About Lara
A Thoughtful Approach to Living Well
As Principal of Lara Jealous Interiors, Lara brings more than two decades of experience in design, color, textiles, and the creation of purposeful environments to every project. With an eye for quality, beauty, and meticulous attention to detail, she works closely with her clients to create elevated, deeply personal interiors that reflect the way they live and what matters most to them.
Lara is deeply interested in how a home feels. She believes that our surroundings have a profound influence on how we experience our everyday lives—a home can calm us, energize us, inspire connection, and bring a sense of comfort and belonging. Her goal is to create spaces that are beautiful and considered, but also feel natural, nurturing, and entirely at home to the people who live there.
Every project begins with listening—to how her clients live, what they value, how they want their home to feel, and the stories they want it to tell. From there, Lara looks for the balance between aesthetics and function, thoughtfully considering the architecture of the home, its surroundings, and the people who inhabit it.
She is deeply attuned to the subtle elements that shape the feeling of a space—the interplay of light, color, texture, scale, materials, and objects, and the way they come together to create an atmosphere. She believes the most successful interiors are not simply visually beautiful; they evoke a feeling and support the lives unfolding within them.
She is particularly drawn to the richness that comes from bringing together different cultural influences, traditions, and aesthetics. For multicultural families especially, she enjoys finding thoughtful ways to honor and weave together the histories, traditions, and perspectives that create a beautiful shared story.
Her approach is rooted in research and creating spaces with a sense of ease and authenticity—homes that feel connected to their surroundings, enduring rather than trend-driven, and beautiful in ways that become more meaningful over time. She places an emphasis on thoughtful, sustainable choices and on investing in quality pieces and materials that can be lived with and loved for years to come.
Design Process
A Lifelong Curiosity About Beauty, Materials, and Place
The thread connecting Lara’s career has always been a passion for beauty, materials, and the way they shape our experience of place. Interior design was not her first creative pursuit, but it ultimately became the place where her diverse interests in aesthetics, textiles, nature, craftsmanship, and people came together.
For more than 15 years, Lara worked as a colorist and textile designer for global home furnishings brands and women’s collectives, developing products internationally and mentoring artisans. This experience gave her a deep understanding of color, pattern, materials, craftsmanship, and the hands behind the things we bring into our homes.
Her transition to interior design in 2017 was a natural evolution of this work, and she founded Lara Jealous Interiors in 2018. Since then, her perspective has continued to grow through a range of experiences, including her work as an Interior Design consultant for Airbnb, where she balanced aesthetic expertise with empathy and critical thinking to evaluate a home from the guest’s perspective. This experience deepened her understanding of the unique considerations involved in luxury hospitality—from creating a memorable guest experience and elevating a luxury vacation property's appeal to balancing beauty, comfort, and functionality.
While the needs of a luxury vacation property differ from those of a home designed for the people who live there, the experience gave Lara an even greater appreciation for the role thoughtful design plays in how we experience a place.
Over the years, she has also had the pleasure of collaborating with the principal of Bleu Leman Design on several projects, an ongoing creative relationship she greatly values.
Lara’s appreciation for craftsmanship and the richness of different cultures began early. The daughter of Peace Corps volunteers who settled in a community of artists and educators in Carmel, California, in the 1970s, she grew up surrounded by the treasures her parents collected during their travels and the extraordinary beauty of the California coast.
Those early influences cultivated an enduring curiosity about the world and a deep appreciation for the stories, traditions, craftsmanship, and natural beauty that inform the way people live.
Having lived in New York, Paris, and San Francisco and traveled throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa, Lara brings a worldly perspective to her work. She is continually inspired by the unexpected connections between cultures, materials, landscapes, and ways of living.
Perspective & Early Influences
Lara received her interior training through the Interior Design Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, holds degrees in Art History and Fine Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design and French Language and Culture at Université Sorbonne in Paris. Her commitment to lifelong learning has continued throughout her career, including earning her Wellness Within Your Walls certification in 2022, which deepened her understanding of how the environments we inhabit can support well-being and a healthier home. She continues to explore the ways design, materials, nature, and our surroundings shape how we feel, live, connect, and thrive.
Lara currently lives in the Oakland Hills with her family. She loves living among the trees, exploring new places, discovering beauty in the unexpected, and creating joyful environments for her clients.