Thad Hayes’ biography located on his website starts off with four words: optimistic, essential, rigorous and refined. Lofty adjectives for just an interior designer, but after reviewing this designer’s work in his portfolio, one can see why these four words are his defining characteristics.
The first thing we notice is that all of Hayes’ interiors have a lot in common. He’s clearly one of those designers that while talented, has a distinct style that is hard to hold back from any project. This is not to say that his work trumps clients’ needs or wants, just that he has a specific look that he gravitates toward, usually because it’s drop dead gorgeous.
Some of the similarities we spotted: wide swaths of color as bold walls or art, a great grasp of time periods from old to modern and the ability to mix simplicity and details beautifully. We’ve got other words we’d assign to his interiors: classic, bold, sophisticated, elegant and exciting.
Hayes’ online bio will also tell you that relationships, both to clients and of his interiors to the architecture, are of the utmost importance to his work. He’s got a gift for proportions, that’s for sure. He knows how to wield masculine, over-sized accessories with just-right-sized furniture, all fitting perfectly in the architectural settings he’s given to start with.
Another delight we discovered when learning about Thad Hayes: he grew up and went to the same school as the writer of the post—Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He did study interior design at the Parsons School of Design though, and resides in New York where his practice is. He was honored as one of "The AD 100" and was named a "Dean of Design" by Architectural Digest Magazine.
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