Colin King has the magic touch.

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With the simple gesture of a hand—stacking a few books, moving a vase, adding a branch—the stylist has shaped some of the best interior images in recent years: the homes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Christian Siriano, and Seth Meyers; projects by AD100 designers like Giancarlo Valle, Andre Mellone, and Ashe Leandro; campaigns for everyone from Zara Home to RW Guild… He's even designed his own collections for brands like Menu and Beni Rugs, where he serves as creative director.

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With his new book Arranging Things, Colin strives to make his practice more accessible: “It’s really about demystifying styling and giving people the courage to try,” he explains. “So many of us get defeated before we even start, but how often are we working on a puzzle for a whole vacation? Styling works in a similar way. It’s all about trying something, stepping away from it, and trying something else.” His Showroom debut takes this one step further by assembling all of his favorite products and go-to sources in one place. All that’s missing is a few of his tips and guidelines to follow…

The power of arranging things

There's no hierarchy to how I arrange or style. I love foraged pieces. I love heirlooms, I love being able to put everything together and have a composition speak to me.

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As homeowners, just like with artists, how we present what we collect and what we're drawn to really tells a story. So often, we’re just in the thick of arranging things. It’s all we do every day without realizing: we’re folding laundry and putting dishes away… It's all we're really doing.

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How a room comes together

I love the metaphor of a jigsaw puzzle. I like to start by building a border, separating things by colors, and then I start to see the big picture. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s also about finding things that you love without worrying if they're going to go together or whether you have a spot for them. That's when the best surprises and relationships happen.

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Great design not only makes you feel something, but it also makes you appreciate things that you would have maybe never liked before, just by how they’re arranged or paired with other things.

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How I approach styling a room

I like to peel everything back so I can really see a fresh space. I always used to look at constraints as limitations, but I actually think they’ve really informed my sensibility. For instance, when I moved into my loft, I couldn't stand the beadboarding and wanted to rip it out. Now it's my favorite part of the apartment. It creates a built-in character that I would have never picked for myself. Once you surrender to making it work, it just makes the space feel so much more interesting.

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I also love shopping the shelves of whatever house I'm styling and bringing decor items into the kitchen—it’s really helpful to make it feel not too utilitarian and like it’s part of the house.

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How I build a color palette for a room

What I learned through my editorial work and through styling, is that it's really about the shell of the space. Anything you put in a beautiful shell will look like a million dollars. It’s important to make sure you're listening to the architecture, finding the natural light, and letting that inform your palette.

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I take a lot of inspiration from nature, even when there's not a lot of it. In my apartment in New York, I'm surrounded by red buildings, so I had to pick a color that would absorb all this red. I originally really wanted this place to feel super Parisian and I wanted to paint it stark white. But then we stripped the floors which were so yellow, andI realized everything turns pink with the light throughout the day, so I landed on a custom beige tone that compliments all that really well.

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For me, injecting colors is very intentional. I love using florals, a singular vase, a pillow, or a rug—something that can change and move pretty easily. I shy away from paint colors that are a little bit more permanent and harder to change.

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How I mix shapes, colors, and textures together

I'm like a matchmaker in a way. Finding relationships between objects is almost like Tetris: if one has a concave curve, and one has a convex curve it can forge an interesting narrative. Even talking about shapes and forms: having something tall with something short, something round with something slim…

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Materiality is important as well: maybe objects are the same color but a different texture, a different stone, or a different material. Pairing by color is interesting and can feel layered and unique if the materials are different. Creating those juxtapositions and conversations really activates on each surface.

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My anchor objects that ground any surface

I always say “a bowl, a branch, and a book can make any surface look really beautiful.” Those are my three B's. Books are the easiest way to make the room feel lived in. They add that human element that can be reflective of the occupant, but they're also great risers or pedestals. It's nice to be able to create beautiful topography on a table with books.

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Having that form of life with elements of nature is important too but I also love very sculptural vases that don't feel empty if there's no flowers in them, so I can have them out all the time. Textiles are a really nice layer as well, whether it's a throw or pillow for that extra layer of warmth. It’s a really easy way to use color and freshen up a space.

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My go-to textiles

I am a fan of solids but I never try to match anything. Every single upholstered piece in my home is a different color fabric which creates this spectrum that feels layered and collected. I do love a print in small doses like on a pillow.

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Particularly in my loft, it would feel very scene stealing to have a print. It would almost feel like: “who's that and how did they get invited to the party?” I tried color in here and the space didn't want it. The floors are very patinated, there's a lot of movement in them. So they were the director of the show. I just gave them a lot of supporting characters, but they’re the star.

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What makes a room feel cozy

My favorite rooms are unstyled. I'm always resisting picking up a fallen petal or smoothing over a wrinkle on a sofa. Leaning into those imperfections is really what makes a room feel warm and inviting. I like to try not to make anything feel like I intentionally placed it there. There should be a looseness and a casualness to a room that still feels poetic, but not too constrained.

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I'm a huge fan of nothing matching. I don't have a singular wood tone in my home that matches. Every tree is represented: white oak, pine, red oak, walnut, ash… There’s this nice feeling of warmth and dimension when nothing really matches or goes together. It's such a dance and a beautiful mastery of the mix that I think we're all after.

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What objects anchor a surface

On anchor surfaces like a large table, I love having one functional piece on the table and have the rest be decorative. So if there's a collection of vases, only one needs to be functional, and the rest can just be supporting; or if you have a side table, there's one large lamp and maybe two little objects with it.

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I always tell people to limit their surfaces. Every room should have one big surface that can house your treasures or the books you collect. People have all of these surfaces, and they want to put stuff on all of them which can feel very cluttered. Ask yourself what you actually need, rather than building a big bookcase and then having to go and buy a bunch of stuff to fill it.

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What are your secrets for a well-layered room?

I like having a lot of negative space, I think it just gives a lot more power to the objects that are chosen. Your eye has a chance to have reprieve and really move through a space rather than be overpowered and not knowing where to look.

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I’m a huge editor when it comes to objects, but it's not about getting rid of things. There's a lot of power in putting things away, bringing them back out, finding new relationships between objects and giving your room simple refreshes every once in a while. There's no need to fill every corner of every space and display everything you own at one time.

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What do you think always makes a room feel incomplete?

Lighting. When you walk into a room and there's just a bunch of track lights or spots, it just feels cold. I think of lighting as a really interesting way to inject a sign of life. Table lamps, floor lamps, and sconces are integral to design, and can really be a playful side of styling as well. Being able to add variation of height and playing with different planes and surfaces really helps.

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How I style at work versus how I style at home

One of my biggest lessons and one that I really continue to learn is that I'm so good with the temporary. If I were to be a runner, I would be a sprinter for sure. With my own home, it was a marathon. I had to think about how I use the space rather than how I’m composing an image. Is that table really going to be functional there? Am I really going to want all those objects here or am I going to need light in that corner?

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The testament to styling as a daily practice is the power of moving things around: nothing's stuck in its place. I never bought a bedside table lamp, my lighting just vacillates between my bedroom, my kitchen, and my living room. Nothing was bought for an intended spot. It's all movable.

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