Joan Didion, who died last year at 87, famously never used a decorator. The only interior design advice she admitted to taking came from her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne. “I hope you California it up,” Quintana told her parents when she saw the New York City apartment they bought in 1988, after 24 years in Los Angeles. The move happened fast: The West Coast home Ms. Didion shared with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, sold the same day it was listed, and the Upper East Side apartment they bought was the first one they saw. “We felt stale, settled, restless,” the couple said, explaining their move in a…