Tucker & Marks Inc.
Specializing in comfortable high-end residential interiors and taking a highly detail oriented and individualized approach, Tucker & Marks seek to design homes that reflect the best aspects of their residents.
“Great design should always feel as though it’s effortlessly evolved—never forced, never fussy—just a graceful conversation between comfort, beauty, and the way one truly lives.”
About the Designer
Suzanne Tucker makes up one half of the San Francisco based Tucker & Marks interior design and decorating firm. Growing up in Santa Barbara, California, the warm west coast architecture was an informing factor in Tucker’s early life. She studied art and interior architecture before eventually pursuing a BFA in design.
She’s had repeat featured appearances on Architectural Digest’s AD100 Top Designers of the World, as well as a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Academy of Art University. Tucker was the recipient of several prestigious design awards; the 2015 Design Leadership Award, several Julia Morgan Awards, and the 2023 Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York School of Interior Design. Honored for her creativity and innovative instincts in design and the decorative arts, Tucker is recognized today as one of the country’s leading interior designers.
Dive deeper into Suzanne Tucker’s design approach, signature aesthetic, and recent collaborations through their official online portfolio.
Design Philosophy
Suzanne Tucker believes in individuality above all else. Her compositions seek to emphasize personality rather than concerning herself with what the rules of interior design deem “right” or “wrong”. She prioritizes scale as well, insisting on its central importance within the overall visual harmony of a room.
Tucker compares interior design to a well choreographed routine, where each element plays their respective role perfectly while complimenting the rest of the space.
Materials & Color Preferences
Tucker favors a sophisticated, muted color palette, balancing both warm and cool tones to create an elegant and calming ambiance. Soft celadons, dusty corals, and sun-washed neutrals detail her interiors, giving the space a flatteringly lit effect without any distracting or loud elements.
The effortless nature of the soft tones pair beautifully with texture and patina, creating a graceful and inviting environment.
Sustainability & Craftsmanship
There’s nothing more sustainable than choosing pieces that have already proven their longevity by surviving a few decades or even centuries of fashionable whims. Vintage and antique finds are the original eco-chic — they require no factories, no excruciating lead times, no frantic supply chains, just a good eye and an appreciation for craftsmanship. By bringing them into a home, we not only honor the artisans of the past, we lighten our earthly footprint with tremendous style.
Signature Approach
Tucker has a love for layering, especially when incorporating antiques into her interiors. She leans on antiques not out of nostalgia, but because they ground a space, give it soul and gravitas, and keep a room from feeling too freshly minted. Their patina, their imperfections, their quiet confidence… in a world that moves fast, they remind us to pause, look closely, hear the story, and live beautifully.
Designer Q&A: Inspiration, Process & Perspective
How would you describe your design style in a few words?
Style is subjective so I prefer to be described with adjectives: comfortable, elegant, and inviting, which all sound like clichés but who doesn't want to live in rooms that evoke those feelings?
Who or what has influenced your aesthetic the most?
Naturally Satna Barbara and its great architects – George Washington Smith, Betram Goodhue, Reginald Johnson – and landscape architects like Lockwood de Forest were an early influence. Lining in London for three years, I was greatly influenced by John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster.
How do current fashion trends influence your interior design choices?
I love following trends – in fashion! But they are here today, gone tomorrow. I don't really believe in trends for interior design. There are certainly "tastes" that evolve over years, and one's individual taste may change as you grow up, travel, gain exposure to the world, but good design is always timeless.
What advice would you give someone designing their first home?
Focus on a handful of items you feel very strongly about and build out your room from there. Definitely go for quality over quantity, buy the best you can afford and don't feel like you have to complete a space all at once. Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the creative process of expressing your personality and putting your individual stamp on a space.
Do you have a favorite piece or style from the Nazmiyal Collection?
There's something so irresistibly seductive about an antique Khotan rug – those sinuous motifs, the whisper of the Silk Road woven right into the fibers. They have that marvelous quality of making a space feel collected, worldly, and just a touch more intriguing the moment they're unrolled.
Rugs & Nazmiyal Collaboration
Tucker understands the inherent beauty and design potential present in antique and vintage carpets. Antique and vintage pieces bring with them an implicit sense of character that elevates any interior.
The Nazmiyal Collection is home to an extensive assortment of antique, vintage, and contemporary rugs well suited to Tucker’s compositional philosophy. Whether looking at scaling, palette, or patina, a rug becomes a key element of either anchoring or accessorizing a room.
