No Products in the Cart
Meet Lauren Paez Burt, owner of Lolo’s Casita, one of our favorite hi-dez hideaways where we shot our latest Fall lookbook. She and her husband Xavier moved east from LA three years ago and have since renovated their home, started a production company, and are now hosting their own Airbnb.
They decided to make the move so they could have the opportunity to own a home in a place they loved. “I’ve always been drawn to the desert, and this was our chance,” says Lauren. And the home they bought came with a bit of family history. She says, “30 years ago, my great uncle (my dad's best friend’s father, to be exact) bought the house in Flamingo Heights.” After he passed, her uncle offered them a chance to visit and possibly buy the property. So in 2019, they drove out to see it for the first time. “The house had been sitting vacant since the 1990s. It was a wreck. Literally boarded up and packed with a lifetime of random treasures.”
While they knew nothing about renovating a home, they took one look out the giant kitchen window, which has a 100-mile view across the desert, and they knew it was a job worth doing. In the process of renovating and redecorating, Lauren found lots of inspiration from Mexico and her grandmothers who were from there. She says, “They taught me how to be resourceful. They showed me how to make a space beautiful and full of love, to create spaces where people can gather and be comfortable.” Lauren continues, “I remember the smells, style, and furniture they brought from Mexico. My grandmothers were chic abuelita’s, and my style honors that. I owe so much to my family.”
While Lauren has been a hair & makeup artist for 20 years, curating and decorating spaces has always been her passion, from a studio apartment in Mexico to their house in the desert. “Xavier has seen me flip a space 100 times, and I’m still never finished,” she says. “I now have a collection of furniture and props that I love mixing into projects. Our house in the desert has given me the opportunity to turn styling into a career, and I love it.”
But that’s not all Lauren and Xavier have been working on in the short time they’ve lived here. After quickly realizing the talent they were surrounded by, they started High Desert Products to be a resource for artists, brands, and agencies that want to shoot in the high desert. “Xavier is an experiential producer, and I’ve been working on photo shoot sets forever, so it was a natural progression that we started working together after the pandemic.” They have helped several brands produce photo shoots and were able to pull most of the talent and resources from their high desert community. Lauren says, “Locations, photographers, chefs, props, staff, and All Roads textiles and crafts. We’re having fun with it, and it’s exciting to see people respond positively to the idea and give us a chance to help them.” She continues, “Our growing community of friends up here inspires us so much, and we’re excited to see the many businesses they are building be fully realized. Nice Dream Ices, All Roads, Velvet Vortex Perfume, and CRÉ, to name a few.”
You can now book their thoughtfully-designed, pink-doored studio for a stay or photo shoot on Airbnb and Peerspace and we definitely recommend that you do! You can also contact Lauren and Xavier on IG for location rental, hair & makeup, prop styling, staging, and production.
Shop our Fall textile collection that we photographed in Lolo and Xaviers beautiful home!
