Interior Designer Crush: Todd Stricklin
Rooted in his love of art and wonderful finds, interior designer Todd Stricklin has discovered his niche designing lighting, furniture and accessories.
Interior designer Todd Stricklin hails from Yazoo City, Mississippi, but he admits he was really a child of the world. βMy childhood was filled with some amazing trips to wonderful places,β says the Memphis-based furniture and accessories designer, who has designed nature-inspired pieces for John Richard, Neiman Marcus and others. βMy mother was always interested in taking us to museums and to cities with incredible architecture. She would buy me books on art, and I was always coloring, sketching and painting. I was fortunate to have such an amazing mother who was really supportive and encouraged all my creativity.β Laughing, he adds, βShe would take trips, and I would redecorate her house. Sheβd come home and say, βI like it, but put it back the way it was.ββ Today, Todd does the same thing in his own home, redesigning regularly based on his changing collections and whims. βMy space constantly evolves,β he says. βAnd my partner of 27 years will tell you that if he were blind, heβd have bruises all over his knees. Everything moves.β
Tell us how you got your start in design. Is this something youβve always wanted to do?
Iβve always known, and Iβve always been really creative. Iβm not ashamed to admit that Iβm very ADHD. But I think, for people with this kind of thought process who are mostly right-brained, itβs a curse; itβs what we have to deal with.
Where did you study, and what were some of your earliest jobs?
I attended Delta State University and also Westville College in Massachusetts. I have a degree in design. For my first job in the field, I was a product and packaging designer for an ad agency in Atlanta. I would actually design packaging for different products β cosmetics, food β we had a wide range of clients. I once designed a label for oil cans.
How did lighting design and accessory design become your particular niche?
It was really by accident. I think one of the best traits of a really good designer is how they light a home. Thatβs very important to me, and I started thinking, wouldnβt it be wonderful if I could design my own lighting? A lot of my lighting started out as custom pieces, and I would actually fabricate them. I took clientsβ personal pieces and lit them for their home, and it kind of took off from there. Antique statuary, wrought iron pieces. Iβve made lamps out of mannequins, bowling balls. Whatever the room dictated or if it was just a touch of whimsy that was needed. I think anything, if itβs treated well in the design process, could be a lamp. My first job designing lighting was with the John-Richard Collection, a high-end design company. I did some wonderful things for them, and theyβre still for sale.
Where do you find inspiration for your designs?
One of the things that is really unique about what I do is that I tend to look at shapes everywhere. I see the shapes around the space too, the negative space. Thatβs where a lot of my designs come from β how the shapes look that surround the space. One of my lamps is a ginkgo leaf lamp, and I love the shape of the ginkgo leaf and how when you put them together in this lamp it creates such a nice balance in that space. I really pay attention to how close things are, how the shapes relate to each other. And I think itβs really important, every nuance of the spatial relationship, when Iβm designing.
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A lot of my designs are inspired by nature or architecture, and everything in nature inspires me. I collect sticks. Iβll find interesting sticks, and I just have a stack of sticks on my veranda. Each one of them has come from a different place that inspired me, whether itβs New Orleans or Rome. On my little veranda area thereβs a pile of sticks that somebody would just throw away, but I would kill them. Rocks, seashells β¦ those all seem simple, but I take them and use them in a way thatβs very different.
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Who are your industry role models or mentors, and why?
I think Tara Shaw is one of the most incredible designers. She has such a cool, sophisticated neutral palette. And my books are great resources. The book thatβs inspired me the most was called Epoustouflant: The Style of David Snyder. David was a remarkable, ingenious interior designer, and he designed store windows. His style was just amazing, and he was a major influence. But Tara Shaw is a current βsomeone to watch.β And then, believe it or not, Tom Ford, who got his start as a fashion designer for Gucci, has become the guy to watch. He does movies, set design and still does fashion. Heβs just got his finger on the pulse of everything.
I cruise the internet like crazy for design resources. And one of my best design resources that influences me is 1stdibs. They deal in every type of antique, from postmodern to 17th and 18th century French and English. I also think to be a good designer, you have to look at every magazine on the market. I think you have to pay attention to trends and not be trendy.
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Tell us about the hallmarks of your work. Whatβs your go-to aesthetic, if given free reign? How do you translate that to a clientβs space?
I always treat any room I see as a blank canvas, even if itβs full. But the first thing I do is ask a client, what one thing in this room is your favorite? Just one thing. Theyβll show me, and say, βI love this rugβ or βI love that mirrorβ or βI love this piece of pottery.β I say, βWhat about it do you love? The shape, color, texture or where you got it?β Most of the time itβs because of where it came from. And I say, well, how would you feel if this room looked like an Italian room? Whatever inspires them is the direction I will take. And itβs successful for the most part. Most people have a favorite object in the room, and you can build a whole design scheme around that.
Youβve already told us your house is constantly evolving. Tell us more about how you approach designing your own space.
Nothing stays in the same place. I change things up, move things around. If Iβm feeling down or blue, I go to work in my own home. My favorite thing to do is play with art. I have a huge art collection, and Iβll take a wall and just litter it with art β and mirrors. I love mirrors.
I think an important part of any collection is that itβs eclectic. If something is too matchy-matchy, as we say in the South, itβs boring. I donβt want there to be a safe place in a room for my eyes to stay. I want there to be excitement. I want to look around and have every little vignette speak to me. I always treat it like my mother used to dress β look in the mirror before you leave, and take one thing off. Itβs the same thing to dress a room.
Whatβs your favorite project or piece youβve ever completed?
My most favorite interior design job was designing a bar to make it look like Sardiβs restaurant in New York City for my client. She had collected a bunch of Hirschfeld original drawings, and we turned her sunroom into a little speakeasy like you would find in New York, and it turned out great. The walls were black, and we had dozens of those Hirschfeld drawings scattered on the walls about an inch apart so you never knew the walls were black. And there were glass shelves that I lit from the floor and ceiling and put all of her barware on there. It kind of glowed out into her yard.
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Name some of your favorite local design resources.
I do love to go into antiques shops, of course. I love Palladio and Market Central. Iβm wild about some of the things theyβre doing at La Maison because theyβre not just dealing in antiques; theyβre doing my thing that I love β they incorporate the new with the old. Thatβs so important. Then I go to hardware stores. I get influenced from parts. I love vintage shops. I think thereβs nothing better than vintage jewelry to inspire me to do chandeliers and lamps. I have boxes of collections of vintage pieces. Iβm a hoarder of wonderful things.
Whatβs something outside your design life that others should know about you?
My passion is design, but my love is our dogs. I support every dog organization in this city as much as I can. All of my dogs are rescues. Theyβre the most important things in my life, and I encourage people, as everyone says, to have your pet spayed or neutered. In general, I canβt do enough for animals, but dogs are my passion.
Thank you to ToddΒ for taking the time to share his story, insightsΒ and amazing gift for design. To view more of Toddβs work or to contact him, visit toddstricklin.com.
And thanks to Micki Martin of Micki Martin Photography for the fabulous photo of Todd!
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