can interact with, move, build, climb, rearrange, and make their own.

Photo: Amanda Ringstadt for Studio Proba

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you style colorful play objects in a modern living room?

Treat functional play elements as sculptural accents. By choosing palettes that echo your existing art, textiles, or furniture, objects integrate naturally into the home landscape without needing to be stored away.

What are open-ended play environments?

Open-ended play environments are spaces designed without fixed instructions or singular outcomes. They encourage children to use movement, imagination, and flexible objects to build, explore, and invent their own forms of play.