Rozalynn Woods

How did you learn to be an interior designer?

I’m a creative person. I was born creative and knew it would manifest itself somehow in my life.

From the earliest time I can remember, I have always looked at how things go together. I remember walking along the streets of Paris, and all I wanted to do was look at the way they dressed their windows; they were so creative.
 

What influenced you to be an interior designer?

It was nature. Even going back to my hometown now, I see a hillside or a view of clouds in the sky, and it’s so motivating.

The colors change, and you see how the different colors work with one another. I use that frequently in my practice.
 

Creatives are normally outsiders. Were you an outsider growing up?

Without question, I was. It was challenging in my small town because it was all one faith, and my family wasn’t that faith. So we were one of a handful of families that were of a different religion than most of my hometown.

Not only did I feel different because I was creative, but I never felt I fit in.
 

Do you go back to your hometown to recharge?

Haha. My hometown is filled with nice people, but I go to Montana or Paris to recharge. In Montana, you feel a part of the earth, and in Paris, all I want to do is wander the streets and soak it all in.

They’re both so big and by the time we leave, I’m ready to design again.
 

What’s it like growing up knowing that you were going to use your creativity as your career?

I got so much joy from art class and musical theater that it was really fulfilling. That fulfillment was motivating, so it caused me to search for opportunities where I could use my creativity.
 

How did you end up in Los Angeles?

One winter, I was looking through a magazine and saw an ad for summer school in Hawaii. Somehow I was able to convince my parents to let me go to this summer school, and it changed my life.

I was 15 and had never really traveled, and now I’m in a dormitory with people from so many different cultures with different ways of thinking. It was a real culture shock for me to experience this breadth of diversity in one place.

Not to mention the beauty of Hawaii versus Idaho or Montana.

This experience motivated me to go out and see more of the world, which is how I ended up in Los Angeles.
 

What happened after your experience in Hawaii?

I went back and graduated from high school. I then used school as a reason to travel. I went to school in Portland, Miami, and USC.

Portland was a finishing school. Miami was a fashion design and finishing school. I learned to draw and design clothing there.

At USC, on the first day, I turned to my comfort and auditioned for the Rocky Horror Picture Show directed by John Houseman. Being from Idaho, I had never seen this movie, and I was appalled at the show when Houseman took us to see it.

I was from a small conservative town, and everyone was running around in their bras and panties. But after some convincing, I decided to do the show and absolutely loved it.
 

What did you do after USC?

I became a buyer and loved it because I was a part of the fashion scene and loved walking into the stores and seeing the different designs.

From being a buyer, I segued to interior design. I started taking classes from Jody Greenwald at UCLA for interior design and started my own business in 1990.
 

Where do you start with interior design?

Curiosity that’s where you begin for design. If you’re not curious, you don’t really care about your outcome.
 

Did you have a mentor?

Maybelle was an art collector, and she was my mentor. I knew her for 35 years, and she taught me everything I know.

I started as an intern with her returning fabric and eventually became a partner. As she began to slowly retire, my business began to take off.

We would go shopping for rugs for clients and look at 35 rugs, and she’d tell me why one was better than the other or why one would look better in someone’s house. She would also teach me the provenance of items we used in someone’s home.

What I learned from her went above and beyond what I could learn in a classroom.
 

How do you help a client determine what they want?

I first ask, “How did you find me?” or “Why did you decide to hire me?” Once we can determine what they liked about what they saw, it tells me a lot about where they want to go.

Then we look at the house and look at the architecture. After this, I ask questions like:

Do you have a family

Do you work

How do you see yourself in this house

What kind of style do you see for this house

Then we start getting visual. We’ll look at photographs and start building the vision from that point to design your home.
 

Do you have a horror story from clients?

I have had some difficult clients, but the tough ones are when it’s a general contractor or subcontractor I’ve hired for a client.

One client called me and said you need to get over here now. When I got there, one of the contractors was dressed in one of her ball gowns while remodeling the bathroom.
 

What is the moment that makes you feel good when doing an interior design job?

It’s a small moment, like when I bring in the right flowers or the right piece of the puzzle, that really brings the room together.