Behind the Design

Fashion Designer Brandon Maxwell Decorates His Sister’s Texas Nursery as a Whimsical Refuge

The sweet space, conceived by Maxwell and his talented friends, is a master class in balancing budget, time, and originality
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Inside the nursery.Photo: Jessy Price

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For fashion designer and Project Runway judge Brandon Maxwell, the catchphrase “make it work” has gained a whole new meaning thanks to his latest gig: designer of his sister’s nursery. While the Texas-born talent dresses the world’s most powerful women, from Lady Gaga to first lady Jill Biden, creating something special for his close family member proved far more intimidating. “My sister Kady has always shown up for me. She sits in the front row of every show and sits in the studio with me all night as I’m preparing,” Maxwell tells AD PRO. When she became pregnant with her first child, the designer jumped at the opportunity to reciprocate his sister’s loyalty by designing his future nephew a room of his own.

“When people [ask], ‘What is the category you love to do most?’ my answer has always been ‘home,’” says Maxwell. Maxwell’s earliest design memory is redecorating his childhood bedroom twice a year with typically $20 or $30 he had saved for the project. Today, he estimates that interiors make up 75% of the reference images he uses while working on his fashion collections. And what is more, any of his show attendees can attest to the all-encompassing nature of his sets.

A whimsical artwork of two cats—dressed in western apparel—hangs over the crib.

Photo: Jessy Price

Having staged his fall 2020 collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York just before COVID-19 shut down the city, Maxwell journeyed back to Austin, Texas, for his next in-person feat. Tasked with transforming an 11-by-12-foot guest room where his brother-in-law’s band practiced into a sanctuary for mother and child, Maxwell headed to one of his favorite places, Joann Fabrics. He wound up with heaps of upholstery textiles (many priced at just $14 per yard), which he envisioned using for the nursery’s walls. His sister had already purchased a few key items, including IKEA armoires, a crib, rug, and photographs. The remaining question was just how to make everything fit together.

The answer: hours of DIY tutorial videos, wine, and an invaluable partner in crime. Having recently met through a mutual friend, Austin-based decorator Erin Thornton came to the rescue—first, by offering Maxwell and his fiancé an impeccably designed home to stay in during their visit, which provided the visual stimulation necessary for crafting his next collection and, second, by making his nursery vision a reality.

The dresser functions too as a chic changing table.

Photo: Jessy Price

“Erin has been the greatest gift [in] the universe. Her eye works in a way that is so intimate and wondrous but also really bold,” says Maxwell, who recalls the “action-oriented” Thornton being down on her hands and knees outside drilling furnishings (in Sonia Rykiel pants, no less) so that his sister’s refuge would be completed in less than 10 days.

After viewing Thornton’s meticulous design presentation, Maxwell panicked: “This is going to be a $2 million nursery.” He soon learned that she possesses “an eye for cheap things that have integrity,” as the decorator herself describes it to AD PRO. Maxwell continues, “When she tells you something is $29, I’d bet my life that it is $5,000.”

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Thornton’s team covered the walls, ceiling, and armoires in a burlap-like fabric contrasted by peel-and-stick emerald-green velvet trim. Thornton used Scalamandre’s self-adhesive Zebras wallpaper, sourced through Amazon, to wrap around lamps and line cabinets and drawers. A mother herself, the decorator added thoughtful details, such as sewing ribbons inside cabinets to display photos, and baby-proofing cords in coordinating fabric covers. Brittany Allen, Maxwell’s friend and Texas-based Project Runway alum, sewed the curtains, a bed skirt, and pillows. “The biggest thing for me as a clothing designer is when the client puts on the dress, and you can just tell they feel really good,” says Maxwell, who witnessed a parallel reaction from his sister and brother-in-law upon entering their new nursery. “There is no greater high than that.”