Today’s house tour features Laquita Tate. Laquita is a Memphis, Tennessee-based interior designer, content creator, and blogger. Laquita uses the same approach inside her own home as she does with her Memphis clients — decorating spaces that combine newer elements with pieces she already owns. This includes bold colors and patterns that turn ordinary into extraordinary. Laquita’s love nest highlights Black art, with every piece in her space being by Black artists with the exception of two. In her own words, Laquita’s home feels like a “warm blanket.” Each room has its own personality but is still creatively cohesive. With unique elements, bold artwork, and even a surprise piece of art by House Tours episode 1 star Carmeon Hamilton, Laquita’s home is the perfect culmination of all things beautifully Black.
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00:00 Hi, I'm Laquita Tate, and I'm an interior designer,
00:03 and welcome to my home.
00:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:07 I've lived here in Memphis, Tennessee,
00:17 approximately about 16, 17 years.
00:19 My husband and I, we raised our two boys here,
00:22 but they're now 27 and 29.
00:24 My home reflects my personality and my husband's.
00:28 We definitely like to entertain.
00:29 We want people to be able to sit and just enjoy themselves.
00:33 I wanted my home to feel like it was a warm blanket when
00:36 you first walk through the door.
00:38 I typically play up pretty much the same type of colors--
00:41 blacks, creams, greens.
00:44 And so you'll see that reflected throughout my home.
00:47 This room is full of art.
00:49 It's full of layers, and it's full of texture.
00:52 The first thing I did in this particular space
00:55 was paint the walls black.
00:56 Black is a neutral, in my opinion,
00:58 and so anything is going to pop off of that.
01:01 The different pieces represent something
01:03 that I'm specifically drawn to in the African-American
01:06 heritage and in our culture.
01:08 We thrive off of being creative and being unique.
01:11 There are a lot of coffee table books
01:12 that I have around from black editors, black writers,
01:17 and that resemble things in the black culture.
01:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:24 So this space that we're in, this is my home office.
01:27 This is where I come once I get off of work for my education
01:30 job and come and work on my interior design.
01:33 You'll notice a lot of artwork, just like at the rest of my
01:36 home.
01:37 This is one of my favorite, favorite piece of artwork.
01:41 This young lady reminds me of me-- natural hair.
01:43 Normally, I have my hair up in a bun.
01:45 So, sorry.
01:47 I'm not going to do that.
01:48 I'm going to do a little bit of a natural look.
01:50 I'm going to do a little bit of a natural look.
01:52 It's fun, so side profile.
01:54 These are picture ledges.
01:56 They're just not regular shelves or regular just line shelves.
02:00 These are picture ledges.
02:01 Because they're wider, I'm able to layer things.
02:04 And I love to layer and layer artwork.
02:06 You can see I layer some other coffee table books.
02:09 If I'm talking to a client, sometimes I
02:11 do take some Zoom client calls.
02:13 And then when I'm actually creating their design plan,
02:16 I can pull some things that I need,
02:18 whether they're wallpaper samples or fabric samples.
02:21 So I just have those things here.
02:23 Of course, Michelle Obama's book, Becoming,
02:26 because I feel like I'm becoming what I want to become
02:29 as I grow and age here.
02:31 I love this credenza.
02:34 I thought that it popped really well.
02:36 And then I just layered it with artwork, coffee table books,
02:40 and then some of my favorite plants.
02:42 Most of the artwork in my home are by black artists,
02:45 except for two pieces.
02:47 And this is one of the pieces that is not by a black artist,
02:50 but it's of a black girl called Sasha.
02:52 And so plant of Beyonce name, Sasha.
02:55 Sasha Fierce here.
02:57 And so it's just a beautiful piece
02:58 to be able to look at when I am at my actual desk.
03:01 And I do like some artwork that have words.
03:04 This one here says, create your own narrative, sis.
03:07 So it's talking to me.
03:08 So whatever I want to achieve in life,
03:10 whatever you want to achieve in life, you can do it.
03:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:26 So when you first walk into my primary bathroom,
03:29 what do you see?
03:30 This beautiful, beautiful Milton and King wallpaper.
03:34 This is definitely my feature wall,
03:36 this particular wallpaper.
03:38 I absolutely love it and adore it.
03:40 If you notice in my water closet,
03:43 my beautiful friend, Kermion, hand-painted the artwork
03:47 inside of here.
03:48 I wanted it to feel like its own separate space.
03:51 This here is actually an artist I found on Etsy.
03:55 This is my side of the bathroom.
03:57 This is my husband's side.
03:58 Queen and King.
03:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:05 Now this kitchen has taken on quite a few different
04:09 renovations or makeovers.
04:11 First change I made was to paint both the bottoms
04:14 and the uppers white.
04:16 And so it was this color white for the bottom and the top.
04:19 And then just recently, I partnered with a brand,
04:22 and I decided to change my bottoms to this color green.
04:25 And I absolutely love it.
04:28 Again, my aesthetic is black, neutral colors like creams,
04:32 white, and then olive green.
04:34 And so I was able to bring that here.
04:35 And it just warmed up this space so much, especially
04:39 against this wood countertop.
04:41 Here in this particular corner, I
04:42 decided to use this space to show off my tea cups.
04:46 I don't drink coffee.
04:47 I drink tea.
04:48 But I always pick up a tea cup from any of my travels.
04:52 And so I wanted to display that here.
04:54 When we walked in this house 16, 17 years ago,
04:58 this circle area of this breakfast nook
05:00 was so unique and so different.
