Julie Rootes Interiors: Successful By Design

Julie Dreyer Rootes ’96 felt the thrill of victory as she sat in a tony London hotel ballroom in September 2024 and heard her name called as a winner in the Design Et Al’s International Design & Architecture Awards. Her firm, Julie Rootes Interiors, took top honors in the Luxury Residence – Americas category for a project on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.  

Her mother and sister cheered at their table as Rootes claimed the accolade, validation of her prowess in a career that combines her superlative taste with a focus on clients.  

“It was definitely a pinch-me moment,” Rootes said. “My team and I really put our hearts into the project.” 

A Fashionable Start 

Rootes grew up in Mansfield, Texas, about 20 miles southeast of the TCU campus. She applied early decision to the university as a high school senior. “I knew from the first time I walked on campus that TCU was my place,” she said. 

She majored in business with a minor in fashion merchandising. Even then, Rootes was interested in interiors and said she would have switched her academic focus if she could have remained on a path to graduate in four years.

“Julie has great taste and always did,” said Tammy Wood Young ’96, a Pi Beta Phi pledge sister and Rootes’ college roommate. “Even back then she was good at design and well dressed, but she was also excellent at business.” 

Throughout college, Rootes worked part-time at Banana Republic in Fort Worth. Before graduating in May 1996, she was recruited to the position of assistant buyer for a new Prada store in Highland Park, Texas. 

“I have a strong right brain and strong left brain, and the job at Prada appealed to both,” Rootes said. “I soaked up quite a bit in terms of precision and attention to detail.” 

Julie Dreyer Rootes likes mixing traditional elements with contemporary pieces in the projects she designs for Julie Rootes Interiors. Photo by Elena Zhukova

After a year, she went to work for Next Generation Media, managing media advertising sales, first in Dallas before transferring to Los Angeles. Rootes lived in Manhattan Beach and commuted to Century City, where she met with executives from entertainment behemoths like Universal Studios and Fox.  

Back to Class

In 1999, Rootes became an account supervisor with Initiative Media, working with clients that included Microsoft, Macys.com and the now-defunct Palm Computing. After the dot-com bubble burst and 9/11 upended the economy, she enrolled in the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to hone her skills in interior design. She loved the experience, which taught her everything from architecture to color theory. 

Not long after Rootes had her third child, a friend with her own interior design firm asked Rootes to come work for her. They worked on projects around Marin County, California, and later created a room in the San Francisco Decorator Showcase, arguably the highest-profile design event on the city’s calendar. When her friend abruptly shuttered the business, Rootes launched her eponymous firm in 2011 with a client she’d already been cultivating. 

“I call myself an accidental entrepreneur,” Rootes said. “I never set out to have this firm.” 

One project led to the next. In 2015, she did the San Francisco Decorator Showcase as the principal of Julie Rootes Interiors. “It was a full-circle moment that was so important to my career,” she said. “I have relationships to this day from that experience.” 

Rootes began growing her staff, which now numbers around 10, to keep up with demand for her services. “I love clean lines and mixing some traditional elements with some contemporary pieces, but we’re not locked into one style,” she said. “I try to keep things fresh and elevated and sophisticated without being fussy.”  

Julie Dreyer Rootes founded her interior design firm in 2011 and has steadily grown her team to meet increasing demand. Photo by Elena Zhukova

Booming Business

These days, most of her customers are repeat clients; the award-winning Kauai project was a second home for a Northern California family she’d helped before. To every project, whether a whole house design or a refresh of certain rooms, she brings a passion for fabrics, textures, colors and silhouettes. 

“The great thing about working for Julie is I have really been able to dip my toe into every area of design,” said Alex Corallo ’23, who landed a job at Julie Rootes Interiors straight out of TCU. “Julie is good at having us all experience every aspect of the business, from picking fabrics to budget tracking.”  

Corallo had just started at the company when she accompanied Rootes and several other colleagues to Kauai to install the award-winning project, which she described as a whirlwind. “I have a heavy hand in social media and marketing,” Corallo said, “and Julie allowed me to take some chances while producing new content.” 

Corallo also appreciates Rootes’ integration of technology into projects, everything from radiant floors to using iPads to flip on lights or sound.

Rootes eschews trends (“I always say ‘trends’ ends with ‘end’ for a reason”) but does pay attention to the evolution and nuances of how Americans tend to live today. She’s delighted to repurpose spaces, like transforming a bedroom into an office, or reimagining the whole home with her client’s lifestyle in mind. 

As someone who lives with kids and dogs, Rootes also makes sure that fabrics, flooring and finishes can withstand the rigors of family life. 

“We don’t want things that are too precious,” Rootes said. “No one wants to live their life afraid of wet bathing suits and dog paw prints.”  

Rootes reflected on what she has learned since graduation: 

The best lesson I learned from my first job with Prada was the fine art of details. If someone purchased something, you had to wrap the item with tissue and ribbon, and you had to make it look beautiful without using any tape. The meticulous attention to detail there was off the charts.

The business side of interior design can be a little archaic, like people still wanting us to fax things. At Julie Rootes Interiors, we’re always refining our internal processes, such as how we document things. Some creatives don’t want to do the business part, but 60 to 70 percent of what we do isn’t creative.  

The biggest challenge I face as an entrepreneur is the hiring and retention of employees. As I’ve grown, I have gotten much stronger in my hiring sensibilities. It’s so important to hire the right person in terms of relationships. A big part of that is good communication and clear communication.  

When people ask me for tips about creating interiors, I tell them I love fresh flowers. They are among the easiest ways to freshen up a space. Art doesn’t need to be a grand, expensive piece. Choose art that you love, and it will make the home feel special and unique.   

— As told to Lisa Martin  

Edited for length and clarity.