The Loaded Trunk was founded by Jonna Robison, an interior designer with a deep curiosity and passion for traveling the world, connecting with artisans in different cultures and sourcing unique and beautiful objets d’art.
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In The Workshop With… Raili Clasen of Raili CA Design

Sunny southern California vibes embody the style of interior designer, Raili Clasen. Her work is laidback and eclectic with elements of surprise. One of her clients described her style as “great design with a wink.”

Clasen spent 18 years as a fashion executive for California-based surf brands including Raisin Swimwear, Quiksilver and Paul Frank. She dabbled in personal design projects, which were featured in magazines, design blogs and a local home tour. She decided to change things up with her career and made the leap to becoming an interior designer. In just six years she has built a great team, based in Corona del Mar, and an impressive portfolio, including residential projects throughout the country as well as a variety of interesting commercial projects. Her work has been featured in top design publications.

Interior design by Raili Clasen — The Clasen home in Newport Beach CA, Interior Design by Raili Clasen

I really enjoyed chatting with this down-to-earth California native and hearing her unconventional story what and what makes her tick…

You have such an interesting background, working for many years in the California fashion industry, prior to changing gears and launching your design firm, Raili CA, 6 years ago. What have you been able to pull from those experiences to help you with your design business?

Well, I was always surrounded by super creative people who I basically latched onto. I was always in sales. I guess the start of it was just by who I was hanging out with, and I was always leaning towards the creative, but and ended up in the sales department. I didn’t have any formal design background in clothing. The people I worked with were some of the most creative people I’ve collaborated with to this day, and I was exposed to so many.. That’s how it started, and it very much influenced how I looked at putting things together… For example, at Quiksilver, we were opening a lot of stores, and seeing the process of how that came together was fascinating and fun for me. I’ve always had a sense of style, particularly clothing. But I never once paid any attention to interior design.

There is definitely a strong element of FUN in your work, something unexpected you inject into each project you design, like a pop of surprise into each project. How do you arrive at that piece or installation?

That part, I will tell you, is all freestyle. For instance, sometimes I show up with a light fixture in my hand and say, “Let’s do it upside down. What does that look like?” It’s very uncalculated.

You seem to have a fearless approach to what you do.

Yes, I think that also comes with age. I mean, I am not young and straight out of school. I already had a big career. I feel like I’m definitely the most confident as Ive grown older. I don’t sweat the small stuff by any means. I told myself when I was going to start my design career, “Okay, I’m going to try to be an interior designer. Here’s the deal: I’m going to do it my way or the highway, 100%. And if no one hires me, I will get the message and I’ll do something else. I’ll go into real estate. It will either work or it won’t work.” That’s literally how I went into it. I had nothing to lose. Zero.

I love your quintessential California Beach style. How do you describe your aesthetic?

I describe it as “old meets new.” California is full of natural woods and it’s sunny all the time, so there are lots of windows in California architecture, old school stuff. It’s light, it’s bright, it’s airy, it’s indoor-outdoor for the most part… full on. So, get ready to put lots of windows in your house and have them open and plan on going outside all the time. I get a lot of clients that have moved out of state. They always begin the initial email with, “I want a California feel in my Wisconsin house,” or, “I come from California and now I live in Boise, Idaho, and I want the California vibe.” They like it because it feels good to them.

Where do you like to go for inspiration?

A day in LA, the airport, anywhere! I’m always looking. Even restaurants around here… I’ll walk into a bathroom and think, “This is so cool!” Really, just getting out of the office and life. But I would say I get the most inspiration from New York. I also love to go to good hardware and lumber stores and see the woods together. I go up and down every single aisle and sometimes I’ll see something, such as inexpensive poles, and I buy them because I’ll get the idea to perhaps put a rope around them and I use them in my son’s room. I love to DIY a little bit too.

How do you begin your process with a new client?

