Moreau Design is a boutique Interior Design Studio offering full-service interior design with a distinctive approach to creating custom residential and intimate commercial interiors across Arizona and beyond.

Founded in 2012 by Jessica Moreau, Principal Designer, expanding on her award-winning design career and entrepreneurial, creative ethos to elevate the human spirit through how we experience spaces.

Jessica’s work has been showcased in a variety of publications and she was recently featured in Luxe’s Magazine’s “Most Influential Women in Design”.

Join me as we learn more about Jessica’s passion for approaching life and work with intentionality and sustainability, how she brings “joie de vivre” to each of her unique projects, and her incredibly cool “Bear Mountain Retreat” project that includes the most breathtaking views of the Arizona desert.

Your award-winning luxury interiors firm is based in the iconic Red Rocks of Sedona. How does this location influence your design and aesthetics?

Living in Sedona has given me permission to fully embrace and discover what it means to live well. I like to say: “Live artfully, intentionally and inquisitively” which is how I approach the process for my clients as we layer their decisions for their spaces.

Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey and how you got your start as an Interior Designer?

My parents are European and their exposure to a generational love of art and homes throughout Europe was a huge part of my upbringing. I was working in Marketing and renovating our own homes to flip when I gave in to my love for design completely and decided to go back to school for a design degree. I then worked at a very large and reputable firm in Scottsdale, AZ where I established my career working with clients, not just my own projects. In 2012 I had our first baby girl and required the freedom to call my own shots thus launching my studio, nurturing both my babies (my studio and my first born) the best I knew how.

Let’s talk about the “Bear Mountain Retreat project”. You cultivate interiors that are grounded and effortless, elegant yet understated. Those attributes are evident in this project. What were your inspirations and goals for the overall design? What challenges did this project present? How much were the clients involved?

My clients are AMAZING. Their full trust empowered me to a new level of creation. It’s a little silly but, my initial description of my goals for the project were “If Tulum and Sedona had a love child in the high desert.” My clients had incredible tribal artifacts from all over the world to begin with. I knew if we layered them over a minimalist backdrop it would be really powerful. It was a full gut renovation in the middle of the broken supply chain, mid- pandemic not to mention the property is so remote you have to drive on a 7 mile forest road to access it. We pulled it off with a really dedicated, creative and supportive team and a lot of grit.

You included your first Lauren Williams Art piece while working on this project. How did the Art fit into this project and what drew you to Lauren’s work for the space?

I was just waiting for the right project to have an opportunity to support the amazing work from Lauren. The room this piece is placed in is a meditative space for sound healing so I was very aware of the acoustic quality of anything in the room, including the drapery. So a soft fiber piece was absolutely perfect. The colors launched the entire room palette.

The half bathroom with the navy blue tile and stained glass window is a showstopper! Please tell us the story behind the incorporation of the super cool window in this incredible space.

It’s a powder room so we could get moody. The window was commissioned by the owners in the spirit of ancestral love before I was hired. It drove the entire redesign for the room. Saturating the walls in the deep color pulls all the light out to guide your focus to the only light coming through the soft glow of the window.

You have three fireplaces in this project and the materials you used are so original within each design. How do you keep your fireplace features unique while also maintaining consistency throughout the design of the entire project?

I thought about how each would be used and look in daytime and nighttime to start and of course we had many preexisting conditions we had to work around that drove the form. I had to decide if they were going to be the main event or the backdrop. The beehive in the master was originally a head scratcher for me on how to transform it but when I found the Quill tile I knew it would transform from outdated to Out-of-this-World.

You’ve mentioned you bring “joie de vivre” to each of your projects. How does this carefree, enjoyment of living benefit your client’s experience and the overall DNA of every unique project?

Life is just too short not to be nourished by your work and just like life, this work is full of surprises and problem solving that keep me humble and solution oriented in every interaction. I’m really sensitive and awake to the imperfect beauty of just being alive on this earth so remembering that helps me show up better for my clients, myself and my family. 

Your work has been showcased in a variety of publications but you were recently featured in Luxe Magazine’s “Most Influential Women in Design”. Tell us about what it is like to be where you are now in your career.

In the chaos of 2020, my husband and I made the leap of faith to move from Scottsdale, AZ to my hometown of Sedona, AZ to raise our children with the same rich connection to nature I was lucky to foster when my family moved her at age 13. I had to trust this leap of faith to relocate my family and studio and it’s been a beautiful unfolding ever since on many levels. It’s a rewarding experience after a marathon few years.

What can we expect next from Moreau Design?

It feels like a new era in many ways with who, how and what I’m giving time and energy to. There are some very exciting new projects in the works and out of sheer love for learning I’m studying the ancient art of Feng Shui. We also just completed a massive renovation of a hillside property we bought here in Sedona and finally just moved in after a long, technical overhaul. I’m now dreaming of a long vacation and meanwhile patiently curating the interior spaces of our new home in my spare time.  If I’m lucky enough, I’ll get to commission a piece from Lauren’s collections for our home.  

Lauren WilLiams expands beyond her original Canvas with Movement® textile art and also includes the sculptural fibres collaboration with Thomas Hayes, original paintings, giclee canvas prints, and a rug collaboration with Art+Loom. If you could create an art package for a client and choose one piece from each medium, which pieces would you incorporate into a single project that reflects the “Moreau Design” aesthetic?

They are all so dreamy but I have my favorites: Rug- Driftwood, Painting- Woven Black, Textile Art-Nomad, Sculptural Fibers- 031, 032

GET THE LOOK

See some of Jessica’s favorite pieces from Lauren’s works below

To see more of Jessica’s work, follow her on Instagram @moreaudesignstudio

and visit her website www.moreaudesign.com.