While in New York, Barden decorated houses from the Hamptons to the Upper East Side. Once while he was on a ladder adjusting a light fixture for Anne Bancroft, her husband walked in, and Barden was surprised to be shaking hands with Mel Brooks. “I had no idea they were even married,” confides Barden.

Barden says he does traditional furniture, “family pieces,” but with fresh colors and fabrics: bold vintage stripes and prints, a Virginia take on Lilly Pulitzer. For instance, he’s been working on a Chippendale sofa but recovered it in a sage herringbone with chocolate piping.

Barden returned to Richmond to be closer to his family, saying a decade in the big city was enough. He bought a house in Church Hill, where he originally planned to do all his work, until he happened across his current Libbie Avenue location. “I saw the place the day [the prior tenant] moved out,” Barden says. “As soon as I saw this place, I was like, ‘This is it!’ I jumped right on it.”

David Barden Home is located at 306B Libbie Ave. For more information, call (804) 288-3909.