7 min readWhen Madi Webb moved into a 109-year-old Los Angeles loft two years ago, she didn’t expect to pick up another talent: interior design. At first, the influencer, YouTuber, and podcaster hired an out-of-state interior designer, but soon realized she was making more of the design decisions herself, a fact that came as no surprise to the creative.
After all, Webb built her platform on empowering women to feel confident about their own decisions and believe in themselves. “Once I stopped looking for someone else to tell me what worked, the entire process became so much more fun,” she says. “I started trusting my instincts, buying things simply because I loved them, and figuring out how to make them work together afterward. Not knowing all the traditional design rules actually gave me more freedom.”
Understanding her taste led to a delectable mélange of Hollywood Regency glamour, hinged on Old-World European maximalism, anchored by mellow bohemian influences. What Webb really wanted for her 3,200-square-foot apartment was a collected narrative, not a furniture store showroom.
Much like the amalgamation of her social platforms, the final design of her personal space is far from cookie-cutter. “I spent countless hours hunting through vintage stores, antique shops, estate sales, and Facebook Marketplace for pieces that felt like they had a story,” she says. “I love things that are a little weird, dramatic, feminine, old, sexy, or unexpected.”
The open-concept layout of her two-bedroom, three-bathroom space didn’t intimidate her. She had her vision the second she walked in. Reining in her success as a creator allowed Webb to bring the ideas swirling in her head to life before she started tackling the space. “There’s something really special about standing in the finished space now and realizing that so much of what I imagined the very first time I walked through the door is actually here,” she admits.
While she stays away from anything matchy-matchy and doesn’t follow strict rules, Webb certainly indulges in themes. For one, you’ll notice cheetah prints and accoutrements throughout. “I’ve always been obsessed with big cats and animal print,” she says. “To me, there is something incredibly feminine about a cat; they’re beautiful and soft, but they’re also independent, discerning, and a little dangerous. I love that duality, and I think it shows up throughout my home.”
The other is her penchant for vintage oil paintings of women, which she finds on Facebook Marketplace. You can spot at least five, adorning the walls above her bed, dressers, and the staircase, for instance.
Appreciation for glamour may be at the center of Webb’s motifs, but curating an environment that is as beautiful as it is approachable is equally as important. “I wanted it to feel luxurious, but also like a place where people immediately want to take their shoes off, curl up on the couch, stay for hours, eat, drink, talk, and laugh,” she says. “That’s why there’s so much seating. I love having people over, and I never want someone standing around wondering where they’re supposed to sit. I wanted the living room to feel almost like a conversation pit, everyone facing each other rather than the entire room being designed around a television.”
No stranger to hosting, Webb knew splurging on anything too precious wouldn’t work, as comfort had to be at the root of it all. Oversized furniture, plush rugs, and plenty of pattern all support the lead actor: the lighting, which is meant to make the apartment feel intimate. In addition to the natural light streaming in through the windows, Webb strategically placed three chandeliers to lend the right ambiance. “The best compliment someone can give me about my home isn’t just that it’s beautiful, it’s that they don’t want to leave,” she explains.
Her own two cats served as muses. Embracing the bohemian aesthetic also meant she didn’t have to worry whether the space could accommodate the kitties.
“This is their home too, so I’ve embraced the fact that they’re going to climb things, find their favorite places to sleep, and inevitably become part of the decor themselves,” she jokes. The felines roam between seemingly endless seating spots and find nooks-and-crannies for exploring (or hiding!).
To lean into the eclectic elements, Webb introduced biophilic design, including an impressive pothos display leading up the stairs to her wardrobe. It only took a few months to engulf the banister. “Living in the middle of a city, where it can genuinely be hard to touch grass some days, it was really important to me that my home felt connected to nature,” she says. “I wanted greenery everywhere and for the plants to become part of the architecture- climbing the stairs, trailing over railings, and filling the vertical space.”
Creating a sense of place also meant choosing pieces that have some permanence, which is one of the reasons Webb is drawn to vintage and thrifting. “I like imagining all of the lives [the pieces] had before they ended up in my home,” she says.
