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With a client roster as stacked as an Oscars red carpet, AD100 designer Brigette Romanek has more experience than most at crafting elevated living spaces for people with exacting standards. Stars like Beyoncé, Demi Moore, and Gwyneth Paltrow trust the decorator to bring their opulent home-design dreams to life. But no matter the celebrity status of the homeowner, Brigette understands that nobody wants to live in a museum. Her interior design philosophy is geared toward an A-list-approved refinement, balanced with an I-have-kids practicality. Brigette’s debut book, Livable Luxe (out today via Chronicle Chroma), outlines how to achieve this balance while unpacking the processes of her most breathtaking projects.
The tome features priceless behind-the-scenes details about Brigette Romanek’s work and weaves them in with anecdotes about her life and the events that led to developing her signature eclectic style. “Mom and I moved around so much that oftentimes I didn’t even stay at a school for a full year,” she tells AD. Regularly being uprooted taught her the value of creating her own personal sanctuary, while financial constraints led her to hone in on the idea that would become her book’s thesis decades later.
“With changes happening all the time, I relied on making myself feel grounded and supported, and that was all about my room,” the AD PRO Directory designer says. “Sometimes we’d have money, sometimes we didn’t have money, and so sometimes I had fancy items to experiment with and other times I very much did not. But learning how to put all of it together fueled my whole design theory without me even knowing it was happening. It was just the school of life doing it for me.”
That school of life essentially scouted Brigette for admission into the interior decor world. After noting her keen design eye in the context of her own home, friends and friends of friends requested she bring her talents into their abodes. She drummed up plenty of work via word of mouth before launching Romanek Design Studio in 2018, and she believes her nontraditional path into the space has strengthened her confidence in her own voice rather than subscribing to any rigid by-the-book approach she might’ve learned as a student. “I’ve been told: ‘Well, you can’t do this and you can’t do that,’ because it’s ‘just the way things are,’ but understanding that I could [break any rules] and bringing that experimental style to my clients too is amazing,” she says. “This is your family home, so my goal is about making it you.”
The 200-page book delivers myriad decor tips and tricks, loads of interiors eye candy that begs prominent placement on the coffee table, and naturally, a foreword by the Goop founder herself. Brigette hopes that the inside scoop on her projects and the backstory into her journey helps readers understand that “luxury” isn’t necessarily a synonym for “pricey”—at least in her book. “There’s this idea that luxury means having all these expensive things, and that is not the case,” she says. “Luxury in design is about finding items that have value to you. For me, it’s being surrounded by things that speak to my history and items from family members, interspersed with other beautiful objects that I like.” Below, Brigette dishes on all things Livable Luxe and unpacks how to achieve a lavish look on a limited budget.
Find small ways to make a big impact
AD: What are some less work-intensive techniques to elevate a space without fully overhauling it?
Brigette Romanek: I love using accessories. You don’t need a bunch of movers for things like curtains or little brass sculptures. I have art in my house, including pieces that look incredibly expensive but are actually flea market finds for $10 or $20. And the way that you position it in the room can take on such a voice. Maybe it’s as simple as adding some coffee table books to give the space some color, or items like throw pillows, blankets, vases, and lighting. Lighting is really like the jewelry of a space, so that makes a huge impact. That’s a little bit more of a heavy lift than an accessory, but it has potential to really elevate.
Design your space around one standout item
Your process typically begins with finding one piece and building around that to create a cohesive space. How do you know when you’ve landed on the object that’s going to serve as the linchpin?
It’s that piece that you just have to have. If you feel you can’t be without this particular light or just love the colors in your rug, that’s your jumping off point. Once you’ve landed on that piece, you can really push out from there. Often it’s a family heirloom. I worked with someone who had a chair and the fabric was very beaten up and very worn, but the chair was so important to her and it had this history, and so we changed the fabric and brought it new life. That chair became the jumping off point for everything else that happened in the room. I also find this to be helpful when I speak to people who don’t know how or where to begin: Start by picking a piece that you feel like is the star.
Surprise yourself
In the book, you note that your ultimate goal is to surprise your client by doing something in an unexpected way. What are ways that we, sometimes operating as our own interior designers, can do something to surprise ourselves?
Part of my job is to show you things that you haven’t seen before that I think could be amazing. I always have a wild card. The funniest one is with GP [Gwyneth Paltrow] because she loves design and she’s seen so much, so I really have to bring it with her. I showed her this chandelier that I knew was going to be a bit of a challenge for her, but I also knew she would love some elements of it. I said, “Let’s try it! If it doesn’t work, that’s no problem.” Now it’s one of her favorite pieces in her Montecito house. But it was a journey getting there.
When you have a piece like a vase that’s maybe a funny shape that you didn’t think you would necessarily love, or a chair that sort of stands out, that’s often that piece that brings that room into this eclectic-cool vibe that you may come to be proud of. Oftentimes those wild cards are pieces that you carry with you forever. Look for the anomalies in things you like, but don’t invest too much in these kinds of pieces—start small. Maybe that wild card is just a ceramic vase with a pattern on it. Sit with offbeat pieces like that, see how they feel. And then if you hate them, just pass them on to others.
Gucci meets Gap
You describe your overarching design philosophy as this blend of high-end and more affordable items. Can you explain your “Gucci meets Gap” strategy and how it works?
It’s the idea that you could put a patchwork blanket that you found in a flea market on a sofa that maybe cost thousands. But interestingly enough, that combination is going to feel just right. A room of just precious things is not something we want. Luxury is about finding items that have value to you, as opposed to just a high dollar value. I do talk about this in the book because it’s a very real thing for me. I had a lovely home, two kids and animals and friends over all the time, and I wanted to display all of these beautiful blue-and-white vases, but those vases can run thousands and thousands of dollars, and it wasn’t in my budget.
Becoming clever about how to make your space beautiful is actually really fun. That’s where some of my greatest creativity comes out. The vases that ended up on that table were all from eBay or from after-dinner runs to Chinatown. And if a $5 vase gets broken—not that I want that to happen—I’m okay. I have a few reserves and I can replace it. If it’s like an art installation where it looks good but no one can actually touch it or go near it, I don't want to live that way.
Look for patterns in your design inspo
How would you advise somebody trying to define their own interior style to find what their voice is?
Being so oversaturated with imagery, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But some people do it through magazines, pulling out images and pages; some people do it through Pinterest. You’ll start to see patterns like “I’ve pinned a lot of white furniture,” or perhaps a lot of curvy shaped pieces, so you probably like that style. You start to learn about yourself. Little by little, you will start to understand what you’re looking for and what your language is. I call it “learning to speak the science of your design self.” You’ll find the themes of what resonates with you. As a designer, I will dissect why I like certain things and what about them feels good, and why I don’t necessarily love XYZ. I always say that it’s like having a bunch of ingredients in front of you and pulling out what you need to make a great dish.
