TALENT: Profile of Interior Designer Amanda Moore

I think you will LOVE the Talent profile of lovely Women’s Mafia member Amanda Moore, an interior designer with a specialty in family homes, nurseries and sustainable design. She is in pretty high demand, recently completing Charlie Sheen’s nursery in LA, Anna Ortiz’s (Ugly Betty!) green New York nursery and Leonardo DiCaprio’s sustainable, green pad in downtown Manhattan.

Fortunately for us “normal” folks, she recently started offering consultations through her firm re:place (www.replacenyc.com) that are very affordable (yes, really!) and she can come to your home for an hour or two and make some changes on the spot and create a decorating plan for you to follow in the near future. The best part – for projects begun in April or May she is offering a 10% discount to Women’s Mafia members!

WM: How did you get into Interior Design?
AM: I was toiling away in the creative department of a worldwide advertising agency where we received every magazine under the sun. I found myself hoarding the interior design magazines and becoming obsessed with the principles of great design and how it can transform one’s life. I started helping friends redecorate their places and one sunny day, in Union Square Park, one of my closest friends and I decided we needed to take our passion, one that she shared too, and pursue it professionally. We turned an obsession into a career and business, supporting our drive with a few classes in design specifics but mostly moving forward with only a dream and heaps of faith.

WM: Why do you love your job?
AM: My favorite part of the process is getting to know our clients, their lifestyles, hopes and dreams, and somehow finding a way to support that in their home design. I love creating a home that represents the specific personal style of our clients, so that their friends and family will not only walk in and notice the great design but also how much it speaks of who their loved ones really are. I also love creating spaces for babies and children that are safe, eco-friendly and fun, that positively nurture the early, formative years of our client’s kids.

WM: What can the Women’s Mafia do for you?
AM: I’d deeply appreciate fellow members spreading the word about our services in these hard times, from direct client referrals (for which we are happy to pay a nice referral fee to show our gratitude) to press and exposure opportunities. I am working on compiling nursery spaces for a book that I’d like to one day publish and am eagerly pushing this part of our business. I’ve set an intention of designing 7 new nurseries this year!! Referrals to expecting parents are especially appreciated!

WM: What is you favorite piece of furniture? What is the most gorgeous room you have ever been in?
AM: Assuming you are talking about furniture I own….I guess I would have to say that my favorite piece is a dining chair that an old friend and graffiti artist painted and drew on. It is a functional piece of art and represents the most eco-friendly approach out there: re-use (he dragged the chair out of the trash). It also represents urban life in my otherwise very neutral and earthy abode, which parallels my own mixed spirit.
It’s hard to pinpoint the most gorgeous room I’ve ever been in, but there is a lobby of a building on Bond Street that is one of my favorite spaces ever. I pass it almost every day and its simple natural beauty is stunning. The desk is clad with one raw piece of wood, there is a sepia toned photo of two horses nuzzling above the desk, and it’s furnished very simply. I want to live there someday based on the lobby alone….that’s successful design.

WM: How can we make our apartments more sustainable and still keep our signature style?
AM: By now everyone knows that green living exists in the details, that don’t effect style whatsoever: changing lightbulbs to compact flouresent bulbs, painting with low or no VOC paints, installing low-flo shower heads and/or toilets, turning off lights, reducing heating and cooling costs and energy consumption with proper insulation, and so on. To go a step deeper, purchase your biggest pieces with the environment in mind and then add layers of personal style with accessories that aren’t necessarily eco-friendly (but can be!). Even big box retailers like Crate & Barrel have green sofa options and an eco-friendly mattress can finally be had at an affordable cost through Keetsa. You can make a big impact by choosing your largest, most used pieces by how green they and also by how long they will last.

WM: You have designed several celebrity homes… Any strange or challenging requests?
AM: No request is strange or difficult to us! Design is all about determining a problem or challenge and then creating a solution around it. We do find that celebrities are used to things happening very quickly and effortlessly so their demands on timeline can often be unrealistic. But again, that’s a welcome challenge and can lead to very creative solutions across the board.

To get in touch with Amanda: call 212.253.4994 or visit www.replacenyc.com. Tell her the Mafia sent you! ;-)