5 Under 40 Winner Heidi Lachapelle

Portrait by Bruce Rogovin

Photography by Erin Little

Photography by Erin Little

Photography by Erin Little

Photography by Trent Bell

Heidi Lachapelle was on maternity leave following the birth of her first child when she decided to open an interior design business. “In hindsight, I was very naive, but maybe that was a good thing,” she says. She joined forces with Katie Judkins, her sister-in-law and longtime friend, and within two months they had their first client. Six years later, Portland, Maine-based Heidi Lachapelle Interiors has added four people to its staff and completed scores of design projects throughout New England and beyond. At any given time, Lachapelle says, she and her team are working on a dozen or more homes.

Lachapelle, who studied studio art at Bates College, came to interior design from the fashion merchandising world, but moving into home design wasn’t as big a leap as it might sound. In retail, she created window displays and determined the layout of merchandise in the company’s stores. “In a lot of ways, I was doing what I do now,” she says.

She describes her aesthetic as a blend of modern and traditional that balances comfort and sophistication. “My design philosophy, very simply, is that I love creating beautiful spaces,” she says.

While her clients frequently share her design aesthetic, she enjoys working with homeowners who have a different sensibility. “I love how that has helped stretch my own aesthetic and push my creativity in a direction I didn’t know I could go,” she says.

In her ongoing search for new challenges, Lachapelle muses about the idea of opening a retail home‑design boutique in the future. “I’d like to get into retail because that’s where I started,” she says. “It would give us the opportunity to experiment.”

Meanwhile, working with clients offers plenty of satisfaction. “I love leaving a project knowing we created a forever home for somebody,” she says.