“It doesn’t matter where I am; I’m always thinking about redesigning,” says Lucía Landa, owner of an eponymous custom upholstery and antiques firm. Landa, who is originally from Mexico City, moved to the United States after meeting and marrying Joe Duggan in 2004. The couple lived in Washington, D.C., before moving to Saudi Arabia, where Duggan worked as a speechwriter for the CEO of the Aramco oil company. The couple spent six years living in and traveling throughout the Middle East. They returned to St. Louis, Duggan’s hometown, in 2015.
Two years ago, Landa launched her company from the basement of her home on Flora, in the Shaw neighborhood, then moved the business into the couple’s new Gustav Stickley–style Craftsman, situated on 5 acres in Old Ferguson West. Last fall, she expanded from her basement into a 2,000-square-foot workshop a mile from home and opened a dealer space at The Hill Antique Market, where she sells furniture and meets with clients.
Get a weekly dose of home and style inspiration
Subscribe to the St. Louis Design+Home newsletter to explore the latest stories from the local interior design, fashion, and retail scene.
How did you become interested in interior design?
When I was 9, my parents bought a house in Mexico City from a distinguished architect who built it for his family. My father bought the house even though, or maybe because, it was not complete. It incorporated huge carved stone architectural elements from 400-year-old buildings that had deteriorated or had been demolished in the historic center of the city. My parents allowed me to design my own bedroom suite. I started designing even when I didn’t know it was called designing.
What made you decide to turn your passion into a business?
Years of collecting antique textiles and fabrics, centuries-old furniture, and vintage jewelry made me realize I was ready to share my passion and style. A year ago, I began the steps to launch my business. I traveled to an annual Indigenous crafts expo in Mexico in 2018 and in 2019. I made contacts with artisans, most of them women, who do embroidery and handloom weaving. I established partnerships for the supply of handcrafted textiles. In St. Louis, I began a partnership with a master upholsterer from El Salvador. For months, he worked in our basement, creating inventory for my collection by reupholstering antiques with my signature materials. In October 2020, I leased an industrial space in Ferguson, and we began to hire more people to do upholstery.
What types of fabrics do you carry, and what makes them special?
I traveled a lot to Central America, and I have antique embroidery from Guatemala. I have fabrics from India, Syria, and Egypt that I collected when we lived in the Middle East. I have leather from Mexico, Brazil, and Italy. The Latin American embroidery tells you the story of the town: We raise cattle; these are the kinds of flowers we grow; we eat this type of bread. They put it all in the fabric. My suppliers in Oaxaca certify that all of the woolen tapestries and serapes I buy from them are hand-loomed using traditional methods and natural dyes from vegetable and mineral sources. Some of the tapestries are in shades of white, gray, and brown because that was the color of the wool when it was still on the animal.
