My design education began as a precocious seven year old under the tutelage of an eccentric grandfather with eclectic but impeccable taste. Anything from Louis XVI to Memphis was fair game on weekend antiquing adventures. The furniture and objects were often as whimsical as the whims with which we purchased them, especially considering his co-conspirator was a child. The strong influence of this man lead me not to pursue interior design but to follow him into the creative world of advertising. As it turns out, I was better at decorating and he was better at selling toothpaste.
What I learned most from this early education, and inspires every design choice to this day, is that rooms and objects tell our stories. Be it a family home, that burnishes under the patina of everyday life, the restaurant where friends gather for a joyful, memorable meal, or the hotel room that provides a welcome escape or the start of a new adventure – our interior worlds, both public and private, should inspire, comfort and vibrate with the life of the people who fill them.
