The Art of Making It Personal: Inside the Character-Filled Home of Designer Claire Thomas

For Claire Thomas, almost anything can become a canvas for storytelling. The multi-hyphenate creative, director and designer has built a career bringing ideas to life through food, film, photography and interiors—so it’s no surprise that her own home tells a story all its own. Filled with collected objects, unexpected details and plenty of personality, the space might be Claire’s most personal expression yet. 

For our latest At Home, we stepped inside Clarie’s eclectic Los Angeles abode to learn more about her design aesthetic and philosophy. Below, she talks about going beyond trends, surrounding yourself with things that mean something and creating a home that reflects not just how you want it to look, but how you actually want to live.

Pictured above: (Left) Bay Organic Hand Towels in Hazel w/Undyed, (Right) Coral Bell Print Tablecloth in Chestnut, Olivos Embroidered Organic Napkins in Natural Chambray w/Claret 

Thank you for welcoming us into your home. Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you spend your time.

I feel like I spend my time much like an industrious squirrel. I jump from tree to tree. I collect nuts, and seeds and mushrooms, scattering them in little caches across my life. I feel like I have to answer this question in metaphor because I never really know what to say when people ask what I do for a living or “describe your usual day.”  This is because I do a lot of things across a spectrum, and when I describe it as it is, I get self conscious that I sound a bit mad and unserious, like Kramer from Seinfeld. I like to see myself as a storyteller, and I might use a plate, a room, a script, a song, an event, or a film as my canvas to bring that story to life. So everyday is different, usually with a moment of blind panic, as I remember another thing I have to add to my list that needs doing.

But an ideal way to spend my time is at home on a Sunday. I like to wake up before my sons (James 9, Reggie 4), make myself a coffee, and sit in my garden and write for about 30 minutes until everyone wakes up. I then make breakfast, which is usually very basic like omelettes and toast or we just sort of forage. Sometimes I’ll have friends come over for a dinner party or I’ll host a movie night for James’s class or we just go to the farmers market and bop around. I try really hard not to have an agenda on a Sunday.  I have a copse of citrus trees and some chickens, so the boys are usually gathering fruit to make a tea cake or gathering eggs, unless the chickens have hidden them in the dirt again. James has learned how to play gin, so sometimes we’ll play a few hands at a local coffee shop while Reggie draws zoo animals. In the evening, if it’s just us, I’m usually making pasta and we watch an old movie until it’s time for bed. If I’m feeling ambitious, I will knit while watching the movie, but my pattern recognition is not great so this usually results in me either watching my knitting and ignoring the movie or ignoring my knitting and watching a movie. The boys particularly love Charlie Chaplin. We then go through the usual routine and flop into bed and read a book from the Narnia series. On Monday morning, which no one likes, I take the sting out by taking them for donuts on the way to school.

Pictured above: Organic Relaxed Linen Decorative Pillow Cover in Midnight Indigo, Fernwood Organic Decorative Pillow Cover in Twilight Blue, Paseo Organic Decorative Pillow Cover in Shell, Sequoia Washable Organic Cotton and Wool Throw in Sandalwood

How does your background in food styling and photography inform how you design and style a home?

I see things in a full frame, meaning, when I am shooting in a location, I like the entire space to be lit and styled so we have the flexibility and freedom to move through it as one would in real life. This means that the lighting has to be beautiful from more than one angle (usually you light for one angle at a time). Every corner has to have a vignette or a moment. 

How do you choose what pieces go into your home? 

I am an avid collector (my word to thinly disguise my hoarding impulse), so I unfortunately want to bring too much into my home at any time. Other people aren’t like this. Usually with design projects, I have a dedicated line item called “smalls” which is where I have to put a budget towards buying “stuff.” Because “stuff” is what makes a home look like a personal space rather than a showroom or hotel lobby. 

Here’s the thing about stuff - if it’s not personal, it looks really really dumb (like those modern faux-sculpture objects you can find at big box stores) and sort of falls into an uncanny valley. What is this object? Is it art? Does it hold a memory or meaning? I think human beings are amazing at immediately knowing if an object has an aura or not. It’s hard to describe, but you can just walk into a room and clock it. It’s why hotel rooms tend to feel impersonal - the art is factory sourced, even beautiful spaces have objects that are meant to conjure the appearance of a personality rather than actually have one.

So when choosing pieces to go into your home, I would say - be personal. Very personal, and lean in hard.

I would also say that hardback books that you have read, art your friends have made for you, and your favorite candle, and objects larger than a mug, are excellent places to start. They will feel like “you” no matter what room you put them in.

Pictured above: (Left) Organic Waffle Kitchen Towels in Meadow, (Right) Cloud Loom Organic Towels in Alpine White

What does "home" mean to you, emotionally, beyond the aesthetics?

“Home,” in the animal kingdom, is the one place a creature can let their guard down. They can sleep, feed their babies, and weather the storm in a dry, cozy shelter. I view home similarly, in that, it’s where I can be my most vulnerable self, my weirdest self, my most personal self. I can hang the mask up on the hat rack and just be the self I am with my children and closest friends and family. The home I moved to last year is the first space I feel like I can fully express myself aesthetically. Before then, everywhere I lived was a lovely midcentury modern where I felt like a museum docent. The house was centered around someone else’s aesthetic and personality. I mean, I was born to be a museum docent, so this suited me very well for the last two decades, and is not a complaint. But the home I am in now feels most like myself, and I like that very much.

How does storytelling shape the way you design a room?

Storytelling hugely influences my approach to design. When I work with clients, we come up with a little story to hinge the whole project on. For me, it was “The Bronte sisters go on vacation in Spain." This tells us it’s a bit goth, romantic, mysterious, but ultimately optimistic. So if any color, texture, pattern, or object didn’t emphasize this story, it didn’t belong in it. It doesn’t mean it’s bad or good, it just doesn’t fit in our story.

Pictured above: Mirada Organic Matelasse Coverlet and Shams in Plum Blossom Chrysanthemum, Organic Relaxed Linen Duvet Set in Doe, Cloud Soft Organic Sateen Sheet Set in Mulberry

What's one design or styling rule you like to break?

I feel like the “rules” that exist now are so much more reasonable than they were 25 years ago. The rules I’m seeing are like: texture matters! Hierarchy is a thing! Don’t fight against the architecture! Which are all pretty useful, reasonable rules. 

I’d say that rules that are born out of a desire for harmony and balance, or fundamental functionality (like, a chandelier should hang about 3 feet above a dining table), are good ones to follow. Rules that are about trends or snobbery, not so much. 

So, I’m not going to toss out my entire personality to become an almond mom minimalist. That can be a really chic look, and I get why people love it. But is it me? No. So, I guess I’d say - get to know yourself very well, know the story you want to tell visually, and let the trends be damned.

Pictured above: Mirada Organic Matelasse Coverlet and Shams in Thyme Chrysanthemum, Organic Crinkled Percale Duvet Set in Praline Chambray, Refined Organic Percale Sheet Set in Undyed Lily

How do you design spaces to support the way you actually want to live, day to day?

What an interesting question! I’d say one of the best design decisions I made was to have an expansive night stand. I collect 5 half empty mugs and glasses, several books, random legos I’ve found on the floor, and a little doom pile of mail before getting sick of myself.

But more generally - a lot of storage, furniture I want to sit on, and spaces I want to spend time in. 

Photos by Claire Thomas. Portraits by Garrett Logan.