Maye Ruiz, the Mexican founder of Maye Estudio, has built her career and personal identity around one defining element: the color red. The interior designer, who describes her relationship with the hue as a "codependency," never leaves home without incorporating red into her outfit, whether through a purse, earrings, or even red socks peeking out from under a white dress.
"When I started wearing red, I felt more powerful," Ruiz explains. "The more I wore it, the more I realized it matched my soul and spirit. It sounds crazy because it's just a color, but it gives me support and energy. Now I'm too attached to it. I think I have a codependency with red." This passion for bold contrasts and vibrant colors extends far beyond her wardrobe into her interior design work, where she's become known for creating spaces that challenge conventional design rules.
Ruiz's design philosophy centers on the unexpected and playful combinations that shouldn't work in theory but create magic in practice. She advocates for bold color choices, particularly painting both walls and ceilings in rich hues like butter yellow or mint green paired with dark burgundy or brown. "Go big or go home!" she says about adding color to homes. "People are scared of it, but when you lose the fear of adding color to your walls, everything looks so much nicer."
The designer's obsession with tiles plays a central role in her work, particularly artisanal ones from Dolores Hidalgo, a small city near her current home in San Miguel de Allende. She loves the imperfection of handmade ceramics and finds creative ways to incorporate them, such as tiling side tables or pedestals. Her most recent furniture purchase was a wicker chair called "La Tuna," named after the fruit of the Nopal cactus that appears on Mexico's national emblem, designed by Mestiz, her husband's furniture brand.
Mexico City holds a special place in Ruiz's heart, having lived there for almost five years. She describes it as her favorite city in the world, drawn to its contrasts and layers where "you'll find a super-decorative building next to a trashy façade." During her time there, she photographed what she calls "shitty places" – street food spots, graffitied walls, and worn facades – finding beauty in the unexpected. "Those places have a lot of magic in Mexico City. I love how something ugly can be accidentally beautiful."
Her aesthetic inspirations draw heavily from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, whose work she considers her biggest reference. "All the main characters in his movies wear red," she notes. "When I got into his work, I felt like a character in one of his films." She particularly admires specific pieces from his films, including the Gerrit Thomas Rietveld Utrecht chairs in "Pain and Glory" and the olive-green velvet sofa with burgundy piping from "The Skin I Live In." If her house were burning down, she would save her copy of "The Pedro Almodóvar Archives" by Paul Duncan.
Ruiz's personal style icons include Leandra Medine Cohen, former blogger behind Man Repeller, whom she admires for being "really bold and experimental." She also looks up to Spanish entrepreneur Blanca Miró Scrimieri and French fashion brand founder Jeanne Damas, appreciating different aspects of their styles while maintaining her own unique aesthetic that often incorporates animal prints and statement accessories.
In her daily life, Ruiz surrounds herself with objects that reflect her personality and heritage. Her kitchen always contains plenty of cheese varieties, capers, and coriander – reflecting both her tendency to become obsessed with certain foods and her Mexican roots. She's particularly fond of a lettuce-shaped ceramic bowl she bought at Feira da Ladra flea market in Lisbon, which now holds keys at her home's entrance. The experience of buying it, with her cousin negotiating in Portuguese, made it especially meaningful.
The designer's commitment to meaningful objects extends to artwork and gifts. She treasures a painting of red carnations by her great aunt, which she requested after the artist's death in the 1980s. Recent wedding gifts have included works by Mexico City-based artist duo Celeste and pieces by Kitty Ramos and Jose Dávila. She recently gave a friend "La Mala Costumbre" by Spanish writer Alana S Portero, a powerful book about the transgender experience that her friend read in one sitting.
Ruiz's approach to wellness includes regular deep-tissue massages from her masseuse Adena and EMDR therapy with her therapist Margarita, whose colorful studio sits next to a dam in San Miguel de Allende. "It makes you recall memories and discover where trauma lies in your body," she explains about the trauma-release therapy. "Sometimes it helps me more than talking about things." In another life, she says she would have been a psychologist, drawn to human behavior and the complexity of the mind.
The designer's love for games, particularly Continental Rummy played with multiple card decks, reveals her competitive side. "I become a different character, like a villain," she admits about her game-playing persona. She also enjoys quiet moments arranging flowers, particularly exotic varieties like red anthuriums and birds of paradise, finding it helps her stay present in an age of social media distractions. Her favorite room in her house is the living room, centered around her beloved library where she constantly rearranges books and objects while entertaining guests with drinks, conversation, and music.
Ultimately, Ruiz sees her work as extending beyond mere decoration to color therapy. "I believe in color as therapy and I often help people find the best color for them," she explains. "I love to help people find their red." This philosophy encapsulates her approach to both design and life – helping others discover the colors and combinations that make them feel powerful, authentic, and alive, just as red has done for her throughout her journey from a girly childhood wardrobe chosen by her mother to becoming a confident designer who has built her entire aesthetic around bold, beautiful contrasts.
