Photography by Jerry Rabinowitz
Interior designer Angela Reynolds believes creativity is a sum of our life experiences. By traveling, immersing ourselves in different cultures, and meeting new people, we broaden our reach and create novel ideas for contemporary living. Born in Detroit, she moved with her family to Dallas before eventually dividing her teenage years between Palm Beach (casually chic) and Richmond, Virginia (sophisticated and formal). During that time, she was exposed to many different styles and shapes that helped her develop a keen sense of color and design. “I was like an orchid,” says the single mom, who now lives in a 3,400-square-foot farmhouse on two acres in Jupiter Farms. “I saw a lot of beauty, luxury, and design—both formal and casual. I liked both styles but am more of an informal person. I think not perfect is fabulous.”
After graduating from the elite Inchbald School of Design in London, where Reynolds notes “legends like David Hicks, Nina Campbell, and Zaha Hadid studied,” she was eager to delve into her passion. She quickly opened a design studio and decorative antiques shop on London’s New King’s Road while also taking on a variety of design projects, including a restaurant and a few select private flats. Eventually, says Reynolds, “I found the antiques business to be boring. So I went to work for prominent property developers in London, where I created unique spaces like entrance lobbies, common areas, flats, and lofts. I designed my own furniture and drapery. It was a fast-paced, crazy, and interesting business—I learned a lot about residential and commercial design.”
In 2007, after returning to the United States, she married and had two children—Chloe, now 18, and Oliver, 15. When her marriage ended a few years later, her professional career took a new trajectory. “My world turned upside down,” she says of that heady period. “I had to go to work fast to support my kids.” Thus, Angela Reynolds Designs was born. “I set up a company in 36 hours,” she says. Just as quickly, the business took off. Through a realtor, Reynolds met the developer of a spec house who was interested in her design moxie—and who also happened to have a very high-profile client named Celine Dion. Recalls Reynolds: “I was broke but bought a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes for lunch at the Ritz-Carlton to discuss a potential opportunity. Dion and her team wanted a designer to fold into their world, and I was put on the payroll in three weeks.”
For five years, Reynolds worked mostly for the singer, designing her 40,000-square-foot Jupiter Island home (“down to everything, including the toothbrushes”), her 10,000-square-foot Las Vegas home and dressing room at Caesar’s Palace, and her sister’s condominium. By the time that chapter ended, Reynolds was well-known as a designer and quickly got busy on estates and houses both locally and around the globe. She traveled from Shanghai to London, San Francisco to Jackson Hole, creating beautiful spaces for clients that included celebrities, PGA golfers, and seasonal and year-round residents in Palm Beach, Jupiter, and across South Florida. On her roster: musician Kid Rock’s Jupiter Inlet home, as well as the Seminole Landing home of Tiger Woods’ ex-wife Elin Nordegren. “I did lots of work for Elin, including decorating her home for Christmas and Halloween,” says Reynolds. In September, the 26,000-square-foot, 11-bedroom West Indies–style estate sold for $28.6 million.
Reynolds’ own home in Jupiter Farms is a rustically elegant farmhouse filled with warmth that blends details reflecting her life and experiences. “My inspiration is a modern farmhouse with northern touches,” she says. “It’s all about texture, woven rugs, comfort, and calming.” Her aesthetic mixes things she likes about Florida (there is a lone palm tree outside) with her memories of Virginia (back porch swings). Out in the barn, she showcases samples, art, and stalls filled with rows of fabric and tile. The garage houses an office.
This year, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic—along with the thought of soon becoming an empty nester as her first child readies for college—Reynolds decided to turn her talents toward her own home and make some changes. “The pandemic has been all about staying home,” she says. “Love, caring, and comfort are who I am.” She set out to update the interior living spaces of her home to create even more comfort, kindness, and welcoming vibes for eventual guests.
On the first floor, she transformed the kids’ old playroom into a yoga and exercise space to promote healthy living at home. She cleaned out the area, installed beautiful white oak floors, added Fortuny chandeliers, and painted the walls an earthy green—a departure from her go-to white backdrops that typically serve as backgrounds to colorful accessories. “I’m more into dominant color now,” she notes. She added personal touches via artwork. “I found paintings my late brother had brought back from India, with faces of a man and a woman,” she says. “I know nothing about them except that they are lovely and I think appropriate for a yoga room, where I like to concentrate on personal development and meditation.”
Since she rarely uses the main living room, Reynolds opted to turn it into a classroom for Chloe. She was supposed to start college at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York this fall but decided to delay the move until January because of the pandemic and spend the fall semester living at home and taking online courses at Palm Beach State College. Now the teen can study at a gorgeous Sonder Living driftwood and white lacquer desk with a vintage mirror from Antique Row Art & Design District in West Palm Beach.
Since Chloe would be staying in Florida for now, Reynolds also gave her second-floor bedroom an update. She painted the walls Aegean blue and furnished the room in an overall 1970s bohemian decor. “It’s now romantic and girly with gold and pink shell and a bed by Urban Outfitters,” says the designer. “The colors are jewel-toned, and I found a vintage cat-like lamp at a Minnesota antique store that my daughter loves.”
Reynolds’ own cream and beige master bedroom soothes with high ceilings and lots of texture. The custom bed has an upholstered wingback headboard and is appointed with luxurious Frette linens, the designer’s favorite. Her pair of nightstands are made of grasscloth, the oak dresser has metal detailing, and the abstract painting is from David Iatesta. “I like to mix and match high-brow and low-brow design,” she says. Recently, she upped her bathroom game to match the beauty of her sleeping quarters; she chose light tones, a Neolith porcelain sink, and a unique tub/shower combo that looks like a sleek block of porcelain with a double showerhead above.
One truly spectacular section of the home has always been the large living, dining, and two-zone kitchen area. A marble and brass breakfast table from West Elm in front of the kitchen bay window has become the hub of family gatherings. “We love this for breakfast,” says Reynolds. “And we’re often joined by our cats, Banshee and Simba, and our dog, Saffy.” Kitchens have always been one of Reynolds’ design specialties, even though she admits she’s “not much of a cook.” Her own farmhouse kitchen is open, white, and glistening—and naturally joins the dining and living areas, where she has just added a new light-toned sofa from KMP Furniture in Miami. She enjoys it when guests gather around the extended kitchen space, which resembles an elegant country inn. “I love this informal living area for my low-key dinner parties, where everyone pitches in with food preparation,” she says.
As she eases back into having intimate dinner parties, Reynolds recently commissioned a stunning new custom marble dining table from Stone Gallery in North Palm Beach that measures 8 feet-by-42 inches and seats up to 10 people. New Lillian August dining chairs are low and boxy with square arms and herringbone blue and beige fabric from Schumacher. “I just love it,” says Reynolds of the dining vignette. “There is no chandelier over the dining table, just my high-hat lighting. The scene is fun and informal.”
Other recent home projects include installing freezers in the basement to keep supplies for up to 60 days—a much-needed addition, she says, both for quarantine times and hurricane season. She also built a patio for her cats and is in the process of installing solar panels for the barn and farmhouse. “Although it is a big commitment, I believe these panels are the wave of the future,” she says. “And they look good too.”
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