Thirty Under 30: Victoria Thayer

By Donna Heiderstadt

The San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state may be a small corner of the world, but for Victoria Thayer childhood summers spent there with her grandparents opened her eyes to a big connection between people and the way they choose to live. “From modern cliffside palaces to geodesic domes, cabins in the woods, beach houses, and a house that could only be described in a J.R.R Tolkien fantasy novel, I was exposed to many people’s dream homes and who they were that led them to the environment they had built,” she explains. This, in turn, led Victoria to believe that the union of home, environment, and self is “undeniably instinctive.”

As Showroom Manager & Designer at Pedini NW in Seattle for the past year, Victoria is in the very unique position of being the sole Seattle employee for the Portland, OR-based business that specializes in luxury Italian cabinetry. An architecture major in college — who also happened to design and open her own restaurant in Germany at age 21, an endeavor that she says “defined her pursuit of functioning within the international business market” — she was hired for the multi-faceted position to remodel the newly acquired Seattle showroom and work as local designer and project manager with input from the team in Portland.

“Being our only employee in Washington state, I feel very supported by our team in Portland, with our owner [Victoria Faragalli] having a hand in every project and the design team taking my input from meetings and utilizing our catalog to create purposeful spaces for our clients,” says Victoria, who will also serve as treasurer of NKBA’s Puget Sound Chapter for the 2025-2026 term.

Victoria, 29, says the word “resolute” best describes her and notes that one of her goals is to create an event that highlights and expands international design within the Seattle market. “I believe that in Seattle we have an untapped potential to highlight, celebrate, and further utilize international function and style within our designs,” she explains, pointing to the city’s diverse population and status as a major shipping port.

Married to her “incredibly supportive” husband, Charles, since June 2023, Victoria says that with their equally busy careers they are still navigating the work-life balance. “Our friends will joke with us that they ‘don’t move at Thayer speed,’ which is smart!” she explains. “We sometimes think we shouldn’t either! We purchased a house, ripped the interior apart and renovated it, then planned a wedding and got married all within one year.”

The couple, who are pup parents to a Havanese named Roux, enjoyed a trip to Italy — where she trained for her Pedini position at the company’s headquarters on the Adriatic coast and afterward they both explored Rome — dream of future travel adventures. “My husband and I are huge history buffs,” she says, “and as we learn about specific times and events in history, it becomes clear that at the top of our must-do list is more travel to locations of historical significance.”