05:02 I fell in love with the home immediately.
05:05 And I knew this was our home.
05:06 And it has been, and it served us well for 16, 17 years.
05:10 I recently just started making over this space.
05:14 I wanted the curvature of this space to really pop.
05:18 So that's why I brought in this velvet curved modular couch.
05:22 And then I have these chairs still playing off the circle
05:25 area here in this space.
05:27 And I love this brown of this wood.
05:29 It just brings in those natural elements into this space.
05:33 Next piece in the open space is what
05:36 you call a hearth room or your sitting area.
05:38 This is a beautiful coffee table made by none other
05:41 than my friend, Carmen Young.
05:43 It just really grounds this space.
05:45 And I just absolutely love it.
05:47 You can come on in to my guest bathroom.
05:49 Of course, this is a nice Instagram moment, OK?
05:53 I like to do all that on Instagram.
05:55 So throughout my home, there's various pieces
05:58 of Instagram moments.
05:59 But this wallpaper is a showstopper.
06:02 These curtains are actually not shower curtains.
06:05 These are window curtains.
06:06 But I needed the curtains to be long because of the space
06:10 in here.
06:10 And I wanted it to feel more luxury and elevated here.
06:14 So I got these black velvet curtains as my shower curtains.
06:18 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:20 The room I'm the most proud of will probably
06:26 be my laundry room right now.
06:28 I'm not a big fan of having to wash.
06:31 I do it because it has to be done.
06:33 And so I wanted this space to be fun.
06:36 I wanted to be a space that when I walked in,
06:38 it had to do the laundry that I enjoy being in this space.
06:41 Of course, again, the bold wallpaper,
06:44 that grounds this entire space.
06:46 And then the layered artwork, some original art pieces here.
06:50 And then this beautiful piece here
06:51 that I had custom framed because it had
06:54 to show all of the details.
06:56 You can see the orange pulled out of the wallpaper.
07:00 Using these doorknobs here, they're bold.
07:03 They're big.
07:04 They pull up the colors from the wallpaper.
07:07 Decided to paint the ceiling black
07:09 because I did not want the white to take away
07:12 from the wallpaper.
07:13 I had a different chandelier originally,
07:15 and it just did not work for this space.
07:17 And I found this piece, and it is beautiful.
07:20 Like, it just-- it's a speakeasy.
07:22 In a speakeasy, you have just a mixture of different things
07:25 that's just bold and it stands out.
07:27 This chandelier is definitely one of them.
07:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:32 This is my primary bedroom.
07:35 So I have a gallery wall here with my new Samsung frame TV,
07:38 where, of course, you can show art as well.
07:40 So I just built my artwork around it.
07:43 And then the artwork above my bed is an original art piece.
07:46 It's full of texture.
07:48 When I walk in, it just automatically
07:50 brings a smile to my face.
07:51 And then I have a little space here
07:53 where I can put my little jewelry.
07:55 So I have a little space here where I can put my jewelry.
07:57 And then I have a little space here
07:59 where I can put my jewelry.
08:00 And it just automatically brings a smile to my face.
08:03 I absolutely love it.
08:04 I've had this particular bed pretty much the entire time
08:07 we've lived here.
08:08 It plays off the vintage night stance.
08:11 But I also didn't want it to just be so brown in here
08:14 with the wood.
08:15 So I wanted to bring in those other textures as well.
08:18 The velvet on my curtains, linen sheets.
08:21 I have a leather pillow.
08:22 I have a velvet pillow.
08:24 So I just have all those textures in one space.
08:26 And I have a velvet pillow because of the various colors.
08:30 I wanted this room to just be my sanctuary when I come home
08:34 and just be able to relax.
08:35 And I feel like I have been able to create that in this space.
08:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:42 So this space is my guest bedroom.
08:47 My favorite thing in this guest room
08:49 is the wallpaper, because as soon as you come in,
08:52 that's what you notice first.
08:53 And it just kind of takes your breath away,
08:55 and you're like, oh, this is my space.
08:57 I wanted that wallpaper to be the feature wall.
09:00 And then I played out for it with this beautiful blue color
09:03 from that wallpaper.
09:05 The textures in this space--
09:07 this rope throw, the leather lumbar pillow.
09:10 And then if you go and look on the actual dresser,
09:13 you'll notice the coffee table books, the planters.
09:16 We have some faces, some additional layers
09:18 of texture there.
09:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:24 So now we're on the patio.
09:26 So when we first moved here, it was just this concrete slat,
09:29 just this one we first moved in.
09:31 So a couple of years ago, we were
09:33 able to extend the concrete patio.
09:35 That way, we can make two living spaces.
09:37 So we have this living space here,
09:39 and then we have the dining room here.
09:42 I just wanted it to be a space that was cozy.
09:44 We can lounge and lay around.
09:46 I turned the mirror on, and I can see the sun.
09:49 And I can see the sun.
09:50 And I can see the sun.
09:50 So I can lounge and lay around.
09:53 I turn the music on and just have a good time
09:56 just sitting out here, just having a conversation,
09:58 or just sitting out here by myself
10:00 and having a little me time out here.
10:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:05 Even though my space is all very different,
10:08 I wanted it to be cohesive.
10:11 I just wanted to make sure that it
10:12 told the story of each room.
10:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:20 I'm Mariah, and you're watching Home and Texture House Tours.
10:24 (upbeat music)
10:27 (upbeat music)