- Share via
- She’s shared her bold designs on social media and reality TV. Now, L.A. designer Dani Dazey shares her tips and tricks in her new book, “The Maximalist.”
- She wants you to live your best life at home. It starts by making yourself happy.
- Filled with flower prints, stripes and saturated colors, her maximalist spaces are surprisingly cohesive.
The dining room ceiling, adorned with an unexpected burst of orange floral wallpaper, breathes new life into the 100-year-old house. Similarly, the living room’s coral, pink and green wallpaper, the den’s bold blue and yellow stripes, and the red pattern-filled speakeasy lounge are delightful surprises that keep you guessing what’s next.
Standing beneath a glittering tiered chandelier in her pink “cloffice,” designer Dani Dazey shares the essence of her colorful style: “From the wallpaper to the artwork, my home is a reflection of me right now,” she explains. “It’s a personal and hip twist on traditional design.”
Rather than embrace rustic farmhouse style or minimalist Midcentury Modern design as is often the case in Los Angeles, Dazey has taken the Highland Park home she shares with husband Phillip Butler and given it an over-the-top maximalist spin.
Dani Dazey and her husband Phillip Butler stand in the living room of their home, which connects to the adjacent dining room and alcove. Dazey designed the colorful furnishings, wallpaper, textiles and many of the artworks. “I am very pro printed furniture,” she said. “I’m a very big fan of matching my colors and having a tight color palette.”
Their home is proof, as Dazey outlines in her new book, “The Maximalist: Colorful Interiors for Bold Living,” out May 20, that our homes should make us happy by reflecting who we are. In Dazey’s case, that translates to bold color, lush textures and retro vibes.
“Throughout my career, my core message has been to empower people to be who they are and not be afraid to embrace the things they love,” said Dazey, 34.
“Our homes are where life unfolds. They should offer a narrative of who we are and what we like, and I doubt anyone’s story is a boring white box.”
— Dani Dazey in “The Maximalist”
From the outside, the couple’s home exudes a subtle charm. However, stepping through the front door unveils a captivating burst of vibrant color and Dazey’s signature flower prints, all surprisingly harmonious.
“I worked as an apparel graphic designer and I applied all that to interior design,” she said. “I know how to put all these things together and make them look nice.”
“Curtains help the rooms not feel too cluttered and crazy,” said Dazey. “I can make everything very cohesive. The fifth wall — the ceiling — it makes a big difference.”
The “fifth walls,” as Dazey calls the ceilings, are painted bright orange, red and turquoise blue. Floors are lined with vibrant green checkerboard patterns and wall-to-wall carpet. Likewise, the lawn in the back is decked out in checkerboard artificial turf. The speakeasy lounge, accessible through a hidden door sliding bookcase, is a ‘70s-inspired sanctuary with a modular sofa, curtains and wallpaper in the same floral pattern. Underneath the living room ceiling, Dazey has created a plant-filled ledge that cascades over the dining room, adding a touch of nature to the vibrant spaces.
Everyone — including the couple’s two dogs, Franklin and Yuki, who luxuriate on a pink velvet daybed in the sun — is happy here.
“Living in a maximalist space brings me joy,” said Butler, who handles operations for Dazey’s interior design business and their Airbnb and Peerspace rentals. “Even just looking at the ceiling makes me happy.”
Like the Madonna Inn, where the couple recently hosted their wedding, their home is “fun and quirky and anything but traditional,” Dazey said. “As a creative person, you get burned out by doing the same thing over and over again.”
The couple discovered the 2,300-square-foot, two-story home on a quarter of an acre lot two years ago. Dazey said there wasn’t a lot of interest in the house, as it featured an unusual floor plan with a separate apartment on the first floor with its own entrance. “The house blew us away,” she said, “but the strange floor plan confused us.”
The house they purchased for $1.75 million was “turnkey,” and Dazey had fun adding skylights to the beamed ceilings in the living room and redoing the kitchen to feel like an old Italian villa. The couple worked quickly over six months so that Dazey could share her projects on social media. “Much of our work comes from social media so having a project to share was helpful. That’s a big part of our job — creating these spaces.”
Her efforts paid off. The entrepreneurial couple now rents their home, along with a pink California bungalow and a bungalow in Palm Springs, for celebrity photo shoots and music videos. (Janelle Monáe, Camille Cabello and James Marsden have all been featured in their rental homes.)
It’s a unique side hustle, and the couple’s success is impressive. “They are such fun, wacky rentals,” Dazey said. “Between our Palm Springs Airbnb and L.A. photo shoots, we made $30,000 last month — our biggest month ever.”
Added Butler: “People tell us their kids love our houses.”
