About Christa, Principal Designer & Owner
Raised in New York City and Norway by antique-obsessed furniture and wallpaper designers, Christa’s design education began early. Summer holidays included extensive stops at dusty antique shops and hours-long drives on the hunt for supposed ‘undiscovered’ charming villas. Christa’s most embarrassing childhood moments involved one or both parents inquisitively caressing a vintage papered wall. Of course today Christa is often spotted engaged in the same caressing.
Her hands-on childhood education was followed by one more formal, including a BFA in Interior Design from the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York City and a Masters of Decorative Art History from the famed Sotheby’s Institute. Throughout her education Christa gained expert and intimate knowledge of the fine art, furniture and interiors business, studied abroad in both London and Paris, and experienced life behind the scenes at notable design events such as the Armory Winter Antiques Show.
Christa started her career in Hawaii designing vacation properties and high-end hospitality spaces under the noted architect Peter Vincent. When Hawaii was no longer exotic enough, she moved to the very ends of the earth to soak up a truly unique mix of traditional English and Pacific Island styles formed in New Zealand. Here she honed her skills in both residential and retail design.
Finally feeling the call of home, Christa returned to New York City where she established Christa Pirl Interiors, a full service design firm focusing on eclectic, contemporary and livable spaces infused with a sense of history and tradition. However, it did not take many years before Christa again felt the call of the wild and shifted her business to Park City, Utah where she instilled in her spaces a distinct sense of nature, the mountains and just a hint of the industrial mining past of the region.
Christa’s expertise and work has appeared in Utah Style & Design, Apartment Therapy, The Park Record, and The Salt Lake Tribune.
Christa shares her love and deep knowledge of design through college level teaching, continuing education classes, and special events lecturing. Christa often contributes to online and print publications including Domino, sharing her particular love of late Victorian and early 20th Century design history.
Her design obsession encompasses all aspects of her life; preferred holidays consist of rambling through Versailles or the Victoria and Albert Museum, lingering in Decorative Arts Departments, and salivating over Robert Adam settees and the like. Christa lives and breathes all aspects of the designed world and revels in meeting her client’s every practical (and however impractical) need and desire.
About Marcine, Senior Designer
Marcine’s love of design began when her woodworking grandfather created a dollhouse just for her, which quickly became her favorite toy. Many members of her family are talented craftsman, and there is no great surprise she has pursued a career in design.
Marcine holds a Bachelors Degree in Interior Design from the Art Institute of Salt Lake City and has worked in both residential and commercial interiors prior to joining the Christa Pirl team in 2018.
Her style sensibility reflects outdoor adventures growing up on the California coast, and extensive travels throughout the world. She enjoys working closely with clients to satisfy their personal design needs, and excels at color and materials selections.
About Michelle, Furniture Design & Procurement
After received her degree in Interior Design from Mary Baldwin College, Michelle began her career designing senior living homes and facilities, an experience she found both educational and fulfilling. Michelle then transitioned to high-end residential interiors, working with two prominent designers in Texas.
In 2013 she started her own boutique residential design firm and successfully ran it until 2020, when both the pandemic and family obligations compelled her to reevaluate her work-life balance. Michelle joined the Christa Pirl team in 2021 and oversees the vast and intricate details of our furniture design and procurement.