From an accidental (or perhaps predestined) start in decorating, spurred on by a childhood fascination with interiors and an adventurous spirit, to a fully fledged studio with an roster of A-list clients, the Californian designer has become one of the most important names – and creative forces – in contemporary design
I think the thing a lot of aspiring designers want to know is: how do you get to making it in this industry?
It's really true when I say I never knew it could be a job. You know, I'm a woman from the south side of Chicago and it was just a very different environment.
You see, my grandmother worked in a factory where they made magazines and so she would bring them home and this was my introduction to interiors and knowing that people live in different ways. We also travelled a lot, my mom being a singer and a single parent, so I was always in a new environment and so that was all happening in my makeup and shaping the chemistry of Brigette – the person and the designer.
I got married, and we moved to London while my husband was making a film. That was really important because, after we returned to LA, I wanted to be in a place that felt European in its composition – and that place would be an area called Hancock Park, where the homes all have this uniform brickwork quality. So, the house I loved there, everyone warned us against buying it, but I could see what it should be and should look like – and so we took it and I embarked on what was quite a quick redo. Without even really knowing it, I had transformed the space – so much so that friends began asking me to help with their spaces and word kind of spread and I was sort of doing it in between raising my girls and
One day I was driving down in Malibu and just thought, I can really do this and make a business out of it. And so, four years ago, I created Romanek Design Studio.
It’s been organic and comes from a real love of what interiors can do for people.
You can really see that early influence here, in this house. It has this very airy, European nonchalance to it.
So the couple who own the home live here with their two kids, so the house had to really function in a way where they could have their friends over but it still works in a way where the kids can run around and be comfortable. I made up this phrase that I always keep in mind when I design so that I can have a through line in what I'm doing, and that is: livable Luxe.
That’s really the goal though, isn’t it, finding that balance. Because it’s not a museum, it’s a home where people need to be able to kick back but at the same time, it still needs a certain cachet.
I want to live with beautiful things but they also have to function, you know, they can't just be precious. I experienced this when I created a house many years ago, when my husband and I were dating. We made this super cool house and every time someone came over and threw a jacket down I was like, oh my God, the compositions off. It's just kind of crazy and in the end, I didn't enjoy the space. So, yes, I still want it to be beautiful but I also want it to work. So, in this house, I thought, why can’t we have beautiful things that are also usable. And that is something about great design, it is meant to help function.
In this way, I don't have any rules like, you know, one must put this colour here or that shape there, and I think that really resonates with people. There’s a common thread between my projects: it’s a little to the left, a little unusual and always eclectic. But if you want to say ‘this is her stamp’ or ‘this is what she does’, it’s not really there.
I love what you said about having no rules because no one lives like that. No two homes – or homeowners – are the same. And also, when you’re designing a room with these rules in mind, let’s be honest, no one's going to stick to them.
I really enjoy the client exchange and getting their input and their wants and needs because, you know, I am going to leave and it does need to be their space. And there's nothing worse than an excessively precious house. Like you said, it’s meant to be lived in. For me, when I come in, from my day, when I close the door and get to exhale. That's everything.
How did this exchange go? Did the homeowners have this clear idea of what they wanted or was it a process?
The guys were amazing, and we had multiple conversations around the feel and functionality of the home. Originally, there were these dark floors with cream walls, so there was a sense of heaviness about the house that lost so many beautiful details, like the mouldings and herringbone floors. So we spoke about lightening it up and working with the building to create that sense of open airiness.
But at the same time there’s quite a personalised feeling to every room, where sure, some are open and breezy, while others are moodier and feel more enveloping.
I think, for me, whether it’s a communal or private space, I want the person living there to feel invigorated, or relaxed, or whatever the mood is trying to achieve. Bottom line: I want them to feel better, I want them to feel elevated and enhanced, and whether it be family, friends, colleagues, whatever the case may be.
So, in this home, all of these spaces really had to speak to that because they are big entertainers but also a close family. And so we carved out little pockets for conversation or for playing games or sitting with the kids. We used fabrics that speak to those functions – such as performance velvets and boucles – and we did them in these rich colours. It was really about textures, materials, colours, lighting.
With your recent collaboration with MGBW Home on a range of lights, it’s safe to say you know exactly how important good lighting is.
Lighting lets you create spaces that make everyone look good, so it was about strategically placing light sources. But then in other spaces you need it to perform a dedicated function, like the bedroom for reading. So it was thinking about how every space would really work.
It’s like one big collective story, with different areas speaking to different feelings.
It's like creating a movie all the way through. There are different scenes in the movie, but it's the same narrative running all the way through. I've seen the kids jumping on the sofas and loving it, and then I've seen, you know, some celebrities sitting in that same spot, and it functioned just as well. It's about all of that and making it all sing and work together.