Recognition
Best of Boston Home Award,
"Best Designer, Bathroom"
Boston Magazine, Winter 2013
Best of Boston Home Award,
"Modern Interior Designer"
Boston Magazine, Winter 2011
Best of Boston Home Award,
"Modern Designer"
Boston Magazine, Winter 2010
"Five Under Forty Designer"
New England Home Magazine, 2010
"Rising Star Designer"
Metropolitan Magazine, 2009
Boston Common
New England Design Hall of Fame,
"Interior Designer" Inductee of 2017
Publications
International Furnishings and Design Association - New England Chapter,
"Lifetime Achievement Award" 2023
Peng Shui
Spring 2010
Sharp design anchors a Back Bay penthouse with tranquil, modern style.
When fashion. accessory and interior designer Meichi Peng first saw her client's penthouse at 360 Newbury Street, the duplex was a drywall box. The long, narrow entrance opened into the living room with 18-foot ceilings. The master bedroom, located on a mezzanine level overlooking the sunny living room, was plain and lacked privacy.
It's In The Bag
Fall 2011
Whether it's a purse or a penthouse, Meichi Peng can design it with finesse.
Any designer can pull together a pretty room, but what really defines a space as thoughtfully composed versus glossily beautified is the attention to detail of the designer at the helm. Few can trump Meichi Peng at this. Whether working on an 18,000-square-foot single-family home in Chestnut Hill or modern hotel residences in downtown boston, as she is currently, Peng assesses not only the surface of the space, but also its inner workings. "we address room function and client lifestyle and needs as the foundation of any well designed home," she says, describing her approach as "architecturally eclectic with a modern sensibility suited to each client's personal style."
Whether it's a purse or a penthouse, Meichi Peng can design it with finesse.
Any designer can pull together a pretty room, but what really defines a space as thoughtfully composed versus glossily beautified is the attention to detail of the designer at the helm. Few can trump Meichi Peng at this. Whether working on an 18,000-square-foot single-family home in Chestnut Hill or modern hotel residences in downtown boston, as she is currently, Peng assesses not only the surface of the space, but also its inner workings. "we address room function and client lifestyle and needs as the foundation of any well designed home," she says, describing her approach as "architecturally eclectic with a modern sensibility suited to each client's personal style."
6 Boston-Area Interior Design Experts
Spring 2017
While the seasons seem to change daily in Boston, the interior design community is already in spring mode. We spoke with 6 Boston experts about the most popular spring design trends, from saturated jewel tones to 360 degree silhouettes.
"Hidden features is a hot trend right now that I have been embracing in my work for years; I love the less is more mantra. But now more than ever we are seeing it being used in lighting, appliances for kitchen and bath, and even spaces like a powder room that can be completely hidden with incorporated millwork design, which is great for city dwellers who want to maximize space."
Boston Home
Above and Beyond
Spring 2009
With a dark palette and sleek lines, the 3,000-square-foot duplex apartment is flawlessly detailed. Lighting is recessed and unobtrusive. Most fixtures are concealed. “We tried to hide all hardware to get a clean look,” Peng explains. “I like a minimal style, something that is quiet and reflective,” echoes the owner. “It’s a Japanese aesthetic—open space over clutter. The Western aesthetic is more about filling up spaces.”
One of Peng's most dramatic additions was a glass staircase that replaced the original stair. By attaching steps to a central spine and installing a glass banister, Peng created a strong architectural element. She clad the adjacent wall in Inca gray slate—a rough surface that makes a lovely foil for the sleek glass. Another stunning feature: a two-story bookcase for the owners' growing collection of art books. "We wanted to accentuate the verticality of the space," Peng says.
Best of Boston Home
Winter 2011
A Grand Production
Fall 2009
The main event is the amazing 1,904-square-foot living space (with 17-foot-high ceilings) just beyond the vestibule. A 27-foot-long curved plaster wall draws the eye from the entrance into this grand space, which comfortably accommodates a dining room for 10, an Arclinea kitchen with a 20-foot-long island, and an earth-toned living room. Interior designer Meichi Peng chose appropriately scaled pieces such as low-lying linen Flexform sofas and Poliform tables, which worked well with the Grads' Modenature chairs. Peng also custom designed the living and dining room tables and an oak staple bench near the entry, all of which the home-owner says transforms the daunting space into a comfortable family home.
Best of Home Award "Modern Designer"
Winter 2010
Peng has positively skyrocketed to the top of her field in just a few years. Her interiors are contemporary and singular: perfectly proportioned, always confident, a touch exotic. For a taste of her artful approach, step into her Harrison Avenue boutique Peng, where she elegantly displays objets d'art from around the globe alongside her line of handmade bags. All of which leaves us wondering, What can't this woman do?
