10 Questions With… Designer and Stylist Colin King

Get to Know Designer and Stylist Colin King

Interior Design: What is your approach to styling?

CK: My favorite spaces feel “un-styled”—not too contrived or put together. I appreciate it most when a room feels loose in a way, like if a pillow isn’t perfectly placed and it almost feels like someone was just there. I’m much more drawn to imagery and spaces like that than I am a very “perfect” look.

ID: You are artistic director at large at Beni Rugs. What sparked the latest collection?

CK: This collection is called “A Study on Balance,” and it’s inspired by the Japonisme movement during the mid-19th century when Japan opened its borders and the west, especially Paris, experienced a flood of inspiration coming in from the country. It was almost like me looking through the eyes of a Parisian and experiencing Japan for the first time. Japonisme is a made-up word and I only learned of it when I was curating a show at Demisch Danant, a French gallery in Greenwich Village. We partnered with a Japanese textile collector and he and I paired rare indigo-dyed cottons and folk fabrics with French modern furniture, finding through-lines of minimalism and composition and craftsmanship. When I was designing for Beni that was front of mind for me: the parallels between age-old traditions. The Japanese craftsmanship that inspired these French modern architects and designers, and which they incorporated into their interiors, reflects the same tenets found in Beni’s Moroccan weaving: a relationship to nature and the environment, the use of natural materials, and tradition.  

ID: Your first book, Arranging Things, was recently released. Tell us more!

CK: It’s funny because now when I call friends and ask what they’re doing, they kind of give me a hard time, like “oh, I’m just arranging things!” It’s such a universal phrase because it can be anything from folding your laundry to cleaning up. But my goal with the book was to demystify styling objects. Styling is a daily practice for me and it empowers me to have a deep relationship with the objects around me. It represents a new way of looking and I wanted to help people look at their homes with a fresh eye. I think a lot of people don’t know what styling is. I certainly didn’t know what it was growing up! The book is about lowering the curtain on it all and encouraging people to find their own voice and own way of styling—to look at the objects they already have in unexpected ways.

ID: Is it essays, tips, and tricks plus photography of your work?

CK: Yes, all of that. Each chapter is broken up into thematic essays with images that support the text. Being a self-taught stylist, I didn’t know I had a process. Working on the book with Sam Cochran helped me distill what my process was and the themes that are throughout the work. I was first introduced to styling through editorial work and then brought that experience into my commercial work in advertising and they began to feel as one. The making of the book was about peeling away these themes and helping distill them into really actionable but not formulaic steps. That was the fine line we danced because there’s no formula: there’s infinite possibilities for styling. It became about sharing my experience: what I’ve found that works, what doesn’t work, but also letting everyone know it’s a lot about trying and going through that trial and error as well.

ID: Speaking of, can you describe your styling process?

CK: It is always dependent on location. The first thing I ask for is scouting photos to get a sense of space, because I let the environment—the landscape, the interior—inform the decisions that are made. I’ve started to learn that I can’t over-plan because when you over-plan you are met with disappointment when it doesn’t work out exactly the way the fantasy was. I love to gather things that I love to mix in with whatever’s already there. And a lot of it happens in the moment on set. To keep the channel open between me and my creativity is the ultimate goal. So that’s about making sure that the phone’s away and I’m really present in the moment. It’s about being able to be in the flow and see what’s in front of me and find the best solution there.

ID: Your work often reminds me of the Dutch masters. What are some pools of inspiration for you?

CK: Art and nature are probably the two biggest drivers. I’m constantly reminded of time through nature: seeing how trees bloom, turn green, then the leaves fall. That’s why I bring so many of those elements into my own spaces: I really enjoy that relationship. The forms that nature creates that are so unique and asymmetrical and bizarre, more than anything that we could make as human beings. I’m always drawn to that: incorporating the textures of nature, collecting rocks, that sort of thing. And then art of course, like all those Dutch masters, there’s so much depth and beauty and light painted in those canvases. I definitely find myself trying to recreate that in some of my own work. I also really love artists’ homes because it all feels very functional in a unique way. Donald Judd and Georgia O’Keefe, for instance, seeing how they arrange their pieces, their special collections of things, is incredibly inspiring.

ID: How did your recent collaboration with Troy Lighting come about?

ID: Riffing off Proust’s famous questionnaire, what is your idea of total happiness?

CK: It’s always in the small things. I love waking in my home. I like going to get a cup of coffee in New York. It’s those really small moments that make me the happiest. But if I were to define happiness, it would probably be being content with what I have. Having all of the stuff that’s in front of me and just thinking, “This is good,” and not looking to the left or right. It’s the huge moments you think are going to bring you the most happiness, but it’s the little ones that actually do.

ID: There’s so many small moments in your vignettes that bring visual joy— there must be some kind of parallel there! You’re known for a calming, deshabille, organic and quite neutral aesthetic. What is your relationship with color?

CK: I would say I’m respectful of color. I always want to be intentional about using color and not have it be too frivolous. I love using dark, rich hues. My bedroom is a deep brown, and my bathrooms are deep colors that envelop you (one is London Clay from Farrow & Ball), and I painted the ceilings too. A lot of my design is zero to a hundred: when I do use color, it’s in a really big way, covering every surface like with my bedroom, for example, where every surface is one deep hue. I’m getting more curious about color as I go because I think as creatives, we’re always pushing ourselves and evolving. I think there’ll definitely be lot more color used in my work in the future.