During a career spanning almost two decades, Julia King has worked for several of the interior design world’s heavy hitters — from Kelly Wearstler to Michael Smith to Charles DeLisle — and absorbed a little of each of their dramatically disparate design styles along the way. Now, after setting up her own business, Studio Roene, this aesthetic mash-up is delightfully evident in her first wave completed projects, which borrow a little of their resident’s personalities, and blend King’s eye for color and compositions of vintage and contemporary furniture. “I always try to think: ‘How can we make it a little bit weird?’” King says. “It doesn’t have to be in your face, but let’s just add one thing in each room that gives it a bit of funkiness.”

A perfect example can be found in the office of a Silverlake home she recently completed for a movie producer. The first item of expensive furniture her client ever bought was a table with a hot-pink base, so King designed the whole space around this eye-catching piece, using softer pink hues and brushed metallic accents to allow it to take center stage. Elsewhere in the same home, the designer convinced her client to step out of her comfort zone in terms of color, and the original request for a neutral, minimal abode became a distant memory compared to the end result. “She was really looking for something simpler,” says King. “But over several months, I was able to convince her to add color and playful patterns. By the end of the project, she was so, so much more adventurous.” A cabinet in the primary bedrooms covered in Ettore Sottsass’ Alpi veneers is a prime example. “There’s no way she would have liked that in the beginning, but that’s how far we came,” King says.

Similarly, in her Mill Valley House project, the designer applies bold injections of color to great effect. Designed for a family of keen surfers, the interiors are imbued with a casual beachy feel through textures and patterns you might find on towels or parasols — added via upholstery, cushions and rugs — and a wide range of blue and green hues. There’s a pop of bright green in the kitchen peninsula support, and teal tilework in one of the bathrooms, to name a few. Among custom elements in the home a banquette that extends from a newly raised fireplace hearth, and a huge cobalt blue bookcase above a daybed, both helping to define the home’s spatial functions. California’s modernist mecca, Sea Ranch, was another key influence. “They really wanted this house to be playful and not too fancy,” King says. “So we used a lot of plywood and very humble materials to create the mood for the space.”

Her distinctive style is, as you might expect, most evident in her own LA apartment. Originally rented as a pied-à-terre, mostly because she was obsessed with the fully plastered bathroom, the Spanish Colonial residence ended up being a full-time residence after she and her husband relocated permanently from San Francisco. The original character of the space drove many of the design decisions. “For all of our projects, we always try to respect the type of architecture and environment of the house, so we spend a lot of time doing historical research to find details that would be authentic or interesting,” says King. “We then try to figure out a way to make it feel fresh by thoughtfully thinking about what colors we are using, and the mix of furniture we will choose.” She went back and forth on repainting the already white floors, but eventually decided to keep them as-is, so that the eclectic array of furniture and objects would stand out against them. 

King sources her keenly curated objects from several galleries and stores, with Marta Gallery and Rhett Baruch Gallery amongst her favorites in LA, as well as Max Radford Gallery in London, and Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery and Superhouse on the East Coast. She also emphasizes her desire to include emerging local talents in her interiors wherever possible. Those she’s currently loving include Kate Greenberg, whose red chair is placed in the Mill Valley Project blue guest bedroom, and Jordan McDonald, whose ceramics she finds a home for in every project. Glass makers Dana Arbib and Rafi Ajl are also on her radar. “I just really like little quirky details that lead people to ask, ‘Hey, where did this come from?’” And now we know.

Mill Valley

Los Angeles

Silverlake