Meet Melody Richardson

Ideal’s Design Studio manager, Melody Richardson, is all about home design. She comes up with new home interiors, chooses finishes, color schemes, floor plans, and helps customers come up with answers to the thousands of other decisions that go into building a new home.

Richardson graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in interior design and worked in the Dallas commercial architecture field for the first five years of her career. She soon discovered her passion for residential design and eventually made her way back to Oklahoma and to Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods as a design studio consultant.

“I immediately felt at home with the company, the people, and the work I was doing,” said Richardson. “I’ve been with Ideal nine years – seven as a design studio consultant and one year as the design studio operations specialist – before taking the job of design studio manager in Sept.  2022,” she continued. She also worked for a homebuilder in Tulsa for two years. She’s happy to be back in Oklahoma City and thrilled to be back with Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods.

“I love the people I work with,” Richardson said. “There’s such a sense of collaboration among all departments. Everyone in the company is focused on building the best homes and creating the best experience for Ideal customers. It’s so rewarding!” she said.

Richardson finds inspiration in how each customer personalizes their own home to their specific needs and design aesthetic. “One of the most rewarding moments for our team is seeing a customer come into our design studio with lots of ideas and thoughts, then leaving confident, happy and excited for their new home. It’s a special experience helping customers design their dream home and watch it come to life,” she continued.

The design team really is a dream team. “Everyone is unique, creative and passionate about their work,” she said. Bringing in the newest products, trends and design styles for customers to make each home feel special and highly personalized is one of the roles Richardson loves best. The design team has a unique perspective and gets to know customers in a way that’s very different from other departments. We get to know how our customers live in their homes, what expectations they have for its performance, and how they want their house to reflect their own personalities.