She’s got a French-education background, so it shouldn’t be surprising that some French-inspired ooh-la-la and je ne sais quoi shows up in the work of the 2022 Detroit Design Awards’ Rising Star. Mais bien sûr, Annie Kordas, owner of Annie Kordas Interiors in Grosse Pointe Farms — who’s been named the top designer among the up-and-comers in the nominated field — has a degree in French language and culture from the University of Michigan.
After years of teaching French at the International Academy Okma Campus in Bloomfield Hills and the University of Michigan–Dearborn, Kordas decided to focus on her love of design, antiques, color, and global influences, and made a move to transition her career into interior design.
From her first days as a designer, working on fashioning spacious medical offices in Grosse Pointe Woods and putting her stamp on the executive board room at the Metropolitan Baking Co. in Hamtramck, to more recent projects with young families who want her to create the perfect stylish-but-cozy home, Kordas has aimed for top results.
She wowed this year’s Design Awards judges in the Home Office and Use of a Collection, Antiques, or Art categories, and placed in the top three for her design efforts. You’ll want to update your own home office once you check out the photo of her winning office in this issue’s Interiors section. (She chose a pair of contemporary Jonathan Adler lamps to illuminate four original paintings of men, and white Herman Miller soft-pad chairs are a nod to the Mid-century Modern era. The walls and drapes are neutral, to allow the antelope carpet flooring and dark green ceiling to take center stage. It’s stunning!)
Last year, Kordas won first place in the Detroit Design Awards’ Children’s Room/Play Space category.
A busy mom of two grade-school-age children and wife to George Kordas, the designer prefers tradition-with-a-twist. She’s told the magazine in the past, “I don’t know what makes my brain tick!” Whatever it is, that unique catalyst inspires a vintage-modern feel that’s “kind of French,” she has admitted. She also prefers pattern play, the use of dark wall colors every now and then, wallpaper (even on the ceiling, at times), marble (in all bathrooms), and a clever mix of art, furnishings, and materials.
Congratulations to Annie Kordas! We can’t wait to see what she designs next.
Detroit Design Awards 2022
Judges
Details
Exteriors
Interiors
Homes
Commercial Design
Rising Star
Readers’ Choice
Text by Megan Swoyer & Room Photos by Jeff Garland
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