Winning Designs
Hoops clients give Lexington interior designer high visibility

FROM the outside, Barbara Ricke’s office at 614 West Main Street in Lexington looks quiet. The Federal-style structure with ivy-covered trees in front could easily pass for dignified or stately. Inside, though, the office is bustling with activity.

Barbara Ricke is clearly stressed. She’s preparing furnishing selections for a wealthy client who is due to arrive any minute. The interior designer is working frantically, laying out photos and fabric swatches. Her glasses are perched atop her blonde head. She is quickly taking measurements from her client’s blueprints.

This particular client will spend nearly $1 million with Ricke, so it is important that all the elements are in place and all the details are appropriately covered.

Finally, Ricke is satisfied that she has everything in order. She looks up, smiles, and one can almost feel the immediate change in atmosphere. In the blink of an eye, Ricke becomes a gracious hostess.

Ricke, of Barbara Ricke Interiors, Ltd., specializes in fine furnishings and exclusive wall coverings. Sofa prices alone can easily reach as high as $5,000. Her clients are people who can afford to pay for the best in terms of quality and design.

Her office, which was once the old Harrison Schoolhouse, sits less than half a mile from Rupp Arena. That proximity to where the University of Kentucky plays its basketball games is worth noting because many of Ricke’s clients are athletes, coaches, and athletic directors.

She counts among her clients retiring UK Athletics Director C.M. Newton; former UK star, pro player and now horseman Sam Bowie; Jamal Mashburn, now with the Miami Heat; and Rex Chapman, who now plays for the Phoenix Suns. But the UK contingent represents only a small fraction of her overall business.

"I have 27 NBA players that I work for," Ricke explains. She has also designed home interiors for more than 20 college and pro basketball coaches. Ricke travels throughout the United States, working often in Palm Desert, California, Orlando, Miami and Atlanta.

"Basketball tournaments are a huge business for me," says Ricke. "When they (the players and coaches) come to play in Kentucky, their wives come here to shop."

In fact, Ricke got her first big break in business in 1978, when former UK Athletics Director Cliff Hagan asked her to design the interior for the UK basketball house, also known as Wildcat Lodge.

"I owe a lot of my career to Cliff Hagan," Ricke notes.

But while Hagan may have given Ricke her first break in business, long hours and taking few breaks have provided the rest. As a result, Ricke’s business now has over $5 million a year in sales.

An Indiana native, Ricke attended Ball State and Indiana University, finally transferring to Eastern Kentucky University her sophomore year. She graduated with a degree in design from EKU’s interior design program and became certified through the American Society of Interior Designers.

Her first job out of college was with an architecture and interior design firm in Louisville called Hubbuch and Company. She was making a whopping $6,500 a year when she first graduated.

In 1983, Ricke struck out on her own. She bought the old Harrison Schoolhouse and spent a year doing extensive renovation. She now has 10,000 square feet of office space on the first floor and another 10,000 square feet of living space on the second floor.

Her business has become her life. She has never married nor does she have children. She simply hasn’t had the time. Ricke says she is up at 5:30 or 6 a.m. every day and rarely stops before 8 p.m.

"Last year I started cutting down my hours," Ricke explains. "Now I try to finish up at 8 p.m." Still, she admits, "you have to give your life to be this successful."

Ricke’s apartment is decorated in light colors with an eclectic blend of furnishings. Silver-framed photographs of family and friends decorate the tables. A grand piano sits in one corner of the living room. Her kitchen features a commercial stove and refrigerator. She has just under 20 television sets in her apartment. That allows her to catch game scores from any room. Ricke makes sure she knows how her clients’ teams are faring.

She doesn’t mind getting personally involved. She picks her clients up at the airport and often invites them to stay in her guest bedroom while they are in town. Through a friend, she even helps them purchase fine jewelry for their wives or girlfriends.

"I believe in old-fashioned customer service," Ricke explains. "And I like all my clients. They become my friends."

Her apartment expresses Ricke’s own theory that furnishings don’t have to be the same style or even from the same time period. "But," she says, "it ought to blend and it ought to be compatible."

She says she doesn’t foist her own style onto her clients. A phrase embroidered on a small pillow on her sofa acts as a reminder: "Everyone is entitled to an opinion."

"I listen," says Ricke. "That’s probably my best quality. I will do anything that the client wants as long as it’s tasteful."

Her greatest gift, she says, is an ability to "see things in my mind. I can walk into a shack and see it totally decorated," she says.

Lisa Summers is a staff writer for The Lane Report.

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