Santa Monica Proper Wellness

Location: Los Angeles

At Santa Monica Proper, training and recovery are two halves of the same daily ritual. Kelly Wearstler Studio rendered the fitness space in warm timber and admitted the coastal light only by degrees, through louvered shutters. The lounges that bridge each session are furnished with the ease of a private residence, so that nothing between rack and sauna ever feels perfunctory.

The fitness floor reads more like a private coastal retreat than a gym. Timber clads the walls and columns beneath a slatted ceiling. The shutters break the afternoon into bands of amber, and oval sconces glow along the walls where most gyms would rely on overhead fluorescents. The equipment makes no concessions: Proper-branded racks and plates, Peloton bikes, Tonal and Pilates reformers. VO₂ Max testing is there for those who want the data, and private training for those who want a plan. Set against so much timber, the iron takes on an almost sculptural presence.

One pairs grasscloth walls with a carved wood mirror inset with porthole glass, a channel-quilted leather sofa in deep rose and sculpted wood lounge chairs. It feels less like a waiting area than a collector's sitting room. Recovery unfolds across two private suites. Hyperion is devoted to regeneration, with red light, PEMF and compression. Soma is tuned for performance: a dry sauna shares its room with the Ammortal Chamber, which glows there like a light installation. Out on the terrace, against a line of palms, are an oxygen bath, a cedar barrel sauna and a cold plunge.