Bathroom
Winter 2013
No one in Boston can match Peng's vigor and style; everything she touches becomes a study in elegance and grace. The thirty-something interior designer's prolific practice outfits many of the modern penthouses in the city. But that's not enough to satisfy her creativity: She also runs a SoWa shop exhibiting global treasures (handpicked during her travels) and her own line of to-die-for handbags.
Having dreamed up designs for the city's top penthouse and her eponymous handbag line, Meichi Peng can do, well, just about anything. But her contemporary, global aesthetic is particularly suited to that most personal of spaces: the bathroom, which, with her help, is sure to become the most breathtaking and serene room in your home.
Boston Magazine
Above and Beyond
Spring 2009
Boston’s skyline has changed dramatically over the past decade, and one of its shining new icons is the Residences at W Boston in the Theater District. Designed by William Rawn Associates, the building is wrapped head to toe in glass, and its boatlike profile—complete with a prow jutting out toward the corner of Stuart and Tremont streets—affords sweeping views of the city. The top unit at the bow of this particular ship is one of the most coveted addresses in town.
Finding someone to work on the layout and interior finishes of the challenging 2,600-square-foot unit was easy: The Boston-based interior designer Meichi Peng had done a demo condominium for the W, and Bright liked her work. “We connected immediately,” he said. “Her charge was to have this mixture of old and new, to make it feel seamless.”
10 Questions with Interior Designer Meichi Peng
Spring 2014
With clean lines and eclectic accents, Meichi Peng helps her clients express their individuality and feel serene. Peng, the founder of Peng Furnishings, lets us in on how to create a soothing, aesthetic space and why going the distance for your dream is always worth it.
Coup Boston
Marrying High Style with Serenity
Spring 2013
Designing a home and designing a handbag each necessitate a balance between contemporary individuality and traditional technique. Peng, who just so happens to be a whiz at both, is generally known most for her sleek, finely detailed handbag designs. But this year, she officially killed it in the interior design arena as well. Her biggest and most noteworthy home projects (much like her totes) are understated and full of texture. A stunning Boston penthouse for a certain (press-shy) Hollywood producer, for example, features a modern meditation room equipped with an ancient and gigantic Buddha head. Equally spectacular was her custom-built Zen den in Chestnut Hill that included a home gym to give any Equinox location a run for its money, a media room, and a dizzyingly gorgeous outdoor oasis complete with a custom kitchen, pool, cabanas, and a custom waterfall.
Design New England
Dining by Design
March/April 2009
Meichi Peng's team created a dining area that combines modern sensibilities with natural materials. Peng draped filmy sheer fabric over the structure for an intimate ambience. On the room's perimeter, a channel of white river stones mimics the curvilinear dining plates, and injects Zen-like calm. "It's about the contrast between the pergola structure, the metal mesh drapery, and the natural elements of white river rock and natural moss offsetting the wood table and glass accessories," says Jeff Osborne, designer at Meichi Peng Studio.
Urban Legend
July/August 2010
With a dark palette and sleek lines, the 3,000-square-foot duplex apartment is flawlessly detailed. Lighting is recessed and unobtrusive. Most fixtures are concealed. “We tried to hide all hardware to get a clean look,” Peng explains. “I like a minimal style, something that is quiet and reflective,” echoes the owner. “It’s a Japanese aesthetic—open space over clutter. The Western aesthetic is more about filling up spaces.”
The loft’s square footage, with its nearly 18-foot-high ceilings, wooed the couple. The structure’s history also held allure: Built in 1918 as the Boston Transit Building at Newbury Street and Massachusetts Avenue, it was retrofitted by architect Frank Gehry in 1987; he added two more stories and a dramatic parapet supported by oversized lead-coated struts...
A Room of Her Own
November/December 2010
After meeting with the client to determine her likes and dislikes, Peng presented her with three options for palette and materials. "She chose the one that was most luxurious and had the most texture," says Peng. Soft gray marble sourced from three different companies and rich walnut are the foundations of the scheme. To that Peng added gray lacquer finishes for the two floor-to-ceiling towers of shelves and drawers at each end of the vanity and a wider towel on one wall used to store towels and other accessories.
