Sam Kennedy grew up meeting famous cowboys including Rex Allen, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry; he was introduced to each by his grandfather, a writer “who knew everyone in Hollywood,” according to Kennedy. That grandfather was Irving Wallace, a freelance writer, who once wrote every...
Interior designer Barbara Glass was at the airport waiting to board a flight to Paris, and the excitement in her voice was palpable. She planned to attend a French fabric show, then tour London with a group of interior designers on the hunt for the...
Paul Rochford, who grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was one of those unusual kids whose parents never had to ask him to clean his room. He always kept it “just so,” he says. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Michael Violante’s parents allowed their young, art-enamored...
Don Siegel has spent his life surrounded by the beauty and elegance of historic Native American art, first as a collector and now, after opening his own private space in downtown Santa Fe, as a dealer. His specialty has always been vintage Navajo and Pueblo...
Nate Fischer can identify two major influences that led him to open his interior design firm: his love for the ocean and art. Growing up in Monterey, he appreciated the “eclectic mix of coastal California design” found in his hometown, Big Sur, and Carmel-by-the-Sea. After completing his...
Intuitive. Charmed. Spirited. These words could describe interior designer Angela Todd, who defines herself as a visual storyteller. She came to the design business in her early 30s with a background in business and a creative side that had, until then, expressed itself musically as...
If ever there was a designer with expertise in Spanish Colonial furniture, architectural objects, and art, it’s Samuel Saunders. His hacienda and warehouse showroom in Nogales, Arizona, are filled with inventory from various continents, which he and his late partner Eddie Holler discovered during years...
When Emily Janak was growing up in the horse country of Lexington, Kentucky, design was a family tradition. “My mother is a decorator and would tote me around to auctions, antique stores, and fabric stores my whole childhood,” Janak explains. Then, when she was studying...
Having grown up surrounded by the lush Hawaiian outdoors and her mother’s vibrant watercolor paintings, Jenni Leasia’s natural inclination to improve people’s environments informs her design aesthetic. “My Hawaiian childhood instilled the importance of connecting indoor and outdoor spaces, which is a huge part of...
When Annie O’Carroll was in her twenties, traveling the world as a sales manager for Marriott Hotels, she never dreamed that she’d have a flourishing interior design career someday. “I think my whole life, it was like being in training for what I eventually landed...