Nickey Kehoe on Being Good Bosses and the Risks Worth Taking

View in your browser | Update your preferences

As far as meet-cutes go, AD100 designers Todd Nickey and Amy Kehoe’s was a pretty good one. Seatmates at a dinner party in New York more than two decades ago, the design professionals shared an ethos on interior design and “fell for each other that night—platonically,” Kehoe recently told AD. In the early aughts, when life took them separately to Los Angeles, they bet on those shared values, opening a design firm and later furnishings mecca Nickey Kehoe. Today, the studio has grown to 45 team members, accrued a Hollywood star-studded clientele, and boasts sprawling retail locations in LA and more recently, New York. To what do Nickey and Kehoe credit the success? Considered risks, a network of advisors, and the power of a slow burn. Take note!

—Mel Studach, Senior Editor, AD PRO

Setting Up Shop

Mel Studach: You were friends for several years before founding Nickey Kehoe in 2004. What made you confident that you’d have a strong working relationship?

Amy Kehoe: There was such a right place, right time to it. I think about where I was and where he was when we met, and there was a general openness and zest for the friendship and the shared interest in design. We were able to merge our set of experiences quickly.

Todd Nickey: We’ve always connected on aesthetics. We would go to the flea market together and gravitate toward the same things or be intrigued by what the other one was attracted to.

Amy: We sense in each other a value system, and work ethic is really important. We worked in New York when times were different. Leadership wasn’t always kind or empathy-forward. We were able to build our business on our terms and leave the temper tantrums out. It boils down to having that foundation: What would either one do in a situation that had a right or wrong in terms of values? When it comes down to things we’ve had to face in our business, I could be out of the room and he would answer perfectly for me.

READ MORE