Take a Peek at 5 Famous Interior Designers and Their Style

What does it take to be a household name in your craft? One must have the perfect mix of experience and talent to have worked hard to create a unique sense of style and taste. Meet 5 famous interior designers who have made their marks in their field. Get to know them better as we delve into their colorful background. Let’s spotlight how their signature style came about and understand exclusive branding. Check out what makes these trailblazing designers tick and learn from their tips and tricks.

Bobby Berk

Bobby Berk is a familiar sight these days on the hit Netflix makeover series, Queer Eye. He is the fresh and friendly face who would get to work quickly to redesign the homes of participants of the show. He makes them tear up and even warms viewers’ hearts with his attention to every minute detail. He always wanted to help the participants live in their dream homes with whatever space they had.

Berk grew up in Houston, Texas, and Denver before moving to New York City. Since he hadn’t any formal training, he worked his way up to become the creative director of a high-end furnishing company. In 2006, Berk launched his first online store, Bobby Berk Home. The following year, he opened his first physical store in SoHo, Manhattan.

Berk has a flair for maximizing small living and working spaces. He relishes the opportunity to help ordinary people make their dream a reality. His style is to infuse practical living needs with the client’s inclination. He believes one can style a small space by following simple tips. When painting, Berk recommends going monochromatic, using bold colors, or keeping the color scheme tonal.

Another set of recommendations would be to choose the right paint, pick slim storage, install more mirrors, and select proper lighting. When executing his designs, Berk usually seeks inspiration from mid-century styling. He would keep to clean lines, customize layouts and add some art decoration touches.

India Mahdavi

India Mahdavi made a name for herself by collaborating with luxury brands. Not only that, Mahdavi managed massive hospitality projects and had her furniture line. She is well-known as the ‘queen of color’ for her work’s meaningful use of bold and playful colors in her work. Mahdavi was born in Tehran to a Persian father and an English-Egyptian mother.

Growing up in the United States, Germany, and France, she developed a general cosmopolitan outlook on life. Her love for color started as a child while watching Disney cartoons and Bugs Bunny. Even the food she ate every day became an inspiration and wonder to her. Her current work still carries elements of ‘cartoonish work’.

One of her earliest projects was The Townhouse Hotel in Miami, which helped set the stage for her career progression. Most of her clients were London based. Some notable projects include Hotel du Cloitre in Arles, Coburg Bar at London’s Connaught Hotel, Monte Carlo Beach in Monaco, and Rivington Hotel in Manhattan. Today, Mahdavi runs a studio, showroom, and shop in Paris. One cannot put the finger on where she got her inspiration as she comes from such a worldly upbringing.

Mahdavi focuses on how space will be lived and not what visual impression it will make. Many describe her work as having humor, sophistication, and elegance. Observers believe having a balance of these elements makes her designs original and admired.

Mahdavi shared some valuable tips for aspiring designers and homeowners alike. Firstly, furnishing bathrooms and kitchens are equally crucial as these ‘rooms’ complete the whole home’s look. Secondly, please do not go for cheap wood as it always looks like plastic. Thirdly, a strong focus in a room incorporates everything to sit better. Consider where the eye rests when entering the room and ensure you have a prominent item to focus on in that area. Lastly, get big pieces from places such as Ikea and go for solid colors when on a budget. These pieces will still serve the same purpose and give the same results as their expensive alternatives.

Kelly Wearstler

Kelly Wearstler is an American designer for celebrities such as Gwen Stefani, Cameron Diaz, and Stacey Snider. Kelly was nominated as a judge on Bravo’s Top Design and mentioned in Architectural Digest‘s AD100 Hall of Fame in 2021. Furthermore, she was named Elle Décor’s A-List Designer for six consecutive years. Wearstler was born and raised in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Her mother played a crucial role in swaying Wearstler toward interior design. Growing up, Wearstler would often find her mother painting rooms in new colors. This constant exploration of design and colors intrigued the young Wearstler.

Today, she finds influence in Modernism and old Hollywood glamour. Wearstler credits discovering design ideas everywhere, ranging from her travels to fashion, art, graphic design, nature, photography, landscape design, and architecture. She believes in seeking inspiration from various sources to allow her voice and ever-evolving signature style to shine through.

Wearstler’s work is considered ‘romantic’ and ‘maximalism’. Elle Décor defined her style as ‘encapsulating contemporary sophistication and wit, giving the nod to the past and a wink into the future. Her style has also been described as ‘maximalism’. She mixes modern and historical designs to bring the ‘decorative’ back into interior design. The New Yorker opined that since the late 1990s, her design work style has evolved from mid-century modern to glammed-up Hollywood regency.

