Recently hailed by Architectural Digest as an emerging design star, Los Angeles-based Faith Blakeney sees herself as a design healer. Faith is a New York Times bestselling author, and her design work has been featured in books and magazines internationally including the LA Times, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, and more. With a sense of passion, purpose and play, she helps her clients find beautiful ways of expressing themselves through their spaces.
Faith’s designs are informed by her multicultural upbringing. She spent years living and working in Europe, specifically, Italy, France and Switzerland. Her aesthetic is also inspired by her love for vintage and handmade goods. Having studied at University of California, Berkeley, Polimoda University and the University of Bordeaux, even Faith’s education reflects her worldly, yet eclectic style.
For our first About Place profile, we caught up with Faith to learn about her favorite space in her own home, how she uses it, and how she sourced some of her favorite pieces within the room.
Tell us about your favorite space in your home.
My favorite space is our living room! I love to lounge on the oh-so-sexy, and still comfy vintage sofa I scored recently while shopping for a client, or snuggle up in the chair with tea and a good read.
This room gets used every day for one thing or another. The soft materials and colors and the organic shape of the sofa and coffee table lend themselves to a calming, rest-and-recharge sort of vibe that we long for when we get home.
Tell us about the design choices, the decor, the accessories.
My homes, and I’ve lived in many around the globe, feature items that are collected and are never terribly thought out, if I’m being honest. It’s sort of ironic for an interior designer, but hey! I’m a treasure hunter, so I gather things I like and bring them home and try to find a spot for them. I’m also an avid thrifter and pretty much every piece in our living room is vintage—unless it was designed by me or my sister Justina or painted by a friend.
I’m an avid thrifter and pretty much every piece in our living room is vintage.
How did you come up with this color palette?
I didn’t! It just happened. I tend to gravitate toward blues and greens in rooms I spend lots of time in, as I find it calming for my fiery Leo energy! Balance, you know. The theme I had in mind for the space is artful and eclectic.
Can you share any interesting stories about how you sourced any of the items?
I designed the funky chair with Mongolian fur in collaboration with a local furniture shop called Croft House. All of their furniture is made right here in Los Angeles. I’ve always been a fan of the store, so when they approached me to design one of their signature chairs I was honored and excited.
The framed portrait is a drawing my artist uncle did of my father many decades ago. At the time, my father had an Afro and my mother gave him a haircut, or a fro-cut, and glued the hair onto this portrait! When my grandparents were moving, I found it folded up in a garbage bag and retrieved and framed it. Phew!
The bigger painting is by my dear friend Sachiko Bradley. She is an uber-talented designer and we both lived in Italy for many years and now LA! The smaller art pieces are by another friend who still lives in Italy, Rebecca Olsen. She is a wonderfully talented painter and the minute I walked into her office I fell in love with this whole collection—and bought eight of them! I am passionate about art and to be able to have art I love in my home, made by friends that I love, is simply the best!
The bust I bought at a thrift store for a song and a dance! They were practically giving her away and I was speechless when I first “met” her! I don’t know anything about her origins, though I have made up that she is Native American (I am part Native American), and a medicine woman/ healer and she is helping to protect our home with her courage, spirit, and grace.
Regarding the purse wall rack, real talk: I live in a Spanish home (my favorite kind of architecture), but the storage situation in these sort of homes is no bueno! So, I’ve challenged myself to find ways to store things creatively. I didn’t photograph the other two racks I have full of bags. Ninety percent of my wardrobe is used, and that includes my purse collection. Now if I could only find a place to put the other half of my shoe collection, I’d be set (not really).
The art piece beneath my father’s Afro portrait deserves a mention, too. I bought it at an art fair during Covid, and it’s by Julia Ledyard. I’m Jewish, and this glass depicted in the piece reminds me of a Kiddush cup we use for Shabbat dinner. As a recycling fan, I adore that this art piece is made of the cardboard inside toilet paper rolls collected during the pandemic.
For more ideas and inspiration:
See more from Faith at Faith Blakeney Studio and on her IG accounts: @studiofaithblakeney and @faithblakeney.
PHOTO CREDITS: Portraits of Faith Blakeney courtesy of Marisa Vitale. Still life and interior photography courtesy of Faith Blakeney.