4 min read
There’s a certain warmth to a room designed by Tiffany Skilling. It’s wonderfully collected, quietly glamorous, and rewards curiosity, with a new antique or pattern to discover around every corner. It’s the hallmark of a designer confident in their aesthetic—but Skilling would be the first to admit that her now-thriving namesake firm didn’t begin with certainty. Instead, her career has been shaped by learning to trust her instincts, long before she felt fully validated by them. “There were moments that felt very much like fake it until you make it,” Skilling admits of her early years in business. “Ultimately, I learned that confidence is built through doing the work, not waiting for permission.”
Even as a child, Skilling had a heightened awareness of how a room could make you feel. “Even before I understood what interior design was, I recognized that certain rooms made me feel calm, inspired, or curious,” she says. Still, it would be a while before she made her way into the interiors world. After studying apparel and textile design at Michigan State, Skilling built a career in fashion and event design, honing an eye for storytelling and visual composition, albeit in a different medium. It was a world she was deeply entrenched in when the 2008 financial crisis hit, forcing her to press pause and rethink her way forward.
She’d been renovating her home at the time, and the combination of the two major life events set her next chapter in motion. “Those moments forced me to reevaluate what I was building and what felt most natural,” she says. “Creating my own home reminded me how deeply I connected to space.” A stint with Munder Skiles followed, and by 2015, she had officially launched Tiffany Skilling Interiors. Now boasting a 23-person roster, the Indianapolis-based studio has evolved to include two luxury retail stores and an in-house upholstery workroom—a “fully integrated ecosystem,” as Skilling describes it, built around craftsmanship, customization, and long-term relationships.
“Some of my earliest residential clients truly took a chance on me when Tiffany Skilling Interiors was still in its infancy,” she explains of the projects that got her on the map. “They trusted my perspective and allowed me to fully articulate a vision in their homes, giving me the confidence to refine our storytelling-through-design philosophy and build a portfolio that reflected the type of work we want to continue attracting.”
Get to Know Tiffany
House Beautiful: What’s something about your business most people don’t understand?
Tiffany Skilling: Many people see the finished spaces or the retail stores, but what they don’t see is the depth of responsibility behind the work. We operate as a fully integrated ecosystem, from luxury residential design to our retail destinations to our in-house upholstery workroom. We invest in preserving architectural heritage, mentor the next generation through our apprenticeship program, and support community initiatives across Indianapolis. Our philanthropic and outreach efforts are not separate from the business—they are part of how we define success.
HB: What materials, palettes, or details are you drawn to again and again?
TS: Unlacquered brass is a constant for me. I love the way it patinas and tells a story over time. Textural and patterned wallpapers and fabrics are another signature. They create layers, movement, and personality. I rarely design a room without thinking about how those materials can add richness and dimension.
HB: Is there a historical era, culture, or art movement that informs your work?
TS: I am consistently inspired by Art Deco for its bold geometry and glamour, as well as Rococo and 16th- to 18th-century European design for their ornamentation, craftsmanship, and reverence for detail. There is something timeless about those periods that continues to inform how I think about proportion and layering.
At the same time, I love an unexpected juxtaposition, especially incorporating something more primitive or raw alongside those refined references. That tension between polished and imperfect, ornate and elemental, is where a space begins to feel dynamic and alive.
HB: What emotion do you most want someone to feel when they enter your spaces?
TS: A sense of wonder. I want there to be an immediate feeling of wow, even if they cannot quite articulate why. The space should feel layered and intriguing, but also balanced and grounded. It should draw you in, make you curious, and at the same time feel completely livable and natural.
HB: What do clients hire you for that they can’t get anywhere else?
TS: Clients hire us for an elevated reflection of themselves. We push boundaries thoughtfully and challenge them to think differently about how they live and what their home can be. We are not afraid of color, and we use it to create depth, emotion, and identity within a space.
