GET DAILY REPORT FREE
Laura Roland is more than a next-generation designer—she’s a third-generation boss lady in Baton Rouge.
Laura’s grandmother Cheri McDaniel was a successful homebuilder when no women in the city were doing that job. Her mother, Susan Roland, opened Fireside Antiques—the city’s first European antiques dealer—alongside Cheri in 1982 but shifted much of her attention homeward when she gave birth to quadruplets.
Laura was one of those babies, and she soaked up the wisdom of her family members from an early age.
“I always knew I would be an interior designer,” says Roland, now 38. “My mom and grandmother had a huge influence on shaping my love for design. I grew up in the homes my grandmother built and watched my mom design them. We talked about interiors a lot.”
Roland left south Louisiana to earn her interior design degree from Savannah College of Art and Design, widely considered the top design school in the country, but she returned home not only to join her mother and grandmother at Fireside but also to launch her own interior design firm, Laura Roland Interiors.
“I love selling antiques to interior designers that I admire, and I enjoy designing interiors for clients that want to use our antiques,” she says.
In her current role as owner of both companies, Roland created a showstopping library for the Flower magazine showhouse in Baton Rouge in 2023, the same year that Architectural Digest featured her interior design work on her parents’ St. Francisville home.
The latter project is one she calls her most rewarding yet, noting the collaboration with architect Bobby McAlpine.
“The attention to detail was an impressive, eye-opening experience,” she says. “He designed a modern home, and we filled it with quality art and antiques. The perfect balance.”
SHARED INSIGHTS
Strategy for managing a budget while delivering high-impact design
No one wants to talk about budget. Laura Roland Interiors’ design clients are also clients of Fireside Antiques, so they know quality, and they know that quality comes with a price. We design interiors and give presentations with an overall budget broken down with options to choose from. This helps clients decide what they want to spend their budget on and how they want to phase the design process over time.
Trends I’m loving, and trends I’m leaving behind
People keep saying “antiques are back,” like it’s on trend, but I don’t think antiques ever left. I’m also happy to report that it looks like “The Great Whiteout” is now off trend.
Most unusual item I’ve ever incorporated into a space
Taxidermy—and not just your typical deer head. I’ve used taxidermy birds hanging from draperies or chandeliers. It has quite a whimsical effect.
The next decade
It’s human nature to make your house your home, and it’s normal that you might need help. It’s surprisingly hard to design your own interior, so interior design is here to stay. With all the new home decor items being made of such inferior quality, I think people are starting to enjoy and crave how things “used to be made.” People want antiques, and they want to have quality custom furniture made. Hopefully, people will start to see the joy in their parents’ old furniture and give it a new purpose in their younger interiors.
Read more about young entrepreneurs bringing fearless flair to interiors.