The home’s unconventional layout allows the couple to reside in the adaptable space downstairs while renting out the top floor for photo shoots. Following the recent fires in Los Angeles, they were able to provide housing for families in need on a monthly basis. “It’s been rewarding to be able to help in this way,” Dazey shared.
Dazey brightened the home’s first floor suite, which felt like a basement, with colorful textiles, wallpaper, stripes and FLOR tiles.
Dazey grew up in Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains. Her parents were creative, encouraging Dazey and her sister to be “colorful and engage in art and pursue” their passion. Not surprisingly, the family had a raspberry-colored kitchen. “My mom just painted the cabinets in her condo bright yellow,” Dazey said. “It’s wacky. I appreciate it.”
After studying fashion design, she made a name for herself in Los Angeles as a fashion designer for Dazey LA and, most recently, as an interior designer. She started her clothing line with $4,000. Over eight years it took off on social media and she eventually sold to stores including Anthropologie. “There were a few years where it nearly grossed a million dollars in revenue,” she said. “It helped me purchase the Palm Springs house.” Still, she is best known for her collaboration with drag performer and singer Trixie Mattel on the design of the Trixie Motel in Palm Springs.“Trixie’s aesthetic is similar to mine,” Dazey said with a laugh. “We both love bright colors and florals and retro design.”
The collaboration opened doors for Dazey, including an opportunity to design her first collection of home textiles and wallcoverings for Spoonflower and a furniture line for Joybird, which are featured in her home. It also attracted clients who appreciate her fun-loving aesthetic. She has since worked for Andy Hurley of Fall Out Boy and TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney. “I’ve been lucky to work for cool, interesting people,” Dazey said. “I think that people with a quirky sense of style and taste are interesting and dynamic.”
Despite her colorful interiors, Dazey knows what it’s like to struggle in a sterile work environment. “I used to work as an apparel graphic designer in a corporate office and didn’t feel inspired as a creative person,” she said. “When I went out on my own, I worked in coffee shops and I loved it.”
Today, she works out of a wall-to-wall pink velvet alcove covered in floral pink wallpaper and dog hair.
“I’ve designed some office spaces since then and try to make offices feel like a living room,” she said. “It can affect you creatively and inhibit your productivity. Now that I work from home, I love it.”
When asked what it’s like living with a maximalist, Butler said he trusts his wife’s instincts. “She went running with color when we got our first place together in Beachwood Canyon. It took a little arm twisting, but it all made sense when I saw it all come together. I learned to trust her process. There hasn’t been a single project where it hasn’t worked for me.”
Dazey, having shifted her focus from fashion design to creating happy interiors, sees the two processes as deeply transformative. “In my creative journey, whether it’s fashion or interiors, I’ve discovered the power of self-expression. It’s about defining who you are and sharing that with the world. The right outfit can change your entire day, just as the act of decorating your home can significantly impact your comfort, productivity and happiness. I love relaying that message — self-expression is more meaningful than aesthetics.”
The Dazey Dream House tips & tricks
(Excerpted from “The Maximalist: Colorful Interiors for Bold Living,” Abrams).
The old one-two punch
When mixing prints, I always like to think of a primary and secondary print. The primary is the main character print, which is more complex and illustrative. The secondary is the companion print — something less bold and usually a different scale.
Get some plants already!
A houseplant adds color and makes a space feel more homey without making any drastic changes to any of the walls. Plants breathe literal life into a space and help it feel complete. If your rooms don’t have any greenery in them, get yourself to your local plant shop — stat!
Make your home a gallery
This house is bursting with my personal design — and it feels so good. People are often hesitant to display their own artwork, but I say use the walls of your home to broadcast your creativity.
Stripes cut sweetness
I designed some almost-old-fashioned floral wallpapers for this house, but they’re often purposefully paired with a stripe. A strong, graphic pattern, like a stripe or a check, has the power to temper the sweetness of a floral-y-print.
Double the fun
Half walls abound in this home because I wanted to max out my opportunities for pattern and color play. Adding a half wall to a room in your home is a great way to start experimenting with design on a more complex level.
Appreciate the bedroom set
Matching bedroom sets have a very 1980s reputation (and not in a good way!), but if the furniture is cool, a coordinate set can be a smart strategy to help a maximalist bedroom feel more uniform.
Reconsider wall-to-wall
I am predicting a carpet comeback. People love rugs, so why not consider a completely carpeted room? Everything in design circles back around, and I think wall-to-wall is due to be done in a new way.
Sign up for The Wild
We’ll help you find the best places to hike, bike and run, as well as the perfect silent spots for meditation and yoga.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
