This West Coast Maximalist Wants Her Clients to Feel Badass
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The founder of the Oakland, California design firm Aquilo Interiors, Carmen René Smith traces her love of design to childhood days spent at her aunt's home, where she'd sit in the Jacuzzi, next to a life-size stone mermaid, "appreciating the magic of it all," she recalls. "My aunt is a free-spirited, powerhouse boss babe, and every home she has lived in is fabulously quirky, layered, and maximalist. At her beach house, there was a room with a slot machine, a Marylyn Monroe life-size cutout, layers of art, on brightly painted walls, and plenty of patterns everywhere! It was so much fun."
A pre-college course in environmental design left Smith convinced that, "It was clear that I was meant to combine my love for art, beauty, and all 'the feeeelz' with problem-solving, functionality, and transformation." She went on to get a degree in architecture, and, today, designs spaces in Aquilo's signature style, an aesthetic she calls "Eclectic Maximalism." Her hope is that they will evoke the same magic for their owners that her aunt's beach house did for her. "I want my clients to feel their authenticity, their true reflection, and their inner weirdo in their spaces," she says. "Honestly, I hope they feel like total badasses!" @aquilointeriors
House Beautiful: Who or what was your first design crush?
Carmen Rene Smith: Pierre Yovanovitch: Fearless, intentional, curated, innovative, and beautiful designs. I am obsessed!
HB: What's your favorite...and why?
Room of all time, anywhere?
CRS: The Madonna Suite at the Madonna Inn, in San Luis Obispo. THE THEME OF IT ALL! It's an over the top, ridiculous, kitschy, HOT PINK experience, and it's sooo fun! I'm here for all of it.
HB: Design era or style?
CRS: Parisian Eclectic because it's art-forward, limitless, and absolutely fantastic!
HB: Paint color:
CRS: Farrow & Ball, Hague Blue—it's saturated, luscious, impactful, and sexy!
HB: Artist or piece of art?
CRS: My favorite piece of art I own right now is a re-created album cover of the amazing band Queen, but instead of the heads of Freddie, Brian, John, and Roger, we have the beautiful, furry heads of all of my pet-babies, my dogs! It was hand-drawn using color pencils by an incredible pet portrait artist based in Bali named Polina Torubarova.
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