Esplanade
Interior Design
September/October 2010
Meichi Peng was incredibly creative with the one-bedroom residence at the W that she was given to transform. Her team reconfigured a long hallway to contain a study with floor to ceiling bookcases on one side, and an unobstructed city view on the other. To facilitate actual work light diffusing roman blinds were fabricated for the unit. The blinds can be used to create just the right amount of ambient light for work, or pulled all the way up can reveal that million dollar view. Rich blacks, oyster whites and dark wood is used in her interior to create a simple sophistication. Peng moved the dining area right up against the unit’s sleek kitchen. By painting the entire backsplash and area surrounding the cabinetry dark to match, the working area of the kitchen visually recedes, allowing the focus to be on the dining. Every detail in the residence is exacting…but never fussy.
New England Home
Five Under Forty
September/October 2010
A Meichi Peng interior is serene and calm. The overall look is clean and contemporary, yet always with a humanizing touch of organic curves and textures. Then a finely judged eclectic detail transforms a simple living space into a personal retreat.
Meichi’s quest for just the right detail in any circumstance is also reflected in the stunning wool and silk rug she designed with Landry & Arcari for the 5 Under 40 charity auction.
In 2009 Meichi was named a "Rising Star Designer" by Metropolitan Home.
Winter Warmer
January/February 2012
For a couple who enjoys city life during the cooler months, Boston-based designer Meichi Peng creates a space to keep them cozy through the chilly season.
For many New Englanders, dropping temperatures send a signal to head south for the winter, toward second homes tucked away in warmer climes. The return north happens only after the first crouses have crept up through the melting snow, their soft yellow and lavendar heads heralding spring.
Perspectives
September/October 2012
Future Perfect
May/June 2014
2017 New England Design Hall of Fame
December 2017
“Involving Meichi early in the project assured us that the look and feel of the house would be uniform and the floors, walls, and fixtures would be complemented by the furnishings we had in mind,” says Ken.
Changes big and small contributed to the transformation from condo building to comfortable home, including relocating two bathrooms, the kitchen pantry, and the master closet to make room for the new elevator, as well as turning a onetime coal-storage area into a wine cellar and creating an expansive roof deck.
Year in and year out (eleven and counting), the inductees to the Hall of Fame continue to raise the bar, elevating our already lofty expectations of good design. The people we celebrate this year join a small but venerable group of architects, interior designers, landscape designers, builders, and other professionals who have done their part to shape our surroundings and delight our senses.
The 2017 class spans New England, from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, to Greenwich, Connecticut, to the greater Boston area. Their deep and diverse portfolios represent decades of experience. They are talented. They are passionate. They are philanthropic.
The Boston Globe
A Model of Good Taste
January 2010
Meichi Peng has become the city’s go-to design virtuoso for creating model units that demand attention. Her contemporary interior architecture and designs have helped sell million-dollar condominiums at 360 Newbury Street and helped move the more modest units of 285 Columbus Lofts. Though her business also includes residential design, Peng is increasingly associated with high-end commercial work.
For the W, Peng designed the sales center, which resembles one of the building’s condominiums. She later chose finishes for the condos, such as tile and cabinets. Her schemes reflect just a hint of her Taiwanese upbringing - an ancient Buddha head there, a piece of Asian art there - but they primarily show the talents of someone who has a keen ability to create a room that is modern and chic, but doesn’t feel sterile.
The Boston Globe Magazine
All That Glass
August 2008
His two-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot condo has soaring windows that offer breathtaking vistas of the city, the Charles River, Cambridge, and beyond. Interior designer Meichi Peng says the views are the 46-year-old Kemeny's "living art," since they change with the time of the day and the seasons.
Chocolate-stained walnut covers the floors, providing a rich contrast to the snow-white walls and all that glass. Design accents like an antique woodcarved Buddha, an ivory Indian headdress, and tribal currency speak to his appreciation of different cultures, and as Peng notes, let you get to know the person who lives there. A stairway with a glass-paneled railing leads to a private perch - an office, tucked upstairs to offer peace and quiet, and the master suite, with a full bath, two walk-in closets, and a glass-walled seating area overlooking the living room.
The Italian Job
February 2010
A unique mix of sleep European furniture and ornate Chinese art and antiques gives a South End apartment worldly appeal.
In spite of all the beautiful art and Italian furniture, the owner wasn’t quite satisfied with his condominium, a two-story unit in a 19th-century town house. To help him finish the place and make his disparate elements look and feel more connected, he called in Boston designer Meichi Peng. Peng punctuated the rooms with decorative Chinese antiques, such as the Qing Dynasty lions that guard the living room’s hearth and early 19th-century ceremonial rice-cake molds, both of which she found on a shopping trip to Taiwan. The pieces blend beautifully. “I love modern Italian furniture,” says the owner, “but when used exclusively, there’s not much personality.”