LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Lexington-based interior designer has earned national recognition for her signature “maximalist style” she calls a “frame for life.”
What You Need To Know
- Interior designer Isabel Ladd was named one of House Beautiful Magazine's Next Wave Designers of the Year
- She was part of a team that designed a Queen's Gambit-themed room at 21c Museum Hotel in Lexington
- Ladd has worked on projects from California to Florida, bur main clientele base is in Kentucky
- Her design style is "curated maximalism" and is full of color and patterns
Isabel Ladd, 36, owner of Isabel Ladd Interiors, is one of 13 designers from around the country featured on House Beautiful magazine’s “New Wave Class of 2022,” a compilation of people the publication considers “the next big thing.”
“Once I'm in House Beautiful, I just don't know how to go up from here,” she said. “I'm just so appreciative of the recognition. This is huge for the design world.”
Ladd’s maximalist style can be seen locally in Team Cornett Advertising Agency’s office space and The Harmon Room, a Queen’s Gambit-themed dwelling at Lexington’s 21c Museum Hotel.
“The room at 21c was one thing that got me on the radar,” Ladd said. “Being on the list in House Beautiful also exposes us to clients further away geographically, and it makes us be taken even more seriously in the interior design world.”
Ladd’s showroom at 169 N. Limestone St. in Lexington is an example of her self-described “nothing beige, everything awesome” style. Her signature mix of old and new, antique and modern, and high and low, is on full display at the showroom.
“As opposed to saying, does this match this? I just make it work,” she said.
“I needed to get out of the house, and I am a creative person,” she said. “I like to make things. I never went to school for this. I went to school for textile design, which is creating fabrics. I started saying yes to one friend at a time, and then the friends became clients. Now, we have so many jobs going on we can’t take any clients until next year.”
Ladd got involved with The Harmon Room at 21c through her relationship with Team Cornett.
“They just had this brilliant idea during COVID to bring tourism back to Lexington when tourism was very stagnant,” Ladd said. “The idea of a staycation focused on one room inspired by The Queen’s Gambit, which was given to us on a silver platter by Netflix. Cornett called me in and told me their idea and asked me to decorate it. I brought in different people — someone who designed the wallpaper, and printed the wallpaper out in Versailles in a matter of days, and then collaborated with Lucy Jones, who’s fantastic and knows everything there is to know about mid-century modern. It was supposed to take a couple of weeks, but we had it done in 10 days. A lot of favors were used.”
Expanding clientele geographically has worked. Ladd has worked on projects in California and Florida.
“That’s coast-to-coast,” she said.