Interior Design Stars Around the World You Need to Know

Laurent Champeau and Kelli Wilde of Champeau & Wilde
Paris

“We like to call our signature style ‘understated chic,’” said Laurent Champeau.

“But what defines our style most,” added Kelli Wilde, “is probably ‘modern classic.’”

The duo, who opened their Paris studio Champeau & Wilde in 2011, met when they worked for the Parisian-based design firm Tino Zervudachi and were doing projects all over the world.

Ms. Wilde, who has a background in art history, started her career in interior design after working in Parisian art galleries, and Mr. Champeau abandoned his medical studies and embraced interior design and furniture design after spending an afternoon gazing at the embellishments of the Palace of Versailles.

Their understated chic/modern classic style was established in their first commission, a Paris apartment where they paired a contemporary art collection with a traditional environment.

“Most of the apartment had been redone because it was in very bad shape,” Mr. Champeau said. “We decided to mix the elements by keeping one very classical room—the living room—and work all the spaces around it in a much more contemporary architectural style.”

They used furniture and fabrics to connect the contemporary and classical areas, creating what Ms. Wilde called a “sophisticated yet livable space where our clients can have amazing parties but also have much more formal dinners.”

Mr. Champeau, who is 42, and Ms. Wilde, who is 54, have a variety of projects in the works, including an apartment in Paris whose ballroom has a 26-foot-high ceiling and a 1930s house in Nevada that needs a complete renovation inside and out.

This year, they are opening a furniture and art gallery in Paris that will feature antiques and furniture they design in collaboration with artists.

Sahra Samnani of How To Be
Vancouver/Victoria, Canada

Clean, long lines, simple details and quiet moments that play with light. These are the hallmarks of Sahra Samnani’s signature style, which she has christened “comfortable minimalism.”

“It’s a form of minimalism that’s not too severe or uninviting,” she said. “To me, minimalism is a soft expression of life, it’s a gentle look at what is important and what is not. I am fascinated by the idea of removing all the excess. I think a simple line and clean, white walls are so beautiful and quiet. In a world where we have so much, what a wonderful thing it is to pull away from that and focus upon simplicity, quietness and softness.”

Ms. Samnani, who opened her Canadian studio in 2015, draws much of her inspiration from the “silence and reverence” of British architectural designer John Pawson and his use of “long, meaningful lines and the beautiful poetic use of lighting.”

In her residential and commercial projects, Ms. Samnani, who is 30, endeavors to “bring a sense of old-world romance—nooks for candles, filtered light through textured glass and imperfect plaster walls.”

For an ice cream shop in Vancouver, for instance, she used what she called “simple gestures”—wooden slats, LED light strips and clean quartz—to achieve an elegant design.

Ms. Samnani, who primarily works in Vancouver, was a winner of the 2018 Fantini Design Awards and in 2019 was nominated for West Living Magazine’s Robert Ledingham Memorial Award for Emerging Interior Designers.

Chet Callahan of Chet Callahan Architecture
Los Angeles

Blending historical precedents with progressive ideals, architect Chet Callahan imbues spaces with what he calls “romantic functionalism.”

“We create form through careful consideration of the natural, the built environment and the future uses of the site,” he said. “We aim to create environmentally sensitive buildings and enhance our clients’ and our community’s experience.”

A case in point is Mr. Callahan’s renovation of a 1934 Spanish-style home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles to fit the needs of its new owners—a young family of four.

He preserved the historical architectural details of the house, including the plaster cove moldings, the wooden floors and the wrought-iron embellishments. And he made it one with the landscape by adding large picture windows to, as he said, “bring green leafy views” inside.

He treated the interior spaces as a blank slate, painting the walls art-gallery white to accommodate the family’s colorful contemporary art collection and added sleek yet comfortable furnishings.

The living room, for instance, features a faux-beamed ceiling with plaster corbels that is illuminated by a glittering crystal chandelier reminiscent of a full moon. The furnishings, which include a plum-colored tufted sofa in velvet, speak of the past, while the spare white bookshelves, where volumes are arranged by the color of their covers, bring the room into the present tense.

“The new interventions,” he said, “have been rendered with minimal ornamentation as a juxtaposition to the existing features of the home, the client’s vibrant art and the surrounding garden.”

Before opening his eponymous firm in 2017, Mr. Callahan, who is 39, worked for Marmol Radziner + Associates, XTEN Architecture and AGPS.

His firm has worked on a variety of projects, including a multi-generational compound in Culver City; an artists’ complex in North Hollywood; and the re-envisioning of Los Feliz’s oldest estate.

A two-time winner of Interior Design magazine’s Best of Year (2007 and 2014), Mr. Callahan, became interested in design at a young age.

“I used to watch my dad build furniture—and just about everything else,” he said. “And I went antiques shopping with my mom.”