LeeAnn Baker couldn’t wait for new home magazines to arrive. When they did, she immediately flipped to the back. She wanted to look at floor plans.

That passion for interior design really blossomed more than 30 years ago while attending The New York School of Interior Design, where she worked alongside interior designers and architects in Manhattan.

“I love playing with space planning,” says Baker, a Seattle native who now owns her own design firm, LeeAnn Baker Interiors. “I love to imagine spaces.”

The business focuses on bringing what Baker terms “Northwest elegance” to homes throughout the Pacific Northwest, while capturing the diverse personality of each client.

Does Seattle in general have an interior design aesthetic?

We call the style that we do here “Pacific Northwest elegance.” I think Seattle is a little more relaxed. You don’t see a lot of like acrylics or flashy finishes in Seattle, it’s more earth tones, focusing on framing our windows.

How do Seattle’s interior design trends compare to other large metropolitan areas like New York City?

New York’s a little different. People tend to be a bit more opulent in terms of their interiors, because they don’t have a lot of space. Apartments in New York tend to be designed more like yachts. Seattle has larger spaces, larger homes. I think in New York, there’s a lot more formal entertaining, whereas Seattle, it’s more casual elegance. People still entertain all the time, but they’re really into their durable fabrics.

Do you have a predefined design style, or do you design more based on client aspirations?

Our business runs the gamut from traditional to really contemporary, but we definitely have our twists. We really try to pare down. A lot of our interiors aren’t overly busy. I would say they’re more relaxed. We love working with cerused finishes (the natural grain of character in wood) and love to feel great workmanship. We try to find out what is important to our clients, because at the end of the day, I want them to be happy in the home they have to live in.

Is design like fashion, where there are annual or seasonal changes in favor of a particular style?

The way our interiors tend to be, we focus on things that are a little more timeless. We try to avoid trends. Nothing dates a project like trends. One thing I am seeing right now is that the trend of monarch farmhouses is fading, and things are going now to an updated colonial look, which just has a more timeless feel to it. It’s kind of a blending of some of the more modern forms, like an antique dining table with more contemporary dining chairs around it.

How do interior design trends spread?

I think a lot of it has to do with the work that’s being published, with the way people are living in their homes. Everyone before Covid really wanted these huge open rooms, and then when we were all locked in our houses with our families for months, people realized that they really needed a separate office. I think the way we live in our homes changes things, but I also think that we’re all kind of susceptible to magazines and social media, people that are promoting their work. Certain looks become more popular, and everyone claims to be the next great thing.

What interior designers inspire you?

I have always loved the work of Barbara Barry, a California-based designer, and Beth Webb, an Atlanta-based designer. Barry’s a little more contemporary, but both of them, in different ways, do a really great job of incorporating a mixture of antiques, while also having a very soft, muted palette.