Sometimes you can go home again.
Or at least you go back to where you started.
For Lindsey Coral Harper, that starting place is the Decoration & Design Building on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 58th Street in Midtown Manhattan.
The D&D Building, as its affectionately known, is an 18-story playground for interior designers and decorators of all tastes and styles. Its 100-plus showrooms display product lines ranging from fabrics to furniture—much of it custom made. A furnishings and interiors major at UGA, Harper BSFCS ’99 spent the last 10 weeks of her senior year in that building, interning at Carleton V Fabrics.
Six weeks into that internship, Harper’s life changed forever.
“I was in the stockroom folding samples, and they offered me a sales position,” she recalls.
Four weeks later, Harper flew back to Athens to graduate only to turn right around to start her first job. She worked at Carleton V for a year and then parlayed that into an eight-year run on the design staff of renowned interior designer Richard Keith Langham. In 2007, with Langham’s blessing, Harper went out on her own and launched her namesake firm.
One of her early clients was Carleton Varney, the co-founder of Carleton V, who hired his former intern to decorate his Washington, D.C., home.
“I love color. I love texture. I love patterns,” she says, describing her design aesthetic. “I like a layered look. I don’t create rooms where you are afraid to sit down. But they are hopefully somewhat timeless.”
Interior design is a highly competitive industry, and in the early years, especially in what was a down economy, Harper struggled to keep her business afloat. Even when things stabilized, she still wasn’t sure how to measure success. She finally realized it in 2011 when one of her rooms made the cover of House Beautiful magazine.
“Just having clients was enough for me, but having a photo shoot and a cover? The stars really aligned,” she says.
Since that debut, Harper’s work has appeared in 35 magazines, including Southern Living and Elle, frequently on the cover.
Four years ago, after two decades in New York City, Harper moved three hours up the Eastern Seaboard to Stonington, Connecticut, which is now her base of operations. At any one time, she has a half dozen design projects across the country in various stages of completion.
Harper still makes occasional jaunts into the city, though, to check on jobs and see friends. On those trips, she’ll often visit the D&D Building to browse.
She’s also expanding her brand. In 2023, Harper opened Coral, a home decor and lifestyle design store in Stonington.
Having a store helps. I can repurpose items to give them another life. It’s an itch most designers have.” — Lindsey Coral Harper, owner of her namesake interior design business and of Coral, a home decor and lifestyle design store she opened in Connecticut in 2023
Harper selects all the stock for Coral—some original antiques, some vintage pieces she’ll reupholster or renew. And she’ll travel as far as Paris, London, or Rome for products. Harper is also in talks to create a furniture line and perhaps put together a book.
“I love to shop, and I love to travel,” Harper says. “I’ll fill up my suitcase or ship things back. I once had five storage units in five different states.
“Having a store helps. I can repurpose items to give them another life. It’s an itch most designers have.”
As far as traveling home, the Cartersville native still does—just not as much as she wishes she could. Harper still has family in Georgia, and her most recent trip back to Athens, in fall 2023, carried a lot of meaning. She and her family celebrated what would have been her grandfather’s 100th birthday.
All four of Harper’s grandparents graduated from UGA, and some of her fondest memories from childhood involved tailgating with them at the Georgia Center.
“The University of Georgia was my passion, my love,” Harper says. “There really is no place like Athens in the fall.”
Gracie specializes in custom, hand-painted wallpapers. Lindsey Coral Harper visits their studio in the D&D Building for ideas and inspiration. (Photo by Peter Frey/UGA)
