A New Era of Interior Design with Hema Persad
Blending heritage and heart to go beyond the white space
When I saw Poorna Jagannathan’s LA home in Architectural Digest, I had goosebumps. From the murals of Kerala to the verdant kitchen tile and throw pillows with the Hindu goddess, Kali - the home sparked feelings of familiarity, warmth, while dripping in sophistication and style. Jagannathan’s home was a far cry from the soulless white spaces that often grace my feed and an auntie’s house with all the tchotchkes that scream “India!”. The designer fine tuning this balance was Hema Persad and her interior design studio, Sagrada Studio and I needed to learn more.



“Every time I put the most of myself into a project and don’t overthink it, it is the one that people respond to the most,” revealed Persad in our recent chat, highlighting the power of finding her authentic voice in design. Persad’s aesthetic transcends a set of chairs, brass lighting fixture, or an arched doorway - it kindles a sense of homecoming without being stuck in the past.
Born to Indo-Guyanese parents, Persad was always interested in art and fashion, but recalls “anything creative or artistic wasn’t on my radar as something I could pursue”. Persad went to law school in Florida and worked in commercial litigation, representing banking clients. The initial allure of law soon wore off under mounting pressure, heightened by the 2008 financial crisis (Persad represented the banks that were fledging during the mortgage crisis) and balancing work with the needs of her two young daughters. “Some days I would go home and I couldn’t disconnect from work and be a present nurturing mom. A lot of things were building to this level of unhappiness”, reflected Persad.


Realizing she needed a change, she started to explore careers in fashion - a space she always wanted to work in but didn’t know what options existed. At the time, there was growing awareness of celebrity styling thanks to shows like the Rachel Zoe Project and seemed like a possible path. Persad decided to fly to LA to learn more, attending a business of styling workshop and cold emailing stylists to meet with. Leaning into her curiosity and a lot of gumption paid off, Persad decided it was time to move and be at the center of the action.
This leap of faith transitioned surprisingly swiftly. Within six months, her husband secured a job in LA, their home sold within two days (likely due to the impeccable design), and Persad managed to maintain her position at the law firm remotely while juggling her new career. Over the next seven years, she learned the ropes by assisting A-List celebrity stylists with clients like Madonna, Daniel Radcliffe and Kate Hudson, and gradually transitioned into working with her own red carpet and advertising clients including the Food Network, Target, Jay Shetty, and Nia Jervier.


Yet at the height of her styling career, the excitement of styling started to ebb. The birth of her third daughter and pandemic led her to slow down. She had also recently read The Surrender Experiment, which led her take a pause and be open to what was next. In a recent podcast, Persad shared her guiding principle that led her to next pivot from the book, “If you just listen, pay attention, and say yes to the opportunities that are popping up for you, you are going to end up more successful than if you were out there chasing things”. And as the world opened back up in 2021 one of her styling clients Deepica Mutayala, founder and CEO of beauty brand LiveTinted, asked her to design her home and Persad just said yes. More people started asking her to do the same, and she kept saying yes.


Architectural Digest picked up Jagannathan’s home to feature a mere year after Persad started Sagrada Studio. This past month the studio was named one of the “Emerging Design Stars” also in AD. The staggering rise is a testament to Persad's authentic voice in the space and work ethic. “I could have graduated design school at 25, but I would have probably still gotten here at this time. Design school is not going to teach you how to deal with people or how to invoice or how to run a business. Most people come out and probably learn that by trial and error”. All of the lessons from Persad’s prior lives were pivotal in her success. She understood client services and the guts of billing and contracts from her days as a lawyer and honed her skills on presenting creative ideas and the power of PR as a stylist. She just stayed opened to the signs and kept growing.



Persad has cultivated a now unmistakable aesthetic of blending traditional and modern pieces to create spaces that have a distinct point of view. When asked how she developed this skill Persad shared, “That is who I am as an American child of immigrants. That’s just our experience having to merge all those things in our day-to-day lives. And so it comes naturally to me. I’m not afraid of combining things because we all have had to do it our whole lives”. Expressing our stories and identities through spaces makes them uniquely beautiful - it makes a house a home.

Interior design has historically been driven by euro-centric styles and ideologies. Designers too are traditionally from white backgrounds as found in the 2022 International Interior Design Association survey with nearly 85% of respondents identify themselves as white. Persad and a growing number of designers are starting to shift that to better reflect the richness of our identities, but there is a lot of work to do. Part of the issue is systemic and there is also hesitancy, especially in Asian immigrant communities in taking a more creative path. “My hope is that the next generation and even our generation feels more free to pursue things”, shared Persad. “We’re not in survival mode anymore. We need to now get out there and thrive and do things, not just be in this little safe box that we were taught to be in. Everything is open to us”. And Persad is living proof of just that.
You can follow Hema on Instagram at @hemaapersad and more about Sagrada Studio on their website
Love this! Such dope looks!
Also this quote is gold: "If you just listen, pay attention, and say yes to the opportunities that are popping up for you, you are going to end up more successful than if you were out there chasing things”
Love this thoughtful profile (stunning photos, too!!) and love Hema’s work!