What I’m loving right now: Bloomsbury-inspired interiors, specifically decorative painting and painterly details in unexpected places. The Bloomsbury Group, an early 20th-century group of English creatives, embraced bold colors; drew inspiration from a wide range of influences; and thought that the items that fill a home should be given as much attention as fine art. The result is layered, artful spaces, like those at the Charleston farmhouse, with highly customized furnishings and lots of fun surprises sprinkled throughout a room. 

I’d recommend it to someone who also likes…Maximalism and naturalism, as well as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and avant-garde interiors—there’s room for so many styles to be mixed and matched.

Where I’ve spotted it in the wild:

• Beata Heuman’s, Katie Ridder’s, and Kit Kemp’s work. 

• Beautiful furnishings you can purchase painted by artists, like these Tess Newall cabinets and Cressida Bell lamps. 

Another look at Charleston.

Photography by Lee Robbins for The Charleston Trust

Three real-life ways I’d try it:

1. Applying a Bloomsbury-esque fabric to a very contemporary chair or sofa form—the contrast sounds exciting! Maybe I’d add some fringe for good measure.
2. Painting closet doors with a nature-inspired mural and adding fantastical hardware to create a dreamlike escape in a bedroom.
3. Painting Cubism-inspired shapes on otherwise boring wood dining chairs—and mixing up the patterns and colors on each one around the table. Applying an artful detail to an item can add so much visual interest to a space, and it’s not predicated on having a huge budget.

It looks great with…Almost anything! (Except minimalism.) The whole idea is to express your individuality through decorative motifs to result in a layered, collected space, so it can work with lots of styles. 

If money, time, and space were no object, I’d…Have a decorative painter paint an entire bedroom—walls, ceiling, trim, furniture, and all—in a Bloomsbury-style motif. I’d love to be surrounded by a pattern with the beautiful quality of the handmade. 

My shopping criteria: The items should be first and foremost well made and functional—tenets that the Bloomsbury Group sought out in their decorative objects and furnishings. Second, they should be beautiful and spark joy!

My elevator pitch to skeptics: Start small! Try a decorative plate or pillow to dip your toe in the water, and layer in more pieces as you see fit. 

What’s the next…

• Paint color you want to use: Benjamin Moore’s Pacific Palisades.

• Decor item you’re on the hunt for: Anything/everything from the Georg Jensen Frequency collection by Kelly Wearstler.

• Vintage score of your dreams: Gaetano Pesce’s Shadow chair in lime green.

• Design destination on your bucket list: I’d love to take a glassblowing workshop in Murano or go to a marble quarry in northern Italy.

• Home project you’d like to tackle: Redecorate the small bedroom in my desert house. It’s the catchall room and has so much more potential.

• DIY you might actually do: I used to be more of a DIY-er, but now I leave the fabrication to the professionals.

• Trend you hope makes a comeback: I’m really into fringe and more ornate window treatments—I’m not sure that this ever went away in traditional decoration, but I love bringing these elements into a more contemporary context. 

• Project you’re working on: I tend to design one-off furniture pieces these days. I debuted a cabinet in late June as part of L.A. Design Weekend. It’s inspired by a sculpture by local artist Sarah Ippolito, who I adore!

What’s the last…

• Thing you bought for your home: 2,400k lightbulbs—my husband likes the lighting moody.

• Post you saved: Miranda July’s yellow kitchen (above right), designed by Nico B. Young.

• Account you followed: @necchiarchitecture. 

• Photo you snapped: A detailed shot of a recently wrapped project that I can’t share yet! [Editor’s note: Here’s a hint, above left.]

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