Sikes Appeal

After A California Couple’S Home Is Damaged By Fire, They Turn To Mark D. Sikes—The Insta-Famous Decorating Phenomenon—To Help Rebuild And Revive Their Spirits With Picture-Perfect Rooms That Have No Bad Angles.

- Julia Reed

DESIGNER MARK D. SIKES, THE SON OF A MINISTER, GREW up first in central Illinois and then in Nashville, where, needless to say, he attended church every Sunday. Afterward, at lunch with his family, he could recount what every member of the congregation was wearing and where they were sitting, early evidence of the highly tuned visual sense that has turned the now California-based designer into a decorating—not to mention social-media—star.

Sikes, whose signature blue-and-white interiors are unabashedly pretty (his 2016 design tome for Rizzoli was titled Beautiful: All-American Decorating and Timeless Style), describes his Midwestern childhood as “a grounding experience.” He was surrounded by aunts and was especially close to his grandparents. “It really gave me a sense of what a home is—not what it looks like, but what it feels like.”

The family’s move south further enhanced his education: “People in the South really care about their houses,” Sikes says. “I learned a lot about entertaining, gardens, what makes a house beautiful.”

He originally planned to be a dentist and then switched his college major to business. He started out in retail and climbed the corporate ladder at Banana Republic, which brought him west to the company’s San Francisco headquarters. He says the skills he learned there—“how to execute creativity,” how to manage big teams—have been instrumental in his success as a designer.