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By Walinda P. West | Photography by Peak Visuals
Interior designers spend their days refining other people’s lives: shaping rooms, editing collections, and translating personalities into livable spaces. But when it came to her own home, Lisa Tullai, founder of Annapolis Interiors, says she applied the same advice she gives her clients: “Surround yourself only with the things that carry meaning, comfort, or make you smile.”
“It’s funny,” Tullai says. “People assume that as a designer, I must live in a house that looks like whatever’s trending on Instagram or HGTV. But I don’t follow trends. My personal style is eclectic—what I call ‘global glam.’ Some people might be surprised by the choices I’ve made, but everyone who knows me says my house looks like me.”
When Tullai and her husband John purchased their 1980s contemporary home in Bay Ridge in 2018, it wasn’t the interiors that drew them in but the location and architecture. The bones of the house were modern, but years of renovations had muted its original spirit. Tullai’s mission was to peel those back and restore the home to its contemporary roots, while enhancing with her own globally influenced aesthetic, focusing on sheen and texture.
From the entryway, the house sets the tone for everything that follows. White walls and clean lines provide a quiet canvas for carefully chosen objects gathered from around the world. Yet the home never feels overdone; instead, each piece carries a story of heirlooms or reminds the couple of their travels and love of modern works of art.
Above the front door hangs a set of six sculptural, patinated masks: a nod to modernist self-portraiture. An African bench anchors the space, drawing guests toward the living room (or conversation room, as Tullai calls it), where an oversized wildlife photograph of a once-abandoned fox nicknamed Stella—shot by a Pasadena photographer—commands the wall. A replica of a Lincoln Imp, a medieval gargoyle-like figure from England’s Lincoln Cathedral, playfully migrates through the house, tucked in unexpected places like an Elf on the Shelf during Christmas—a nod to Tullai’s sense of humor.
The home’s personality is as practical as it is curated. The couple shares their home with three cats: Luhan, a 13-year-old Russian Blue, Niara, a seven-year-old rescue Tabby, and Koi Ishto—better known as Mr. Big—an 18-month-old Maine Coon. Their presence shaped the interiors as much as Tullai’s design direction. As every piece of furniture was meant to be truly lived in, she chose scratch-resistant fabrics for the upholstery. “Nothing is off limits,” Tullai says with a laugh. Mr. Big, in particular, has claimed a Phillips Collection coffee table as his preferred perch.
One of the couple’s favorite rooms, where Tullai’s humor shines through, is the powder room: a jewel box of a room wrapped in Phillip Jeffries’ python-inspired wallpaper, bespoke fixtures and lighting, and two commissioned paintings of the couple’s cats posed in regal attire set in ornate gilded frames, a tongue-in-cheek take on classical portraiture.
Two years after the couple purchased their home, COVID came. Avid boaters, the couple had sold their boat, and like many, were feeling secluded. “We spent a lot of time in the house and realized it wasn’t functioning, especially for John, because he’s the cook. We were missing being on the boat, and I said, ‘What if we gave the kitchen the feeling of our favorite place on the boat, the flybridge?’” To achieve the look, the couple opened up the back of the house to create a sunroom, which allowed them to reconfigure and expand the kitchen with a cantilevered, leathered granite waterfall island. John Tullai, an engineer, designed the island to be held by a single bracket, which gives it the appearance of being suspended in the air, so that the piece channels the weightless feeling of a boat’s flybridge.
Just as John Tullai claimed the kitchen space, Lisa Tullai claimed the basement, where she designed what she refers to as her “she-shed.” The Chesapeake Bay wallpaper mural that wraps around the walls gives Tullai the illusion of open water when she is working out, watching television, or working from home.
Upstairs, the primary bedroom balances glamour and comfort with a metallic cork accent wall highlighting a custom mahogany headboard. Tullai designed a built-in dresser that performs triple duty with a dresser on one side, a custom, lighted shoe closet on the other side, and an armoire in the middle section that holds scarves and jewelry, marrying storage with display in a way that feels both functional and indulgent.
In her home’s design, Tullai did what she tells clients to do: “Don’t be afraid to take risks.” Ultimately, the house is not meant to showcase Tullai’s design credentials; rather, it’s a narrative of travel, relationships, and memories. When she walks in the door, Tullai says everything she sees is something she loves, and that’s what she wants for her clients: a home that brings them joy.
INTERIOR DESIGN: Lisa Tullai, Annapolis Interiors
LIVING ROOM
Sofa: Lexington
Chair and Bench: Ambella Home
Coffee Table: Phillips Collection
Side Tables: African Tribal Drums
Console Cabinet: Century Furniture
DINING ROOM
Side Chairs: Arteriors
Custom Table Top: Indigenous by La Rue
Light: Savoy House
Drink Cart: Uttermost
Shelf Unit: Second Chance
Wall Art: Authentic Filipino Carved Wood Masks; Native American Indian “Raven”
KITCHEN
Cabinets: Omega – Cherry
Appliances: ADU – GE Cafe
Countertops: In Home Stone
Barstools: LeatherCraft
POWDER ROOM
Wallpaper: Phillip Jeffries
Cabinet: Bemma
Fixtures: Ferguson
Custom Artwork: Frame Shoppe
© Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 16, No. 5 2025