Questions that emerge while designing often lead beyond the room where they began. Here I explore what materials communicate through touch and light, how furniture changes a social encounter, why certain belongings stay, and what a home can reveal about the people using it.
Azelby · jewel-toned living room design visualizationJOURNAL 01 / Cohesion without identical experiences
A lake view can be so compelling that it becomes the default organizing idea for an entire home. But I don't think every space needs to offer the same experience simply because the architecture makes it possible.
Continue reading
Lake House Living Room · design visualizationJOURNAL 02 / The role of a room comes before its style
The first question I ask about a room is not always what it should look like. I want to know what it is supposed to contribute to the household—and what the rest of the home already provides.
Continue reading
The Green Drawing Room · detail studyJOURNAL 03 / A room should respond as you move through it
I pay close attention to the point at which an interior photograph stops being able to communicate the room itself.
Continue reading
Designer portrait · selected editorial seriesJOURNAL 04 / An individual's life asks more of a home than a style can describe
A formal sitting room can be beautifully furnished and have almost no part in the household's day. What might its occupants want room to do instead?
Continue reading
Kay · living room design visualizationJOURNAL 05 / A meaningful object is a design parameter, not an obstacle
A home without any connection to the lives already lived within it can become a very beautiful house that still feels strangely unfamiliar.
Continue reading
From Entry to Conversation · adjoining-room planning studyJOURNAL 06 / A layout can be correct while the experience is wrong
Some spaces have only one or two practical furniture arrangements. Rather than force a different plan onto the room, I want to understand what the client hopes the redesign will solve.
Continue reading
Ruselowski · seating configuration visualizationJOURNAL 07 / Rooms communicate expectations, without issuing commands
Furniture does more than fill the area shown on a floor plan. The way it is arranged—and the materials from which it is made—can influence what people expect to do in a room.
Continue reading
Bringing Travel Home · design visualizationJOURNAL 08 / A place remembered is not the same as a place copied
When someone tells me they want a home that reminds them of a place they love, I usually ask about moments rather than destinations.
Continue reading
Aslam · living and dining design visualizationJOURNAL 09 / When experiences already belong to the same life
Work, play, rest and company are not always competing needs. Sometimes the arrangement of a room allows those experiences to coexist without reducing either one.
Continue reading
Designer portrait · selected editorial seriesJOURNAL 10 / Who are you actually designing this room for?
Before asking a client to define their style, I want to understand how they feel about the life taking place in their home.
Continue reading
Bringing Travel Home · textile and furnishing detailsJOURNAL 11 / Before choosing a palette, notice the one the room has made
Wood, stone, leather and metal already have their own colors, textures and ways of catching light. The palette begins with those existing materials.
Continue reading
Life Around the Hearth · interior arrangement studyJOURNAL 12 / Design alternatives as a way of understanding
Developing two directions for the same room is not simply an exercise in presenting options. It can be part of how a client and I learn what the room actually needs to become.
Continue reading
Bellewood · proposed staging/design visualizationJOURNAL 13 / Change the system, not the person
Transitions often bring new demands for space, but they don't necessarily change the small routines that make someone feel like themselves.
Continue reading
O’Neil · living room design visualization, thematic illustrationJOURNAL 14 / Distribute a treasured object's character without copying its period
A client once showed me a striking chest of drawers and cabinet combined in one unit. She had found it while traveling and wanted to keep it, although its ornate hardware, complex wood tones and historical character didn't seem to match the new bedroom she imagined.
Continue reading
Hoyt · living/dining design visualizationJOURNAL 15 / Arrange furniture by relationships, not equal distances
Sometimes the most effective change to a living room is not a different piece of furniture. It is recognizing which pieces are supposed to have a relationship with one another.
Continue reading
Panfili · material-rich lounge visualizationJOURNAL 16 / What happens when a surface promises something the hand cannot find
I don't object to porcelain. I don't object to vinyl, engineered materials or composites simply because they aren't stone or solid wood. My objection begins when the appeal of a surface depends on convincing someone that it is a material it cannot actually behave like.
Continue reading
Life Around the Hearth · design visualizationJOURNAL 17 / If walls could talk, what have the floors already written?
“If walls could talk” is a familiar thought. I often find myself wondering what the floors have already written down.
Continue reading