TZR; Photo: Michael Clifford; Courtesty of Brigette Romanek;
In TZR’s franchise, Interior Motives, celebrities and tastemakers discuss their unique approach to home design and how it reflects their personal aesthetic. Here, we sit down with designer Brigette Romanek to discuss the Los Angeles home where she lives, works, and entertains.
Not many interior designers can name Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Kelly Rowland, and Beyoncé herself as clients — but Brigette Romanek sure can. For years, the award-winning founder of Romanek Design Studio has quietly perfected her now signature aesthetic she calls “livable luxe” (she even wrote a book that’s titled exactly that) and now she’s Hollywood’s secret weapon to a stunning, perfectly curated home. In meeting someone like Romanek, who has such a talent and vision for A-list spaces, it’s always interesting to learn the approach they take with their own homes. Are they as precious in their selection of furniture and objects? Is their home essentially a living museum of rare designer treasures that are only to be looked at and never touched?
It was a pleasure, then, to learn that Romanek’s own LA abode truly lives up to her “livable luxe” ethos. In fact, the color- and pattern-rich property — rife with natural touches and inspirations from the designer’s travels — may even sway more toward the livable direction in certain spaces. Truly, each chair, sofa, rug, light fixture, and vase has been selected with intention, and that intention is always to elicit a feeling of comfort and ease.
“I love that mixture of things that are aspirational but also mixed with attainable, all of it coming together,” says Romanek in an interview with TZR. “And I think that, for me, that makes a really beautiful, soulful, engaging, different, eclectic home. And that’s how I always look at things in homes. Even when it’s for my clients, I think of it all the same way as being special for them.”
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This desire to create a space that one is eager to get home to at the end of a long work day is exactly why Romanek got into the interior design world in the first place. “That’s what I hope people see is just my passion for what I’m doing, because I think it has an effect on one’s health, their mental health,” she says. “Even thinking about when you go on the most incredible vacation in the world, but it’s like when you get home there’s still that, ‘Ahhh’ [feeling], and that I think is hugely important. And if I can be part of that, I love that.”
Ahead, Romanek explains the creative process for designing her own dream home, the rooms she gravitates towards, and the pieces she falls in love with day after day.
How would you describe your home?
Well, [in terms of aesthetic], it’s always all about feel and it’s always about making things. I say it all the time, it’s just that livable luxe home, and that’s how I look at everything. So the idea is to be really beautiful, but also really, really livable. And I love that mixture of things that are aspirational but also mixed with attainable, all of it coming together. And I think that, for me, that makes a really beautiful, soulful, engaging, different, eclectic home.
What are the various elements you included in your decor scheme?
For this house, I wanted there to be moods. Some of the rooms get such incredible light, and so I used a lot of light neutral colors because I just thought that that created this really seamless flow and this wonderful movement throughout the space. Your eyes can land on something, but also you just move through the room in a really beautiful way. And then there are rooms that are moody, darker, richer. What I really like is whatever my moods are, I can find a room that suits them. One can do that if they live in a studio or one can do that if they live in a house with 10 rooms, it’s all there.
What room do you find yourself in the most?
Oh, that’s hard. I love the den so much. That room for me is super moody, it’s a big exhale. I love the bar area because that has a really beautiful view of the garden. I don’t know, it’s got a kindness, a softness to it. The den is where I often go and think about things. I’ve got my book and I’m really present there. But I also love working in the dining room — and the breakfast nook, that’s a good one too for a casual hangout.
But, the den is a favorite. That’s my go-to. I use all of the rooms, I really do, and the kids do as well, which I love, too. But [the den is] where I have my glass of wine and do my, ‘Let’s think about everything, let’s go internal.’ It’s that space. A lot of my ideas or designs have come out of that den.
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Do you have a favorite piece of furniture or decor?
I love the sofa, I love the rug — it’s gold and it was one of those things where I hadn’t seen that color being used before. just thought it it really suit [the room] and really highlights the space. It makes it all sort of bright. So I love the gold rug. The sofa with the liberty fabric, I love that. It was such a fun choice, such a cool, enjoyable piece. The room is also made up of little knickknacks and quirky pieces and little collections, a collection of white vases, a collection of artwork that’s just personal to me. It was just about pieces I fell in love with. So yeah, [the room] is a love letter to me.
I know you use the term ‘livable luxury’ often when describing your style and space? What does that entail?
Luxury is an interesting word because where it has a general meaning. For me, it means living with items that you love, that mean something to you, that’s a really lucky, beautiful thing. It means that maybe I’ve traveled somewhere and seen something that became personal to me, it means that I discovered this fabric that is something special so I’m going to put it on a chair. It means all of these really wonderful things. So yeah, I really am grateful to be able to have things that I feel are luxury. It also means trips that I’ve taken just to downtown LA where I’ve found cool vases for $5 and $10. I get to live with those things that I have come to love and made little collections out of. So luxury has a general meaning, but it’s also a very personal experience.
What home retailers or designers do you shop or turn to regularly?
In LA, I love going to Blackman Cruz and JF Chen. Those guys have become buddies of mine. And what’s fun is that if you get them in the store, if they’re there and you can walk around with them and get history and information, it’s really fun. The pieces become even more special to you when you sort of find out the journey or the history or how they came to be, or whose home that they were previously in.
I also think that [those owners and curators] really see things in a very, very cool way. In a piece that someone might look at and say, ‘Oh, no, that’s just a chair with needlepoint on it, that was something maybe my grandmother had, and I would never purchase that for myself now.’ They look at that and bring it back to life, and all of a sudden it’s like this iconic piece. It’s really fun to go in and experience those shops.
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What inspires you and your style?
I hate to sound so designer-y, but it really is true that, being a creative, inspiration comes from everywhere. It’s seeing a shape I haven’t seen before in a building, in something that’s been left on the ground. Somebody was laughing at me the other day because I’m always talking about, ‘Oh, look at the light, look at the light,’ like nonstop. And on my phone, I have pictures of moments of capturing beautiful light because the colors from the sun and all that just really creates moods.
So I am one of those designers who says [inspiration is] everywhere, and that really is true. Nature is the best teacher there is and the best professor there is. So, I’m constantly seeing new colors, I’m seeing new shapes. By being conscious and looking up and looking around, you see things that feel new or feel interesting or that feel unusual. You really can’t beat Mother Nature.