Design Partner Feature: Shea Bryars

Alabama-based designer Shea Bryars has been pursuing her love of interior design for over 20 years. She got her passion from watching her mom constantly decorate and redecorate their house and seeing the joy it brought her when a design came together.

Shea graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Interior Design, and immediately started a job as an NKBA designer. After a few years of specializing in kitchen design, she became Southern Accents and Southern Living Magazine’s Idea House Manager. In 2014, she created her own firm, Shea Bryars Design, and has been developing and designing ever since.

Shea fell in love with the start-to-finish process of design. Something that sets her apart from other designers is the ability to draw, articulate, and communicate designs from their earliest stages. She has a unique appreciation for a blank canvas and desires to find a way to ensure that her client’s style is displayed in the best way possible.

If she has the expressive freedom to design exactly how she wants to, her style would be described as transitional classic with a mix of contemporary and traditional. However, she allows room for the client’s style to shine through in any job that she does. The ultimate goal that Shea has for her clients is for them to feel like they are at their home whenever they walk through the doors.

If Shea could give other designers advice, it would be this:

"Be confident in what you’re doing. Be unabashedly opinionated and be decisive. The most positive feedback I get is that I am decisive and not afraid to have an opinion, and people appreciate that. Believe in yourself and know that you are doing what you’re good at.”

Below we highlight rooms from three of Shea’s recent projects - two kitchens and a bathroom.

Traditional Farmhouse Kitchen

First is the traditional farmhouse kitchen. The kitchen itself has a lot of sentimental value to it, from the wood along the ceiling and vent fan, to statement pieces throughout the room. The client wanted lighting that looks like it is from an antique store, to fit in with the feel of the rest of the room. She took the glass out of the Elsinore Hanging Lantern in the Weathered Zinc finish to get a vintage look, and it does exactly that.

Modern Kitchen

Next is one of her most favorite designs. This modern kitchen allowed Shea’s classic style to shine through in a light and tasteful way. She decided to use the Caged Lantern pendant lights in the Hand-Rubbed Antique Brass finish to warm up the sleek, white notes throughout the room. Gold and white have always been a timeless combination in design, and it gives this transitional-style a little bit of edge.

Contemporary Bathroom

This contemporary bathroom is full of the unexpected. Shea had fun with the creativity that came with designing this room. The Utopia Large Double Bath Sconce is a favorite for her to work with because it is so versatile and can be used in many different ways. Shea used these lights vertically in this bathroom to parallel the mirrors; however, she is excited to use them horizontally in another project soon. Check out how the gild finish perfectly compliments the polished nickel accents throughout the room.

If you are interested in learning more about the products that Shea used in her projects, click the photos below. For more information,visit www.iconltg.com.