Wearstler’s approach to design takes on a multi-layered and stimulating sensory experience. She packs a wealth of experiences into every space using different materials, colors, and forms. Look closely; there is a play with a juxtaposition of contemporary and vintage, architectural and organic, and graphic and instinctual elements. She utilizes intense colors, ‘David-Hicks like’ graphic patterning, and contrasting textures such as lacquer, parchment, and shagreen. Wearstler credits Peggy Guggenheim and Doris Duke as being her style icons. She sees a new project as an invitation to embark on a fascinating and unique journey. With the design, she aims to tell evocative stories that are adventurous and full of texture, pattern, and color.

Nate Berkus

Berkus is well-known as Oprah Winfrey’s go-to interior designer. He has been a regular on her talk show for years. Berkus has since appeared on several other TV shows, including ‘Nate & Jeremiah by Design’ for three seasons with his husband, Jeremiah Brent. Being one of the most influential Manhattan-based designers, Berkus is also a doting father of two. Berkus’s charm goes beyond his smile and persona, as is evident in his interior designs. His work exudes a subtle masculine vibe that mixes elegance and charisma.

Berkus was born in Orange County, California but grew up in Hopkins, Minnesota. He had released several product designs to his name, authored numerous books after boarding school, and started working in design immediately. He founded his own company, Nate Berkus Associates, in 1995. Today, his award-winning interior design firm is strengthening and helping clients’ dreams come true. Berkus believes that clients’ homes should tell their stories. He believes in carefully assembling their homes with only the things they love.

Berkus’s projects include a mix of modern to traditional aesthetics. In terms of palette, the star uses a lot of neutrals and earthy colors. One of his signature looks incorporates a black-and-white color scheme into the interior. He believes the use of lesser colors would do more for the space. His approach is to knock down walls and adopt clean lines. These extensive open spaces create the illusion of light and airy rooms. Afterward, he would incorporate these rooms with his chosen palette, natural textiles, and wood.

Berkus is a firm believer in not following trends. Instead, he would still choose to design a ‘timeless’ room. For example, his ideal kitchen would be black and white cabinets, subway tiles, and marble countertops with grey veining. Berkus’s tip to create a ‘timeless’ room would be to layer with different textures and layers in one sitting.

Tiffany Brooks

Brooks is a famous interior designer and is no stranger to TV. Her interior design career exploded when she won HGTV’s Design Star. She is one to look out for as she has been making waves in the industry. She gained more recognition in the 2021 Architectural Digest AD100 list of designers and architects. Before that, Brook and her designs were published in Essence, Uptown, Chicago (Interiors) Luxury, and HGTV Magazines.

She was born in Waukegan, IL, and studied business management. Her love for interior design style started from there as she started staging homes to sell. She opened the ‘You and Your Décor’ interior design company in 2007. Besides focusing on her growing business in the northern suburbs of Chicago, Brooks is also a wife and a working mother. Brooks has been called a genius by clients who have had their rooms transformed into something majestic or designs that are ‘classic with a twist.

Brooks enjoys mixing traditional pieces with a little ‘rock and roll’. Some described her style as ‘iconic’. Brooks would generally recommend clients choose dark colors to get that luxurious effect. She also emphasizes not forgetting about the ceiling to complete the look. It helps to lighten and open the whole space. She believes that a white ceiling would be such a stark contrast that it will interrupt the room’s entire vibe.

Brooks puts a lot of emphasis on getting to know her clients before conceptualizing the idea for their homes. She would begin this relationship by investing time to get to know her client and develop the design. She would advise not to ask neighbors and friends for suggestions and advice. It would divert the whole concept from what is true to the client’s interests.

Brooks believes that changing your home is like changing your life, which could be nerve-wracking. She takes her client through creative problem-solving, planning, budgeting, and successful communication to turn their house into a home. She believes building a long-term relationship with her clients is akin to a romance. Brooks endeavors for her clients to fall in love with their living space.

You could be fascinated by LA, but when in Los Angeles, you ought to own a glam home. More appropriately, whether in LA or San Francisco, you deserve an exotic home! Professional interior designers have a profound understanding of building strong and functional houses. They have studied homes for decades, and with extensive working experience, they are the best help you can ask for.

Being a renowned interior designer is no cakewalk. Not only do they stretch their potentialities when they dabble in furniture design, but they usually have several residential projects. On average, about 20 years of hard work and experimenting with delivering innovative designs might finally land you the esteemed label of a famous interior designer. Interior Designing is undoubtedly an industry where you can stretch your quotient to gain a name in the Hall of Fame for creatives.