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To entice employees who have become all too comfortable working remotely, companies are now radically rethinking their offices, bringing the comforts of home into the workplace. On this, as with so much else, designer Alexa Hampton is way ahead of the game.
Recently, the Manhattan-based AD100 Hall of Famer moved herself and her six-person team into new Upper East Side quarters, in what had previously been a nail salon. “It was totally empty, save for two mani-pedi chairs,” Hampton recalls with a laugh. Her yearlong renovation included the addition of custom millwork, wide-plank flooring, and air-conditioning necessitated by the huge south-facing window that floods the space with sunlight. “That window is the greatest thing that has happened to me,” says Hampton, settling onto the cranberry velvet sofa beneath it.
Surrounding her is ample proof of her well-honed eye: chairs found at Italy’s Parma antiques market, a mantel she designed for Chesneys, neoclassical commodes and consoles and obelisks and urns. At one end, a library holds an archive of shelter magazines, many of them from the 1970s and ’80s when the work of her father—the legendary decorator Mark Hampton, whose firm she took over in 1998—was regularly featured.
His watercolors are also displayed throughout the room, among them depictions of the Buccellati earrings he once gave to her mother and a room by Madeleine Castaing, a design hero for both father and daughter.
As pretty as it is, the office is also practical. The small new kitchen is fitted out with a wine cooler and an ice machine. “My favorite,” she says emphatically of the latter. “I had to have that.” At the back is a small private conference room that can double as a retreat for her husband. Picture lights, sconces, and lamps all throughout can accommodate various lighting permutations. “We put in track lights so we could show clients true colors,” explains Hampton, for whom the space serves as a virtual laboratory. “I can show clients a mahogany door and a faux-painted mahogany door. I can show them what a jib door is. They can examine a level-5 paint job and compare that to a normal one. I want clients to see the options, and how they operate in real life.”
With her numerous design projects, noted philanthropy, and many public appearances, Hampton is one of the hardest-working people in the industry. But that hasn’t kept her from pursuing another labor of love, her online series, 52 Weeks of Design. Each week, for the past six years, she has highlighted the work of a different designer, artisan, or editor supporting and engaging the design community. “I’m one of those people who has to be busy,” she admits. “I’m not a pickleball player. I don’t have a hobby. So, this is what I do after hours. It’s nourishing.” As is her new workspace. “In 2026, the firm Mark Hampton will be 50 years old,” she reflects. “I will have been doing this for 28 years. And I came to this realization, how do you want to live your life? And I didn’t want to live much of mine in an office-y office.” alexahampton.com
