Meet Loren Audrey Taylor | Interior Design Principal
We had the good fortune of connecting with Loren Audrey Taylor and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Loren Audrey, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
By the end of my career as an interior designer and visionary, I want to help transform their lives through living beautifully 365 days a year in an unpretentious effortless way in jettisoned environments with the people they love and possessions that inspire. As a design practitioner of African descent, I would be remiss if I did not investigate and educate my findings regarding the hidden figures in architecture, interior design, decorating, fashion, fine & folk art, culinary arts, and entertaining. We should do more to understand the connection to our Motherland, but put the lost languages and folkways into context with our decidedly distinct culture in the United States…expressing the reasons our fore parents ate the way they did, spoke given jargon, etc.
Ultimately, I want to be a source of information and inspiration and teach the past and present. I want to help everyone, not only one group to realize their dreams through design in a way that up lifts and helps people tap into who they want to become. Ralph Lauren had done such an incredible job of marketing American style for the past 50 years. I want to be the new iteration of a decidedly American style that reflects the great sacrifices and enduring perseverance of a former oppressed and under-acknowledged group—Black America. I hold the opinion that the architecture of the original colonies in particular were not only the handiwork, but also the architecture of unofficial, unlicensed architects like Jacques Hemings.
Additionally, I want to visually articulate who I am individually as a designer and aesthete and express my classicist style in collaborations with furniture and lighting manufacturers, jewelry and fashion collaborations, and home entertaining solutions…a triple threat…lol.
I want to bring classicist design foundations to modern home design solutions in mixed use communities and revitalize blighted neighborhoods without leaving the people that dwell there during the dark times behind. I want to spread entrepreneurialism and teach others young and old about what I do and how I do it. I want us all to put on our rose-colored glasses and live well and happily.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
With the support and business acumen of my mother, Carolyn. Honestly, a little by accident too (so help from God, no doubt).
As a left and right brained person, sometime I’m in a fist fight with myself, sort of like a favorite childhood poem called the “Poem of Contradictions”. It went, “Ladles and jelly spoons, I come before you to stand behind you, to tell you something I know nothing about.” When I decided to strike out on my own and start my practice, boy was it vastly different from the Sugarbakers pipe dream design practice that seemed so effortless and fun as Julia went around Atlanta appointing premiere interiors with an awesome team of collaborators wearing power bitch suits with designer heels and bag in tow, occasionally pausing to eloquently tell off someone before having lunch in Buckhead. Not (laughing)! I’m still mastering branding my unique bag of tricks and talents, but happy to report that I’m making strides in being heard and understood…thankfully.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Hard to even remember in the context of a global pandemic, but when getting away from the city, Serenbe, plus a few restaurants in Newnan, Peachtree City and Senoia including Knife and Stone, Garlic, Palmers, and Hilary’s Bistro.
I love day spas and for many years loved Natural Body, particularly Ulrich Bielka (Uli) who also has a little practice in Marietta on Powers Ferry.
I love great architecture and love exploring the great accomplishments of Herman J. Russell and John Portman. I also love the architecture of Atlanta designed by Neel Reid, Philip Trammell Shutze, plus architects that built in Newnan, Macon, Columbus, and Savannah including R. Kennon Perry and the aforementioned architects.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Vincent Johnson of Atlanta Drafting House
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lorenaudreytaylor?r=nametag
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loren-audrey-taylor-376b3921
Other: Find me on Clubhouse moderating in the Design Masters Group on Wednesdays at 9:25am EST.
Image Credits
Christina Wedge, Morgan Nowland, Emily Followill
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