Best Interior Designers – ELLE Decor’s 125 Top Interior Designers
ELLE Decor proudly presents the 10th anniversary edition of the A-List—our annual registry of the most stylish, influential, and innovative interior designers from around the world. Back in 2010, our first A-List had 25 members (and five to watch). Today, the Class of 2020 is 125 firms strong—a wide-ranging group who inspire us with the magical homes they create across the globe. Click through to read all about them.
Courtesy of Aero Studios
STYLE Warm modernism
COLLABS Outdoor fabrics for Lee Jofa, lighting for Visual Comfort
Founded by interior and home-furnishings designer Thomas O’Brien, Aero Studios is a master design office where crossover and collaboration are the rules rather than the exception. The office’s many projects range from lofts and formal apartments to commercial work like the Sixty Thompson hotel and a condo developed by the Rudins called the Greenwich Lane.
Instagram: @aerostudios
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James Merrell
STYLE Linda Pinto continues her late brother’s lavish elegance
COLLABS A new joint venture with Thierry Despont
Eclecticism and refinement remain the keywords when it comes to creating entire universes for Alberto Pinto’s prestigious clients worldwide: private residences, offices, airports, hotels, yachts, and jets. Under Linda Pinto’s management, Alberto Pinto is marked by cultural influences that let traditional and modern meet in harmony.
Instagram: @albertopintoagency
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Simon Upton
STYLE Classic con brio
NEWS A Casa Branca relaunch includes embroidery by Rwandan genocide survivors
Born and raised in Italy, Alessandra Branca grew up believing classical beauty is meant to be intertwined with everyday life. Her eclectic, colorful work fuses the workmanship of a couturier with energy and practicality in all she designs. Her book, New Classic Interiors, was published in 2009.
Instagram: @abranca
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Richard Powers
STYLE Affable connoisseur
NEWS Curated a recent Christie’s auction of 18th- and 19th-century furniture, porcelain, and art
Bold patterns, jewel tones, and exotic accents are characteristic of Alex Papachristidis’s work. Recent projects include a beach house in the Hamptons, a Philadelphia Main Line residence, and a Greenwich Village apartment. Tour Papachristidis’s maximalist New York apartment here.
Instagram: @alexsviewpoint
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Alyssa Kapito Interiors
STYLE Ivory tower
PROJECTS Minimalist homes from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to Greenwich, Connecticut
Based in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, Alyssa Kapito brings a fresh take on the classics and has a great appreciation of antiques and art. Some of her projects include a full restoration of a historic Hamptons estate; a family home in Beverly Hills; a beach house in Bellport, Long Island; and a landmarked townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Instagram: @alyssakapitointeriors
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Eric Piasecki
STYLE Cheeky glamour that shows off the art
CLIENTS Patrons and philanthropists, including Emily Fisher Landau and Candia Fisher
James Aman and partner John Meeks draw on their backgrounds in store design, visual display, and fashion to create lovely, elegant rooms. The designers are especially adroit at fashioning a look of tailored luxury that evokes both past and present.
Instagram: @amanmeeks
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Thomas Loof
STYLE Sensual expressionism
CLIENTS Edgar and Clarissa Bronfman, fashion designer Elie Tahari
COLLABS Gio Ponti–inspired rugs for Kyle Bunting, wallpaper for Fromental
Founded in 2001, Amy Lau Design creates interiors known for their warmth, expressiveness, and impeccable attention to detail. Amy has a reverence for the inherent beauty of natural materials and landscapes and thoughtfully incorporates elements of each into every project.
Instagram: @amylaudesign
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Marco Ricca
STYLE Boho layers
PROJECTS A Manhattan townhouse on the Upper East Side, a modern home in Miami, a New York City flagship for Rent the Runway
Alabama native and noted color wizard Rayman Boozer rose to prominence when he founded Apartment 48, a chic New York home store set up like an apartment. Today, he is the go-to designer for everyone from Manhattan professionals to start-ups in search of an energetic, original look.
Instagram: @raymanboozer
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Joshua McHugh
STYLE Chilled-out sophistication
CLIENTS Jake Gyllenhaal, Seth Meyers
Former set designer Ariel Ashe and architect Reinaldo Leandro’s New York City firm Ashe Leandro mixes contemporary luxury and natural materials to create spaces that feel open and timeless. Past projects include work for Liev Schreiber and Seth Meyers, who is the husband of Ashe’s sister.
