LucyAnn McCarthy has always had a creative and artistic side but pursued her love of the arts in the form of theater and production.  After earning her undergraduate degree in Math and Psychology with a minor in Fine Arts, she attended graduate school at the Actors Studio in New York.  After graduating, she lived in New York City for 13 years, where she pursued her career as an actress/model.  LucyAnn and her family moved to Denver 3.5 years ago.  

It was truly LucyAnn’s experiences with her own homes that led her down the road to interior design.  Her passion for design was initially unearthed when she had to refinish the outside of their family home in Pennsylvania.  The stucco was deemed defective, and she used the opportunity to add double doors, extend a porch, eliminate the shutters, replacing them with Azek frames, and add stone accent surrounding the home.  Although her builder questioned her decisions along the way, she stuck to her intuitive design eye and created a curb appeal that resulted in her being offered a job with the same contractor who had been questioning her every move.  Her projects did not stop there.  As LucyAnn’s family moved from home to home, she decorated three homes and designed their family beach house.  Through the process of designing each of their homes, she realized that she loved the process of removing walls, changing locations of bathrooms, and making a more functional footprint in the space.  Although these experiences provided LucyAnn with the insight that interior design was her professional career calling, she wanted to go back to school and learn how to complete the design process correctly, from start to finish.

LucyAnn enrolled at Heritage in the Spring of 2019.  There is no doubt she had to overcome some obstacles as she gained her footing in the program.  Launching this new career at 50, after having been a stay at home mom for many years, presented its challenges.  LucyAnn admits that finding the balance of schoolwork and taking care of her family was difficult to manage while she navigated the program.  She also found that she had to work twice as hard as some of her classmates to master the software programs she was learning.  But despite the challenging aspects, LucyAnn thrived in every aspect of the Heritage program.  

LucyAnn’s moto throughout the program was “the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it,” and there is no doubt that LucyAnn graduated from Heritage with an arsenal of skills and a new level of design confidence that would carry her into a successful design career. She is thankful for what she learned and gained while attending Heritage. Going back to school for Interior Design gave her the confidence and knowledge to walk into a design firm and hold her own.  While attending Heritage, she learned the importance of all the steps of the design process.  It was at school that she truly learned and gained a thorough understanding of how to take the ideas in her head and make them a reality.  LucyAnn uses what she learned at Heritage daily, from hand drawing to technical skills, to floor planning and purchasing, now that she is working in the field of design.   

After graduating from the Master Certification program at Heritage Denver, LucyAnn began working as an interior designer for Perspectives Interior Design & Renovations.  LucyAnn loves her new position. She is inspired and excited by all aspects of design, but her favorite part of her new position is making a difference in how people use and enjoy their homes.  LucyAnn explained that hearing her client say, “I love it” is the most rewarding and gratifying part of being an interior designer.  

As an interior designer, LucyAnn finds her inspiration from listening to her clients.  Her goal as a designer is to give her clients the ideas to make their home more ideal for how they use their space and to tap into their own desired design aesthetic.  LucyAnn enjoys creating designs that highlight each client’s definition of beauty and letting that guide her design decisions.  With every project, she becomes more confident that she has found her design voice.  Her new career is allowing the opportunity to explore her love for design, and she finds that the more passion she exudes from within, the more excited her clients become!