After A California Couple’S Home Is Damaged By Fire, They Turn To Mark D. Sikes—The Insta-Famous Decorating Phenomenon—To Help Rebuild And Revive Their Spirits With Picture-Perfect Rooms That Have No Bad Angles.
Sikes, whose signature blue-and-white interiors are unabashedly pretty (his 2016 design tome for Rizzoli was titled Beautiful: All-American Decorating and Timeless Style), describes his Midwestern childhood as “a grounding experience.” He was surrounded by aunts and was especially close to his grandparents. “It really gave me a sense of what a home is—not what it looks like, but what it feels like.”
The family’s move south further enhanced his education: “People in the South really care about their houses,” Sikes says. “I learned a lot about entertaining, gardens, what makes a house beautiful.”
He originally planned to be a dentist and then switched his college major to business. He started out in retail and climbed the corporate ladder at Banana Republic, which brought him west to the company’s San Francisco headquarters. He says the skills he learned there—“how to execute creativity,” how to manage big teams—have been instrumental in his success as a designer.
This story is from the March 2019 edition of Elle Decor.
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This story is from the March 2019 edition of Elle Decor.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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