Colin King is a renowned American interior stylist and designer known for his warm and minimalist approach to design. Through his immaculate use of neutral colors and natural materials he creates spaces with a distinct sense of tranquility. Originally from a small town in Ohio, King moved to New York City as a teenager to study dance– a path that, though not pursued professionally, led him to the world of design. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor and The New York Times, where he has styled both residential and commercial interiors. He has also collaborated with brands including West Elm and Beni Rugs, infusing his signature style into each project. Here, King opens up about his morning routine, the art of balancing preparation with improvisation and how he transitioned from training Hollywood's elite to styling their homes.
How do you start your day? What are some of your most sacred rituals?
I always start my day early. My alarm goes off at 5:10am and I always have a notepad and pen next to my bed. I do morning pages every morning, which is three pages of unconscious writing. I write and then I throw the pages away immediately. It’s a way to empty out random dreams or thoughts or worries. It’s a good way to self-regulate. Then I throw some water on my face, throw on some clothes and head to a workout class. Growing up I was a dancer and it was super important to incorporate physical movement and exertion into my day or I wouldn’t feel in my body. I clear my mind with the morning pages and then get into my body when I workout.
How did you get into the world of dance? What is your first memory of dancing?
First I was a gymnast. I remember I was eight years old and watching the 1996 Olympics, specifically women’s gymnastics. It was an incredible moment for the whole country and I remember watching it on the floor of my parents bedroom. There was Shannon Miller and Dominique Moceanu and then Kerri Strug who landed that fall with a broken ankle. And that’s how it all started. I really wanted to go to gymnastics, so from age eight to twelve I did it competitively. Then I hit a really intense growth spurt and shot up to 6’2” and the following year I didn’t make the team. My coach advised my parents to put me in dance if I wanted to continue on in a similar kind of genre. In Columbus [Ohio], there are a lot of resources for the arts including the renowned ballet school called Balletmet. My mom enrolled me and I quickly realized at 12 years old I was very late to the game. Most people had been doing it since they were 4 years old. But I really took to it because it was like learning a new language and a new form of expression. I also knew right away that it was something that would get me out of Columbus and to New York. In a weird way I always kind of felt myself looking for an escape both physically and mentally and dance really allowed me to escape.
What are some of the most salient lessons you’ve learned from dancing?
Dance is and continues to be a blueprint for how to live. It provides so much more than creative expression. It’s an art form that’s rooted in tradition and in technique and requires a constant return to a basic vocabulary. It taught me how to focus, how to really be in the moment. I still, to this day, use dance as an escape. It’s kind of my refuge now and a time I can be away from my phone and fully present in the moment. All I’m doing is trying to be in my body. I mimic steps that are shown to me and listen to music and it requires all of these different parts of my brain that I don’t get to use anymore. I didn’t know how much it gave me until I stopped but it really taught me how to operate my body and gave me an understanding of basic human nature and how to exist in space.
How does it play into your creative process and other elements of life now?
With dance there is so much rehearsing and so much technique but then there’s the large part of it that’s total improvisation. It’s very similar to my job now. With my creative projects, there’s a lot of preparation but it has to be met with improvisation and spontaneity as well. You have to be malleable on set or when you’re creating something and release the plan.
How did you get into design and styling?
Leaving dance was a pivotal moment in my life. It was a major loss with a lot of heartbreak. It was the thing I invested most of my time in. I not only did it from 12-18 but it brought me to New York where I studied it and received a BFA. When it came time for me to support myself doing it in a very expensive city it all changed. I was living in a studio that had been converted into two bedrooms and there were four of us living there. I was dancing all the time, but I was making $350 a week and waiting tables. It was a difficult lifestyle surrounded by rejection. I moved to LA shortly after graduating school and decided to move on from dance. My agent recommended doing personal training. I was living in Studio City at the time and I walked down the street on Ventura Boulevard and into Tracy Anderson. I was 24 years old and she had never hired a guy before, but said she thought her clients would love me. I studied under her for six months, until one day she said you’re ready. I traveled all over the world training people, working with Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, Stella McCartney. I got to experience a world I had never seen before and be in these homes. I did personal training for 3 years and then went on to pursue estate management with a personal training client. I managed a few of her homes, making standards for how they wanted their table set, how they wanted the flowers arranged,and how they wanted everything to look and feel in the home and I would take pictures of everything as I arranged it, making these little bibles for each of the homes. Little did I know I was developing this very niche skill and it all felt very natural to me.
What people, places or things have influenced your creative process the most?
I would consider Tom [Delavan] to be super pivotal in my life. He pointed me where to look and gave me a real crash course in great interior design. Robin Standefer from Roman and Willaims was also a huge mentor of mine. She wrote the forward to my book and really taught me how to see things differently. I will never forget one day, when I was on set styling this desk and she opened it up and was like ‘why is there nothing in the desk?’ and I thought, what do you mean? And she said, ‘you know, I used to do movie sets, and if Nicole Kidman wanted to open a drawer in a desk on set, there better be something in the desk. She really helped me look at everything as a story and build characters. Everything then became this layered search for authenticity within even just a still image. New York as a whole and also Copenhagen.
Can you describe your creative process and how you approach each project?
I always start with the location, look at the architecture, surroundings and even the landscape. How is that adding into the story of the home and who lives there? Then from there it’s a lot of pulling references and research and just a lot of trusting myself and my choices. Sam Cochran, who helped me write my book, was really integral in helping me articulate my process because you know as someone self taught, I was like, I don’t have a process. He said, well of course you do, and slowly it was revealed to me that I do have a process, but it all just felt very natural and intuitive to me so it was very hard to talk about. Dance is very non verbal and I can be very non-verbal creatively in general. It’s been a challenge of mine to delegate and work with a team because I’m often in this world of my own that feels very natural to me. I base things on my body’s feeling but I’m not able to easily communicate it with other people. I think the majority then that I’ve learned and continue to take into my work now is really trusting myself and knowing that and trying not to overprepare for any jobs because ultimately, the gift that I’ve been given is really just being able to clear my mind, stay present and everything is always revealed to me. I can only describe the rest as a feeling. I feel things are wrong or right when I’m on set. A lot of people ask me how I know what’s good and I always reply, it’s just a feeling. But I also have to be healthy spiritually, emotionally and mentally to be able to trust that as well. I don’t tell anyone, but my prep work has actually gotten a lot less intense because I find that if I over-prepare I’m always disappointed because it just doesn’t look the way I wanted it to look. So much is surrendered on the day of a shoot, for example, because it’s raining or if the market didn’t have the flowers I wanted. Then on set I just have to be super focused and present, making sure I’m well rested and well fed. It’s similar to dancing in that way. I operate well under pressure but can’t really conjure it on my own.
What are some things, besides your morning rituals and being well rested and well fed, that you do to keep yourself healthy?
I’m an avid art museum and exhibition connoisseur. I always try to take myself on at least one artist date a week where I just go and look at things. It’s really important to see things. That’s how I feed my creative side. I like to experience it physically rather than on a computer screen or in a book. I also dance now. I set it down for 10 years because it was almost like a breakup too painful to revisit and I didn’t know how to do it casually. Now I find so much joy in it. I dance once a week if not twice. Lastly, sleep is very important. I always try to be in bed by 10 o’clock.
