3 California Design Mavens Innovating With Beauty

Meet three California designers who add their own sort of sparkle to the Golden State.

ANOUK STEINKE-KRUEGER

PHOTOS: KIMMERLEE CURYL

After some 15 years in Malibu, designer Anouk Steinke-Krueger has moved to the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara’s wine country. Born in the Netherlands and raised partly in Switzerland (she came to L.A. as a film student and model), the designer is an avid equestrian and known for her earthy, bohemian aesthetic. Currently working on a ranch house and her own new home, Steinke-Krueger is also celebrating a year and a half in her Los Olivos boutique, Hus, which doubles as her design studio. The shop extols her nomadic style and is stocked with items such as handmade leather goods, vintage textiles and art, furnishings, jewelry and fragrance–all with a sustainable, fair-trade focus.

ROBIN STRICKLER

PHOTOS: COURTESY ROBIN STRICKLER

Be it a romantic, blush-hued home on the Newport Beach coast or the colorful Beverly Hills abode of Too Faced founders Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson, Robin Strickler’s designs emphasize timelessness. Since transitioning from fashion to interiors with the 1991 launch of her Orange County firm, Design Works, Strickler has created homes in myriad styles–coastal, traditional, midcentury–but all reflect her penchant for easy, Southern California living. Fabrics are durable. Expansive windows and doors welcome in sunlight. Kitchens are generous and bathrooms are luxurious. Recently, while working on projects in San Clemente, Corona del Mar and Ladera Ranch with her team, Strickler also contributed to a TLC home-design show that will air later this year.

PAULINE WOLSTENCROFT

PHOTOS: COURTESY PAULINE WOLSTENCROFT

Los Angeles ceramicist Pauline Wolstencroft adorns hand-formed tabletop pieces with geometric, landscape-inspired designs. Her skill with stains and glazes is rooted in her training as a painter and has won her coveted display space at local shops like Hauser & Wirth and Mohawk General Store, not to mention more than 30,000 Instagram followers. This spring, in addition to making her functional and decorative wares, she will begin work on larger-scale ceramic wall hangings–what she calls “clay paintings.” The native New Yorker finds endless inspiration in California’s geography and tends to sketch out ideas first, explaining that, while ceramics may lack the instant gratification of painting, it does provide a good lesson in slowing down.