Perfectly Imperfect: Inside the World of Ashley Von Helsing
When you step into Ashley Von Helsing’s home, it doesn’t just feel designed. It feels conjured. Candlelight flickers against carved oak, antique swords glint softly from a “weapon wall” she built herself, and the air hums with stories of centuries past. It’s gothic. It’s medieval. It’s unapologetically her.
Ashley isn’t your typical interior designer. She’s a curator of emotion, of patina, of imperfect relics that whisper instead of shout. “Imperfection runs through my daily life,” she says. “We’re all imperfect. I think it’s beautiful when that shows up in our spaces too.”
Her style rejects the sterile and the new. She gravitates toward what others might pass by: 100-year-old armoires, chipped tables that have outlived generations, relics found in dusty corners of Los Angeles. “Because I’m such a collector,” she says, “I like pieces that have lived a life. Things that are a little worn, a little butchered. My weapon wall, for example, it’s my first wall piece, and if you look close, it’s definitely not perfect. But that’s what makes it special.”
To her, every dent and crack carries soul. It’s why she calls her work “beautiful decay,” spaces that blend gothic romance with lived-in authenticity. Her apartments, like her clients’ homes, are layered with texture, history, and the faint feeling that time moves differently inside them.
But for all the drama in her design, Ashley is disarmingly warm and quick to laugh. “People assume if you love dark aesthetics, you must be dark inside,” she says. “It couldn’t be further from the truth. The sweetest people I’ve ever met are the ones who look the scariest. It’s about knowing who you are, not about being evil.”
Knowing who she is might be Ashley’s greatest skill. She talks about her dream projects with a kind of cinematic clarity: a Victorian-style apartment complex with communal gardens, a bar and barbecue spot wrapped in gothic charm. “It’d be like a refuge inside a hellish city,” she smiles. “A place for people who get it.”
Her advice for anyone curious to bring a little of that darkness home? “Start by painting your ceiling,” she says with conviction. “If you’re going for dark walls, take the color all the way up. Nothing pains me more than a white ceiling, it kills the mood.” Then she laughs. “Also, add plants. Real, fake, doesn’t matter. They bring texture and life, and they make even the darkest room feel alive.”
And for those who think they need a massive budget to create something special, Ashley insists the opposite. “Take your time. Go thrifting. Let your space evolve. HGTV makes it seem like design happens in two days, but the truth is, it’s better when it happens slowly. Find the things that make you feel something.”
She pauses, then adds one last touch of wisdom: “Every home needs a record player. There’s something about it, it reminds you to slow down. Even if you’re listening to Creed on vinyl.”
When asked what making waves means to her, Ashley’s answer feels like both a mission statement and a spell. “To me, making waves means making my own path in a giant sea of creatives. It’s creating the storm that makes the waves bigger. Being authentic, being bizarre, and being myself, because that’s where the real magic lives.”
In a world chasing trends and perfect symmetry, Ashley Von Helsing reminds us that beauty doesn’t live in the flawless. It lives in the story, the layers of time, the quirks, the handmade, the haunted. In her world, imperfection isn’t something to fix. It’s something to frame.
This story was created by Making Waves Project as part of 13 Days of Strange, our series spotlighting the beautifully unusual people and projects shaping culture in ways big and small. By sharing these stories, we aim to honor the creativity, resilience, and vision behind the work and amplify voices that thrive in the strange, the bold, and the unforgettable.
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Photography by Robiee Ziegler
Produced by Katie Caro
