The driving force for Teresa Keegan to become a designer happened when she was 10 years old. Having grown up in the wooded hills outside Tulsa Oklahoma, she was surrounded by nature and with her mother being an artist was also introduced to the importantace of all things beautiful and the act of making things beautiful. On one of her mothers’ outings, she was taken to the 1920’s mansion of oil mogul Wyatt Phillips (Phillips 66) now Philbrook Art Museum, where she overheard the museum’s docent explaining to a group gathered on the back terrace, that the reason you see the reflection of the gazebo below in the Koi pond is because it was designed that way. And when you go down to the gazebo and look into the same pond, you see a perfect mirrored reflection of the mansion and terrace above. It was at that moment Teresa realized that is what she wanted to do in life. Construction and job sites seem to be in her blood. Even her family home had been designed by her mother; and built by her father, who inherently just knew how to construct a home. The construction “crew” consisted of her older brothers. As the youngest, Teresa was the assistant on the family job site. She was fascinated by the design and construction process of her home. The natural surrounding were always the focus of her parents’ vision. Each window in the home framed a beautiful view of the landscape beyond, which changed dramatically with each new season. To this day Teresa uses some form of nature to complete an interior space and thrives when the opportunity to work on exterior spaces arises.

In 1991, Ms. Keegan moved to Seattle, Washington to pursue her degree in, and her passion for, Interior Design. She feels fortunate to have worked with several award winning Designers and Architects. Her career started out as an assistant at Margaret Appleton Design. That is where she learned about quality over quantity and how every detail was purposeful in Margaret’s elegant mix of antiques and classical design. She also worked at the Terris Draheim Showroom and was taught about the power of black from Mr. Draheim. He said, “Just a bit of black in a fabric, makes it sing”. He was right and that observation has stuck with her over the years. Teresa then moved on to be the in-house designer for a real estate developer and once again was on many job sites, in work boots and a hard hat, a perfectly polished pink hard hat, of course. She was able to participate and oversee in the budgeting, specifying, & the installation of large scale custom residential and commercial projects. One of her favorites to date was a re-build of a boutique hotel in Idaho; Teresa enjoyed the opportunity to work with award winning Architect, Tom Kundig of Seattle’s’ Olsen Sundberg, Kundig & Allen (OSKA) and also with principal, Jerry Allison, of the famed Wimberley Allison Tong & Goo (WAT&G). The hotel incorporated nature, modern design and functionality at its best. After graduating from design school, she took on the position as lead Interior Designer and owner’s rep. of the 20 million dollar development, Mallard Cove Town Homes, located on the shores of Seattle’s’ Lake Union.

By 2005, Teresa had found her way to sunny Las Vegas, Nevada and started her own firm, Keegan Designs. Using the “thread” that started in her childhood and has evolved throughout her 15 years in the design world, she blends modern design with nature, and a bit of glamour that results in a unified, luminescent, and magical space. With thought in every detail; her ideas are refined and utilized in the final design. She creates spaces that are warm and inviting, layered with textures that shimmer making them completely unique for each client.

In 2008 Ms. Keegan was chosen as one of the designers for the second season of Bravo TV’s Top Design Show; and was featured in the September 2008 issue of Elle Décor magazine. She showed America a bit of her Modern Zen Glamour, in the unrealistic time frame that reality TV provides. Her current focus is incorporating more exterior spaces in her future projects. And in a city that has so much glitz, she hopes to provide a relaxing shimmer that envelopes her clients with a peaceful Zen energy and ultimately… happiness.