Charles & Julia Opens at Hotel Perle in New Orleans

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.

Photography by Laura Steffan

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.

Photography by Laura Steffan

Although the interiors evoke European residential design, the palette remains quietly connected to New Orleans. Rather than referencing Mardi Gras literally, muted chartreuse, aubergine, oxblood, and warm gold appear throughout the space in restrained ways, creating an atmosphere that feels timeless instead of thematic. The concept is loosely inspired by the fictional romance between Charles and Julia, whose imagined journey through Europe informs the layered aesthetic. Rather than telling the story literally, the narrative unfolds through materiality instead.

Upstairs, the mood shifts completely. While the lounge embraces darker tones and richly layered interiors, the rooftop terrace offers a lighter counterpoint inspired by Sicily and Southern Europe. Sculptural iron furnishings, woven textures, lush greenery, and skyline views evoke an elevated garden overlooking downtown New Orleans. Together, the two levels function as complementary experiences—one intimate and enveloping, the other open and relaxed.

Photography by Laura Steffan

The project also extends its residential sensibility through collaborations with New Orleans artists and makers. Hand-painted lampshades by Rachel Loyacono, original artwork by Tracy Mose, Jenn Leverett, and Casey Langteau, botanical installations by Luna Botanicals, and locally fabricated marble and custom upholstery reinforce the sense of a space assembled over time rather than installed all at once.

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.

Photography by Laura Steffan

Charles & Julia is open daily at Hotel Perle, 757 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, Louisiana.

Editorial Transparency: This article was developed with the assistance of AI tools, which may have been used for research, outlining, editing, or copy refinement. Reporting, fact-checking, and editorial decisions were made by the Design Milk editorial team.