Charles & Julia

Hospitality design often leans into a destination’s most recognizable visual cues. In New Orleans, that can mean saturated colors, ornate detailing, or overt references to the city’s cultural iconography. For Charles & Julia, however, Anna Nicole Interiors chose a quieter approach.

Located inside Hotel Perle, in a 1916 former Stutz motorcar dealership, the new cocktail lounge and rooftop bar draws more on the feeling of a lived-in European home than on a traditional hotel bar. Rich materials, collected furnishings, and layered textures transform the industrial shell into a series of intimate spaces, while subtle references to New Orleans keep the project grounded in its surroundings rather than relying on familiar clichés.

The approximately 3,000-square-foot lounge occupies the building’s original ground floor, where soaring ceilings and exposed brick offered character but also posed the challenge of making an expansive space feel comfortable and inviting. Rather than subdividing the room, the design team used residential strategies—vintage rugs, generous drapery, conversational seating groupings, softened lighting, and custom millwork—to create a sequence of smaller moments throughout the interior.

The result is a space that feels collected rather than decorated. Oxblood velvet drapery frames the street-facing windows, while grape-toned Bruno Rey chairs sit alongside vintage European furnishings and layered kilim rugs. A custom stained oak back bar anchors the room, complemented by a dramatic Calacatta Viola marble bar fabricated locally. Botanical wallpaper inspired by George Ehret’s 1773 Plantae Selectae introduces another layer of texture, balancing the weight of stone, wood, and brick with a softer visual texture.

Instead of recreating the New Orleans visitors might expect, Charles & Julia offers an alternative interpretation—one where the city’s history, craftsmanship, and hospitality are expressed through restraint and layered materials.