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Helen Reed at home with her original paintings. Reed considers her artistic pursuits — painting and photography — to be separate from her design work. “For me, creating is entirely therapeutic — it’s stress relief.”
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Reed treasures her midcentury modern furniture collection, which includes a Bertoia chair, a Knoll cabinet and two Norwegian chairs gifted from a friend.
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Reading is another favorite hobby. Her collection features lots of spirituality-focused reads on topics such as reiki, a Japanese technique for energy healing.
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This majestic panorama of the James River is Reed’s favorite part of her 16th-floor condo. “The river changes every day,” she says. “It’s so grounding to me.”
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Reed has kept a journal since she was in high school. “If I can get up early in the morning and meditate, and then write in my journal, my day is so much better.”
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Reed’s father gave her this original untitled 1992 Nancy Camden Witt painting around the time her mother died. “Every time I look at it, I feel like I’m looking up to the heavens,” Reed says.
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This intricately carved wooden chest was given to Reed by a friend. “I love that [the carvings] tell such a detailed story, but I don’t know what the story is.”
Helen Reed has lived in Richmond on and off for the past 30 years, but she has always called the River City home.
After growing up in Henrico’s Regency Woods community, she worked at restaurants to pay for her education at Virginia Commonwealth University. “I fell in love with the front of the house,” Reed says. “I enjoyed the interaction with people and the food service.” This experience sparked her passion for hospitality design, and now she is an award-winning interior designer who has brought her creative vision to leading hotels, restaurants, spas and retail stores around the country.
“The thing I love about the hospitality world is that you can think outside of the box,” she says. “It’s so fun to envision the guest experience and how they’re going to react when they first walk in the door.”
In Richmond, Reed has created unique interiors for many popular restaurants including Shagbark, The Daily Kitchen & Bar, Perch, East Coast Provisions and Bateau. She says that the city’s growing and evolving culinary scene serves as a major catalyst for her creativity. “Talented chefs are coming here and working their magic with their art in new ways,” she says. “There aren’t as many limitations as there were a few years ago. It’s been great to watch.”
Reed’s upcoming project list includes the interior renovations of two Ruth’s Chris Steak House restaurants and a privately owned midcentury home, and designing a much-anticipated food hall in downtown Richmond that will be opening later this year. She is also designing the spa at the Blackburn Wellness and Conference Center at the Blackburn Inn in Staunton.
In her spare time, Reed enjoys the quiet solace of her 16th-floor condo at Vistas on the James in Shockoe Slip. Building on a longtime love of painting, she is looking for a gallery to show her original art and is digitally transforming some of her paintings into wall coverings. In addition, Reed plans to author two books on self-care and healing, one for children and one for adults. “I have lost a lot of people in my life, including my mother and brother, and painting and writing is a way for me to channel my grief in a creative way,” she says. “Self-care and healing are so important.”