Photograph by Rustic White
Matthew Quinn had been working at ADAC–based Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath Studio for only two years when he received an offer to work at a well-known firm in Los Angeles. The burgeoning designer approached his boss with an unexpected ultimatum. “I said, ‘I’m going to take this job in L.A. or you need to sell me this business,’” he recalls, adding that the owner was hesitant to expand services, hire more people, and get a bigger showroom. “A lot of business was being left on the table. I knew I could make things happen if I could take the reins.”
Although his boss didn’t reject the idea outright, he also had no immediate plans to retire. After some negotiation, he and Matthew agreed that the up-and-comer could buy Design Galleria in five years. Four years into their agreement, both men were ready to bring the deal to fruition. In 2002, Matthew became the owner and CEO of the firm that gave him a home while he was in school at the American College of Applied Arts (now known as American Intercontinental University Atlanta). “I don’t know where the courage came from,” says the Key West native, who graduated from the University of Florida with plans to attend medical school at Emory University at the behest of his parents. On his sixth day at Emory, after fully recognizing the decade-long commitment he had made to a profession he didn’t love, he quit and hopped a plane to Paris.
“I knew my parents wouldn’t come and get me there,” he says, adding that they cut off his credit card after he told them about his decision during a phone call. He moved into a hostel above a coffee shop, where he worked to make enough money to travel back to Atlanta. On his days off, he immersed himself in architecture—a subject he wanted to pursue. Upon returning stateside, he chose to study at the American College of Applied Arts when Georgia Tech wouldn’t apply his previous college credits towards its architecture program. Fortunately, his first class—Drafting 101—led him to a job as a draftsman at Design Galleria.
“I believe it’s the architecture part of kitchen and bath design that I love so much,” he says. “It’s about volume and proportions. It’s space planning, which is the closest thing to architecture you can get as far as interior design. It allows me to be both technical and creative, and it’s a way for me to change people’s lives by designing functional spaces that help them save time.”
Photograph by Rustic White
Photograph by Nathan Kirkman
Matthew’s professional success began to soar as soon as he took the helm of the firm. Within six months, he had tripled the size of the showroom and hired 15 people. By 2004, he won the prestigious Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove Kitchen Design Contest, which gave him international exposure and helped him grow his clientele. And over the next two decades, his work regularly appeared in the pages of national design publications such as Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, and House Beautiful. He has also published three coffee table books, with each one highlighting diverse projects and the processes that brought them to life.
In 2019, he opened a Nashville location and soon moved into product design, collaborating with brand partners like MTI Baths, François & Co., AKDO, and La Cornue. He also turned his passion for product design into a line of his own products, the Matthew Quinn Collection, which he saw as a way to support other designers in their creative processes. “All of my products can be mixed in terms of color and texture because I didn’t want to say, ‘This is a Matthew Quinn product. Take it or leave it.’ I wanted to give designers another tool in their toolboxes to let them be creative too.”
Photograph by Rustic White
Working with others has been a cornerstone of Matthew’s career. Whether it’s his team at Design Galleria, the homeowners he serves, or the industry professionals with whom he works, collaboration is at the heart of every experience. In the end, he says, it all comes back to creating spaces that make sense for the people who live in them. “People want to live happily in spaces that represent them,” he says, “and I want to be a designer who helps make their dreams a reality.”