Well, it depends on whether or not I’m working with an architect. If so, I like to collaborate with him or her just to see what his or her vision is, because that is who the clients usually hire first. The client has an idea of what they want their house to feel like, so the first pitch that they get is from an architect. I don’t want to head off in another direction. Then I name the project… I give it some adjectives, such as “Light Bright Happy Beach House,” or “Spanish Beach Bungalow.” Then I form a team here with a designer and a project manager. We start talking about the project and sometimes that means that, in the middle of the night, we’re sending Instagram or Pinterest posts of designs we like to one another. We create a board and we just start piling in everything. Nothing is off limits. Then, from there, we start pulling it apart and we get a very clear picture of what it looks like.

When you name a house project, how does that guide your direction?

Well, everything needs to fit into the name… it’s more of a vibe, really. We all come up with it together, the girls on my team and I. “What is this? Is this New York meets the Hamptons?” That’s how we start. I had a project in Coronado, a beach house. The client wanted a piano, and we wanted the entry to really pop, so we painted the piano bright yellow. It needed to fit into what we called that California beach bungalow.

Give me an example of how you personalize the design for the client.

That comes during the process. Personalizing is easy for me, because every time I look at something I ask myself, “What’s different? What can we do that could really be fun and different?” I use that perspective on everything I look at.

How do you approach color? That’s something I love about your work… the pops of strong color.

I like color, but you know how there are some people that just really use it widely, and they have it on every surface? I prefer little hints, just a little pop, and it has to be appropriate. I would not put a pink chandelier in a dining room of a really cool modern house. Perhaps if it’s mid-century modern but I feel like with color, I love to bring in a few little accent colors. And then in the kid’s room I might go crazy. There are only a few colors I like, really. I love tones of yellow because they go with grays and blues – they go with everything. And then I love greens all the way from camo to sage and light mint. and I love pairing those with yellow or pink. Today I am wearing camo pants and a pink shirt. I approach design the exact same way.

You do a lot of new builds. How do you work with the builder and architect bto make sure you are all on the same page?

I like to collaborate with architects and builders. I’m very selective with the team. I love to work with builders and subcontractors that say yes. I have an electrician and I bring him to every single job because he ‘gets’ it and says yes to my ideas. He also wants to do fun, out-of-the-box designs and he is willing to go in there and try. So, I try to find that with the entire team.

You were able to work with one of the most famous surfers in the world when you designed the Kelly Slater Surf Ranch. Tell me about that experience.

The Surf Ranch was my favorite project, hands down. I’ll never have as much fun! It was just amazing. They were so much fun, and the really cool part was, Lemoore, California is in the middle of nowhere in central California. So, it wasn’t as if I had access to a range of professionals that could be there on short notice. Here, in Orange County, I can get ten people if I need to in an hour to help me do something. Up there, being in the middle of nowhere, what I loved was how everybody came together that worked there to help me with the actual design. For example, the girl who was the receptionist was gluing rope around beams and around pillars for me on install day. It was such a fun team effort and they were all so excited to be a part of it, just as I was. So, it was quite fun. Being there on site, seeing how organic it was (they did not want anything fancy)… it was just exactly what I was meant to do. Coming from the surf industry, my focus and what I was exposed to during that time translated into that project and seemed so easy for me.

Surf Ranch in Lemoore, CA. Image: Raili CA.

You like to customize furniture pieces… When clients are on a budget, what is the roo you would tell them to focus on more than others?

Oh, definitely the great room. The room that everyone is going to see. My splurges are the kitchen area, the living area, not even really so much the dining area, and the powder room. I love me a good powder room, because that is where everyone goes; that is what everyone sees. But when it comes to primary bedroom and kids’ bedrooms, I do a real ‘high-low.’ I’ll say, for instance, “you have got to have this light fixture. I know it’s $10,000 but we will make it up. I will go find some items from West Elm for the rest of your house, but you’ve got to have this one.” And I do that all the time.

What part of designing a home do you think is the most under-appreciated?

All the specifying. Finding it, tracking it down, pricing it, measuring it. Sometimes people ask, “Why did that take you so long?” I say, “Oh my gosh, you have no idea.” HGTV has done us in the design industry a disservice. Clients ask, “Wait, couldn’t you do this whole project in 20 hours and have it installed in three months? That’s what we deal with every single day.