Donna Lewis: An Interior Designer With a Therapeutic Touch

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter

Donna Lewis has been stylizing for homeowners in Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Westlake Village and Malibu—manifesting personalized sanctuaries that reflect each client’s individual style, taste and personality.

The Palisadian has been an interior designer for over 20 years, kicking off her career with her own home.

Going about her design process in a unique method, Lewis said she gets to know her clients in what she calls her “Oprah” meeting, in order to ensure that each person’s environment parallels not only their wants and needs, but also serves as a therapeutic place to plant their feet at the end of a busy day.

“What inspires me is learning about people, what their likes and dislikes are, and being able to manifest the best for them in their home,” Lewis shared with the Palisadian-Post. “Like an Oprah interview, she gets really personal, and that’s what I like to do. She asks pointed emotional questions that bring the person out and, similarly, I’m passionate about getting to know who someone is and making their home feel like them while looking fabulous.”

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and raised in Hull, Lewis recalled growing up in a home on “one of the most beautiful beaches” in Nantucket.

She attended Simmons College and graduated with an accounting, finance and management degree. During her senior year of college, she was recruited by Coopers and Lybrand and became a certified public accountant.

After visiting her sister one summer, she said she fell in love with the West Coast and decided to move. She began working in Beverly Hills and Malibu as a corporate accountant for Hilton Hotels Corporation—she was promoted within a year and a half to assistant corp controller to Conrad Hotels.

She later met her husband, had “amazing and talented” kids, and began rethinking the path she was on.

Her first, and most personal, design project came from working with an architect designing her Malibu home. She said she successfully designed the interior on her own.

“Once you decide to raise a family, it’s a challenge to be good at both a corporate office career and family, so I made the decision to retire from the accounting world and segue into something more creative but at home,” Lewis said. “I have never had a formal education on interior design; however, after building your home and remodeling it, a few years later I read and researched everything I could related to interior design. Meetings with architectural structural engineers, learning mechanics, depth perception and measurement calcs, and codes. It was a magical combination of mathematics and design.

“The passion I had for both turned into success, as I increased the value of the Malibu home by more than 50%.”

Upon designing her Malibu home, she filed for her business license under Donna Lewis Design in 2008, bringing in an array of interested clients, including friends who she enjoyed working with to transform their homes. For her, it “seemed effortless, as communication was key.”

Having an affinity for a romantic, feminine aesthetic, Lewis said she also loves strong, clean lines in a masculine home. She said they elevate the sharpness and tone of a space.

Lewis infuses her process of designing homes with a nurturing and therapeutic methodology that focuses on curating an environment that is healing and inspiring for her clients. Believing that one’s home should be a personalized safe haven, Lewis’ work as an interior designer is interlaced with her compassion for her clients’ self-betterment, happiness and a desire to make a difference in their lives with a happy home.

“With clients, it involves many discussions where it ends up growing into a great friendship,” Lewis shared. “That’s my favorite perk of the business. Getting to know people is such an interesting thing. I find it fascinating to inquire about other people’s lives, learn their history, ancestry … there’s always so much to learn and it’s vital. I enjoy making folks happy and looking forward to building a business in such a talented community.

“I’ve been in the Palisades for almost a year now and it was the best decision I’ve ever made to move here. My hope would be to contribute to the already existing beauty that’s here, tailored to an individual’s taste and comfort level.”

Lewis can be reached at donnamlewis@charter.net.