It was only natural that Webb gravitated toward designing her enclave; creativity is not something she is lacking. When she isn’t running her content creation businesses, she’s writing poems or songs. “Music is everything to me,” she explains. “[It’s] one of the most natural ways for me to process what I’m feeling. Music and interior design are actually really similar because they both create a feeling before you can necessarily explain why. A song can completely change the energy of a moment, and I think a room can do the same thing.”
That’s one of the reasons Webb insisted on having a piano in the loft. “I love that music has a physical place in my home rather than being something that only exists in my headphones,” she continues.
Fashion, of course, was another driving force in this home’s design—in fact, the closet was Webb’s biggest investment. The goal was to make it feel like an actual room, rather than just a place to store clothes. “I wanted getting dressed to feel like an experience, especially to my viewers,” she says. “It became this incredibly feminine, dramatic space where my clothes, shoes, accessories, art, lighting, and design all live together. I spend so much of my life creating, so investing in a space that makes me feel inspired every time I walk into it was completely worth it.”
For someone who views collecting as a love language, maxing out on clothes, shoes, sunglasses, art, books, and objects is only natural—and not something Webb would want to hide away. She finds certain satisfaction in seeing multiples of an object displayed all together. Why hide it when it can be eye-candy? “I like abundance,” she says. “My wardrobe is probably the most obvious example because fashion is such a huge part of my life, but that same instinct shows up throughout the entire home.”
That’s not to say Webb’s home feels cluttered or like a dumping ground. Yes, she lives with plenty, but it is all tucked away with care and intention. “I genuinely love my stuff. I know what I own, I know where it is, and I take a lot of pleasure in caring for and displaying the things I’ve chosen,” she explains.
Curating both her wardrobe and her furnishings is a way for her style to evolve and feed continuous discovery, fine-tuning her taste. “My personal style is still evolving, and I hope it always does,” she says. “The more I discover about myself, the more specific I become about what I actually like. I actually think I understood my interior design taste before I fully understood my fashion taste.”
This evolving process involves constant editing—when something new comes into her wardrobe, a piece is donated or gifted to her sisters or friends. “My rule is that everything in my closet should be something I would genuinely choose to wear today,” Webb explains. “I never want it to become a graveyard of past versions of myself.”
While the wardrobe level is all about abundance, Webb kept the bedroom area serene and uncluttered. Lulu and Georgia pieces, along with her favorite details—velvet, fringe, and cheetahs—all make an appearance in the space.
Designing may have been time-consuming but entertaining—the challenge was in finding contractors Webb could trust. “I was scammed twice during the process, and one situation escalated to the point where I had to have a contractor removed from my property by the police,” Webb says. “As a young, self-made woman managing a major renovation on my own, I learned very quickly how easy it can be for people to underestimate you or take advantage of what you don’t know.” Eventually, she found someone who could work with her, but this not-so-glamorous process tried her patience beyond what she was ever expecting.
The result, however, was stunning. Webb balanced the almost seafoam cabinet color that felt earthy and warm with glamorous golden elements: the hardware, lighting, and ceiling make it feel a little more decadent without losing warmth.
“Ironically, I never cook, but I love a beautiful kitchen, and I spend so much time in mine,” she says. “It’s actually one of the places where my friends and I naturally gather when I’m hosting. So for me, a kitchen isn’t necessarily important because I love cooking; it’s important because I love gathering.”
Across the way, in the dining room, is her favorite wallpaper in the entire house. It covers uninspired white walls, adding just enough busyness to wake up otherwise serene interiors.
Webb has come far from what she knew growing up in her small Missouri hometown. “I always knew I wanted a life that was much bigger,” she says. Not only did she create a platform that focused on giving women financial confidence and independence, but she also dove deeply into her own creative self. “What I’m writing, what I’m listening to, what I’m wearing, and how I’m decorating my home all tend to influence each other,” she says. “It’s all another way of expressing whatever version of myself I’m becoming.”
