“It doesn’t feel like 25 years,” exclaims Carey Taylor of her quarter-century in business as C. Taylor Interiors. “It seems like yesterday my mother dressed me in my Sunday finest so I could go with her to preview the furniture market in our hometown of Hickory, North Carolina.” (Because her father and grandfather worked in the furniture industry, her family was allowed to tour the showrooms.) “I can still remember the colors and designs . . . . After all these years, I still approach working on my projects with as much enthusiasm as I had that day.”
Drawing on her intuitive sense of design and an Associate of Arts degree in interior design from The Art Institute of Atlanta, Taylor started her own interior design business in 1999, after a decade of working as a designer at Carolina Furniture in Greenville. She applies her expertise in the artistic elements of color, balance, and scale (and weakness for exquisite fabrics) to shelves full of swatch books from high-end houses such as Stroheim, Cowtan & Tout, and Scalamandré.
Evolution of C. Taylor Interiors
Her projects can range in size and complexity from recovering a set of dining room chairs to decorating a 9,000-square-foot house. “We’re very client-driven,” Taylor says, recalling one client who insisted on having her toilet paper monogrammed in gold.
Over the years, her job has evolved from leafing through myriad furniture catalogs and waiting for company sales reps to bring in fabric books to utilizing the vast universe of the internet to do her design research. Yet while the way in which she does her job has changed significantly, Taylor’s personal philosophy of design, her “classically traditional” style, and approach to her projects has not. “We don’t replicate, we create,” she says proudly. “What we do is true design.”
Through all the thousands of projects and countless demands of running her own business, Taylor has always made a priority of making time for her husband and two (now grown) sons. “I look back at all the people I’ve helped and still been able to spend time with my family. I wouldn’t trade that flexibility for the world.”
“I am truly grateful for these amazing 25 years,” adds Taylor, an Allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers. “I feel blessed that I get to wake up each day and utilize my creative talent, surrounded by beautiful things and remarkable people.”
What’s In for 2024?
According to Carey Taylor, these are some of the big design trends this year:
- Wallpapers with bold colors and patterns
- Large-format florals
- Warmer neutral colors
- Inspiration lighting that forms the focal point of a room
- Phenomenal braids on custom window treatments and pillows
- Floral still-life oil paintings with a playful, artistic twist
- Panel wall murals