Instagram: @ashe_leandro
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ELLE Decor
STYLE Wabi-sabi wow
CLIENTS Kim-ye, Robert De Niro, Bill Gates
PROJECTS His legendary art and antiques galleries in Antwerp and Hong Kong
Interior designer, antiquarian, and art gallery owner, the Antwerp tastemaker is revered for his influential style, mixing antiquities and art with modern furnishings draped in Belgian-linen slipcovers.
Instagram: @axelvervoordt
Photo forthcoming.
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Simon Brown
STYLE Bloomsbury by way of Scandinavia
CLIENTS U.K. creatives
PROJECTS Whimsical wallpaper, fabrics, and more on her online Shoppa
A London up-and-comer with a whimsical, unexpected approach to interiors, Beata Heuman is known for her playful and original work. Heuman worked for Nicky Haslam for nine years before setting up her own studio in 2013. Her team strives to create beautiful interiors—whatever the scale and budget—characterized by a Scandinavian attention to detail and longevity.
Instagram: @beataheuman
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William Waldron
STYLE All-American dash
CLIENTS Elsa Peretti, Mariska Hargitay
COLLABS Fabrics for Le Gracieux, hardware for P.E. Guerin
Though the styles of his rooms range from sumptuously lush to strictly tailored, Jeffrey Bilhuber offers an all-American take on classic decorating—which explains his popularity with clients such as the late David Bowie and Anna Wintour of Vogue.
Instagram: @jeffreybilhuber
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Trevor Tondro
STYLE Love craft
PROJECTS A model apartment at Jean Nouvel’s 53 West 53rd complex at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art
NEWS Field + Supply, his biannual makers’ fair in New York’s Hudson Valley, enters its seventh year
New York–based designer Brad Ford is known for his residential interiors that are at once modern and warm, elegant, and functional. He founded his eponymous firm in 1998, and his Field + Supply craft and design fair has more than 100 vendors and exhibitors.
Instagram: @brad_ford_id
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William Waldron
STYLE Sumptuous elegance, honed at Parish-Hadley
NEWS 2020 lifetime achievement award from the New York School of Interior Design
New York–based designer Brian J. McCarthy draws inspiration from the culture and elegance of European living. That translates into eclectic spaces grounded by an understanding of history, but realized with a focus on functionality, comfort, and sumptuous materials. His book, Luminous Interiors, was published in 2013.
Instagram: @brianjmccarthyinc
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Brockschmidt & Coleman, LLC
STYLE Classicism without cobwebs
CLIENTS The literary elite, from Jon Meacham to Julia Reed
NEWS A New Orleans design studio and boutique, Sud, which specializes in Italian crafts
New York City–based Bill Brockschmidt and Courtney Coleman describe their clients as “under-the-radar literati and collectors” who appreciate their ability to match historical references with modern sensibilities.
Instagram: @brockschmidtandcoleman
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Roger Davies
STYLE Patinated luxury
NEWS A new line of Bunny Williams Home furniture
is slated for the fall
Bunny Williams is all about classic comfort, an informed eye, and a bit of fun. In her rooms, fine European antiques meet mirrored walls and gutsy artwork. She uses intense colors and delicate patterns with equal panache. Go inside a Williams-designed Park Avenue apartment here.
Instagram: @bunnywilliams_interiordesign
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William Waldron
STYLE Positively chic
COLLABS Lighting with Visual Comfort, fabrics with Lee Jofa
Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller are a husband-and-wife duo who create rooms that are a confident mix of timeless and contemporary design—both familiar and fresh at once. Always refined and sophisticated, light-filled and airy, their spaces range in style from elegantly traditional to luxuriously minimalist to glamorously bohemian.
Instagram: @carrierandco
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Courtesy
STYLE Warm welcome
PROJECTS Suites for Boston’s Mandarin Oriental
Alexandra Champalimaud of the Champalimaud design firm is an Anglo-Portuguese expat and one of the world’s most talented luxury hospitality designers. The New York–based studio is dedicated to expressing the individual character of each space through extraordinary design, with imaginative and forward-thinking teams that lead successful award-winning projects around the globe.
Instagram: @champalimauddesign
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JAMES MERRELL
STYLE Genteel and traditional
CLIENTS The Upper East Side, Hamptons, and Palm Beach crowd
COLLABS Metal botanicals, potted or framed, with Tommy Mitchell
Having launched her career on Wall Street, Charlotte Moss is equally attuned to the principles of classic decorating and the needs of a modern household, as well as inspired by women travelers and explorers who pushed boundaries.
