Designing Runs in the Family: Young Jupiter Interior Designer Carves Her Path
Written by John Pacenti
Photography by Elizabeth Palace
For 26-year-old Alexis Cox, interior design wasn't just a career choice – it was practically her destiny.
"My mom's an interior designer, my dad's a graphic designer, and my brother's a fashion designer,” Alexis explained.
Alexis has made her imprint on northern Palm Beach County and beyond with LexInterior and is one of a group of young professional women in the interior design industry who have banded together to give each other support and advice.
Visit her website or Instagram (lexinterior.com, @lexinterior_), and Alexis’s aesthetic becomes clear: Coastal Living.
When discussing style and home design for the Jupiter area, she offered up, “I would say clean lines. Take away the clutter, but still have accessories and still be able to tell a story throughout your house,” she said.
Her expertise shines through. Ask her about how wallpaper has made a comeback, and soon thoughts of redecorating one’s living room come on strong.
“I would say most of the wallpaper I do is either a grass cloth, textured, not a linen, but like a weave that a lot of coastal clients like to use here,” she said. “Another one is anything with some sort of pattern. So that would be in replacement of art."
Even as a child, Alexis showed early signs of her future profession. "There are even pictures of me with my mom and me having color palettes out with her clients as a 3-year-old,” she said.
Her unique childhood fascination extended beyond color swatches. When she visited other homes, "I had to go to their bathroom because I wanted to see what their bathroom looked like," she recalled.
Alexis graduated from the University of Tennessee during the peak of COVID-19, a challenging time for emerging designers. "Right after that, I didn't get any design job. Nobody was hiring,” she said.
Her career trajectory changed when she moved to Jupiter. After working with two designers whose styles didn't resonate with her, Alexis's mother stepped in.
This family support became the foundation of LexInterior, her design business. "She passed on the clients to me. And then from that, I just got referral after referral from those clients,” she said.
She is ‘an excellent listener who doesn't push her own ideas but instead provides thoughtful choices.’- Tracey Meehan, client
Alexis’s design philosophy centers on "livable luxury."
"I feel so many designers here only do very, very high-end. I didn't grow up the wealthiest,” she said. “Money doesn't drive happiness for me. So I love just being able to create spaces for any type of client.”
Her approach is comprehensive. "No project is too small for me,” she said. “Since I'm so new, I have been lucky to get full, brand new, $3 million houses, and I've also done small apartments."
Currently, Alexis is designing seven houses in Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens, a few in Boca Raton and one in Palm City.
One happy client is Tracey Meehan, who wanted her Avenir home to have a different feel than her main residence in New England to “avoid a traditional Boston-style look, as she put it.”
She said Alexis is “an excellent listener who doesn't push her own ideas but instead provides thoughtful choices.”
The designer helped Meehan and her husband create a coastal design for their Florida home by having her create a Pinterest board and carefully guiding their design choices.
Alexis also has fans among her colleagues. In the competitive world of interior design, she has joined a powerful network of young female professionals under the age of 30 in the design industry.
"I feel like I really learned so much more from our little networking group, because we tell each other stories, and what we're dealing with and what we could help with,” she said.
Alexis’s family continues to play a crucial role in her business. "My brother does all my apparel for the brand, and my dad does all the graphics and the website, while my mom helps me with interior design."
The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly boosted her industry, she noted.
"People spent so much time in their homes that they realized all the items that they wanted to fix. And they're working from home now, and they want to spruce it up a bit,” she said.
With a supportive family, a growing client base, and a passion for creating livable, personalized spaces, Alexis Cox is proving that for some, design truly is in the blood.
