Back when Emily Forman finished her interior design degree and moved to Los Angeles to hone her skills, little did she know she’d end up back in Mississippi one day, running a successful interior design business with locations in New Albany and Southhaven. “I knew that eventually I’d be a homebody, so while I was young, I went to L.A. to have fun and learn a lot about the business,” she says.
She eventually made her way back home to open Moda Designs in 2009 (“Moda” means style in Italian). Similarly, Emily came full circle by purchasing a house in her New Albany childhood community and designing the interiors herself. Today, she’s inviting us for a look inside!
Emily — along with her husband Clay and children Carrie and Wes — now live in this cottage-style house across the lake from where she grew up. As another twist, her father originally built this house in 2013, and she helped pick the interior design selections. As a payoff for her excellent taste back then, Emily didn’t need to change much with this house when they bought it two years ago, keeping the kitchen and primary bathroom mostly as they were.
Emily did put her own creative spin in each room, however. “I changed every single light fixture in the house,” Emily says. She also re-painted everything in her signature creamy white color palette. “I tell my clients, you can’t go wrong with a clean, neutral background,” she says. “That way, you can add color and pattern in other ways and change them out when you get tired of them.”
Emily refers to her personal design style as transitional — that seamless mix of traditional and modern. The family room, kitchen, and breakfast room, which comprise one big room, show her deft skill in combining different looks. A contemporary sofa anchors the family room, with abstract pillows by Laura Park (a Southern textile designer and one of Moda’s best-selling lines) providing an artistic pop.
On the other hand, the breakfast room features an Old World-style table and chair from Clay’s family. “I joked with him when we first met that I would marry him for those tables and chairs,” she says.
Other rooms are a mix of family treasures and favorite items from Emily’s design showroom. A vintage rattan swing owned by her parents now serves as a whimsical seat in the children’s playroom. The dining room combines a favorite old table with a green console — her favorite color — and a mĂ©lange of seating, including a ruffled bench and cane chairs.
Porch decor also continues Emily’s curated style of furnishings (“I’m not a matchy person,” confirms Emily. “I don’t like to buy things in sets.”) Rattan chairs pull up to a wooden table, with a painted daybed nearby for additional seating since the Formans love to spend time outside as a family.
Every room in this designer’s house has a story behind it and a reason for being. A dining room light fixture, with its oversized scale and white finish, is both stylish yet also “disappears.” Emily’s explanation of it is somewhat of a metaphor for the whole house. The designer tells us, “I wanted something dramatic, but it’s also understated.”
Thanks for showing us around, Emily! All photography by Peyton Neal Photography.
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