Instagram: @charmossny
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Dominique Vorillon
STYLE Handcrafted and holistic
PROJECTS Ace Hotel Kyoto
Los Angeles–based partners Roman Alonso and Steven Johanknecht are masters of the new California cool. From homes to hotels to product design, their work embodies a respect for craft and an almost archaeological sense of place.
Instagram: @communedesign
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Marco Ricca
STYLE Motor City playful
COLLABS Hudson Valley Lighting, Leathercraft furniture
PROJECTS His lady’s library at the 2019 Kips Bay Decorator Show House
The through line connecting all of Jenkins’s work is a polished traditionalism infused with color and pattern. The Detroit native, who also has an office in New York City, made serious waves last year with his much-touted lady’s library at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House.
Instagram: @coreydamenjenkins
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Simon Upton
STYLE Life of the party
NEWS A refreshed lounge at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in collaboration with ELLE Decor, a teaching kitchen for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club
Brooklyn-raised Ellie Cullman (her family owns the famous Peter Luger steakhouse) holds an Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York School of Interior Design and founded the storied design firm known for its fashion-forward, modern look—catalogued in the design book From Classic to Contemporary.
Instagram: @cullmankravis
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Laura Resen
STYLE New old soul
CLIENTS Tech stars
PROJECTS A seaside lounge at the Miramar Club in Montecito, California
A favorite among tech giants, Dan Fink got his start in Silicon Valley and is known for his moody, modern aesthetic.
Instagram: @danfinkstudio
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Brittany Ambridge
STYLE Artful, cozy medleys
PROJECTS A Kips Bay townhouse, a Prospect Heights duplex
Danielle Colding, who came to prominence starring in Shop This Room on HGTV, refers to the homes she creates as artful and cozy. Never stuffy, she likes to build spaces around a client’s family heirlooms, art collection, and knickknacks so that the room is always a reflection of the individual.
Instagram: @daniellecoldingdesign
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Simon Upton
STYLE Antiques as sculpture
COLLABS Lighting for the Urban Electric Co.
Based in Washington, D.C., Darryl Carter, a former lawyer, turns out cool, calm, and collected spaces that are distinctive in their masculine rigor. They are full of smart neutral fabrics, dark wooden furniture, and strong silhouettes. His furniture designs are spare without being austere.
Instagram: @darrylcarterdesign
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Pieter Estersohn
STYLE Timeless tranquillity
PROJECTS Upper East Side apartments, superyachts
David Kleinberg is committed to uncluttered rooms furnished with a Francophile’s mélange of antiques. His body of work is wide-ranging in type, yet always modern in sensibility. In 2011, he published Traditional Now: Interiors by David Kleinberg.
Instagram: @dkda
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Francesco Lagnese
STYLE Edgy erudite
CLIENTS Rockefellers and Hollywood honchos
PROJECTS A villa in the Bahamas
Toggling between his home in Los Angeles and his hometown of New York, David Netto is a Harvard architecture school dropout who revels in the unexpected, making traditionalism feel hip, and modernism like a warm and textured cocoon.
Instagram: @davidnettosays
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Richard Powers
STYLE Sky’s the limit
PROJECTS An installation he created with artist James Turrell for a house in California
Having started his design career working with ELLE Decor Grand Master Peter Marino, it’s no wonder that Ernest de la Torre’s own design firm, which he founded in 2001, boasts an impressive portfolio, including Tuxedo Park mansions, Manhattan penthouses, jets, and yachts.
Instagram: @delatorredesign
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ANDREA FERRARI
STYLE Supreme sprezzatura
CLIENTS Fashionistas and luxury brands
COLLABS Home accessories for Dior
Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran make up the Milan-based super duo. Founded in 2003, the avant-garde firm is known for its furniture designs and fashion collaborations with the likes of Fendi and Hermès. Their forward-looking interiors are rich with pattern and color-blocked walls.
Instagram: @dimoremilano
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Marco Ricca
STYLE Evolution of gilt
COLLABS Hardware with SA Baxter, furniture with Theodore Alexander
Jamie Drake is primarily a modernist, yet he’s known for his fearless approach to color and his fashion-conscious sensibility. He combined forces with designer Caleb Anderson to form the Drake/Anderson design partnership. Projects have included sophisticated interiors in many of Manhattan’s trendiest residential towers, as well as cutting-edge medical facilities and nonprofit headquarters.
Instagram: @drake__anderson
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