We always joke that interior decorating emergencies don’t exist – save for the ones we can handle. Like you move in with a significant other and your collective stuff clashes.
Category: Design Process
What is Luxury (in 30 Seconds or Less)?
Fear is the Latest Trend
Downsizing, Yes, but Don’t Forget Upsizing Too
Many of our clients struggle with the challenges of downsizing. But what about upsizing? Typically out of college, we land our first job, maybe we shack up in a trendy urban neighborhood, then get married, celebrate a first born. But the inevitable arrives, planning for that second (or third) child?
Salon Style: Origins and Influence on Today’s Décor
Are You Embarrassed to Have People Over?
Isn’t Paint Just Paint?
I’ll Know It When I See It
The Nickel and the Dime
What Do You Do?
A Thoughtful Job Posting
On Speaking Up (When It’s Much Easier Not To)
Everyone Always Wants What (They Regret) Their Parents Threw Away
20 Questions I Don’t Know the Answer To
I Make Decisions for a Living
Things I Wish I’d Known Before Becoming a Designer
This isn’t a post steeped in regret, pause or grudge. Rather, I entered this business quite deliberately, with much enthusiasm and energy. I never imagined having a job that I truly loved and for which I had Purpose. I also never had a mentor or Master Designer to work under and learn. My approach has […]
I’m Also a Furniture Designer
I’m many things, apparently. Originally (and I mean teenager-originally), chef tendencies shaped my future. If you follow my blog, you can see that is apparent here and here. Then, I got sidetracked in developing software for financial services, but that was a prison of my own building, albeit for the money and the freedom it […]
Video Killed the Radio Star
And customization is killing the luxury mass production stars. Is an $8K purse really luxury? Really? Is it even made out of leather? Are they completely hand-stitched? Is the hardware and buckles one of a kind? Can you have a say in the dimensions or how long the strap will be? What if you wanted it in […]
The Ultimate Luxury: Lack of Choice
Getting Your “Pillowscape” Right
No room is completely styled without an essential symphony of pillows. It’s a key opportunity to pull together all the colors and textures that the furnishings, curtains and wall color are built upon. Except it’s hard to get right and of course it brings out our inner OCD. The Basics Starting from scratch, I find that the perfect formula […]
Why Does Everything Take So Long?
We’re so impatient. Trust me, I’m the worst in that regard. Though ironically I’m perfectly suited for this job because I aim my shepherding powers directly at the vendors, service providers and manufacturers I work with on behalf of clients. There’s a reason everything takes so long and I’m going to tell you why, in painful detail. […]
Doubt, Apprehension and Skepticism
Ideas for topics can hit me at any time. In this case, mid-sentence with a friend during a recent gallery opening, my mind interjected and I blurted out, “Wait, an idea for a blog post just came to me!” She was in the middle of complimenting me about recent posts she’d read, how she thought they were great […]
Why You Can’t Get a Good Contractor (Hint: It’s not the Economy)
You haven’t redecorated in HOW many years??
Think it might be time to freshen things up a bit? Put less delicately, if you haven’t managed to toss to the curb your console television from 1977 or still clinging to your spider plant jungle, it could be time. I know, we all get stuck in a rut. If you’re even mildly a design enthusiast, you likely spend […]
Our Popular Kitchen Breakfast Nook
This picture has become one of our most popular photos to date. It’s often featured in many blog entries and added to over 24,000 ideabooks on Houzz. It’s also one of the simplest, which is probably why it attracts so much attention. Before its renovation, the room stood alone and adjacent to the decades-old kitchen. It had […]
Picture Perfect Renderings Bring to Life our Interior Design Projects
Clients can’t visualize the way I can. There it is, that’s the gist of what I offer to the world. That and eliminating the burden of choice (but that’s another topic I’ll cover). I myself have a difficult time reading my own (necessary) two dimensional floor plans and elevations! The design process is lengthy and involves pulling […]