Focus: Joshua Charles & Taylor Moody

Introducing Joshua Charles and Taylor Moody, the visionary designers behind Common House New Orleans. Josh and Taylor have worked for many years to turn the space on Julia St. into a reality.

The concept behind Common House New Orleans is to bring out the inner child in everyone. From the beginning of the design process, the duo focused on honoring the building's past, now the fourth Common House. Research revealed that The Louisiana Children’s Museum held significant meaning for many New Orleanians. To honor that, they aimed to embrace the child in all of us.

For the design, this meant thinking outside the box and beyond the constraints of the “adult” world—no rules. Inspiration for the project came from re-reading "Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak with Joshua’s nephew. This led to the realization that the focus should be on creating a playful space that stays true to the building's roots and soul, which is to play.

The theme for Common House New Orleans is color. The goal was to lead without fear, combining colors, textures, patterns, forms, shapes, and sizes. Typically, Common House has focused on more muted colors with light patterns, but New Orleans inspired a more playful and bold approach.

As Josh and Taylor experimented with forms, colors, shapes, and patterns, the idea of fun remained at the forefront of their design process and became the guiding foundation of the project.