Hello and Welcome to DOCENT - your guide to design intelligence, creative solutions and earthly beauty.
Today’s DOCENT Briefing turns the tables on me as I elevate my professional design expertise by landing a seat on the other side of the drawing table. This bright new year finds me deep into construction on the first custom home built for my family and me.
FACT: As my fellow designers can all attest, our empathic skills are, by nature, off the charts. I’m talking psychic, mind-reader level. But with decades of experience and sharp-as-a-tack active listening skills, even I’m getting a lesson that only a turning of the tables could offer.
Here are 3 things I didn’t know would be hard about being the client…
From Left to Right: Project by Rebelo Andrade | Our Family Room under construction in Santa Monica | Our Front Facade | A Danish house in Kastellet. Photo by Lara Stefansdottir | Note: Architect Alan Jones and I met while completing graduate studies together in Copenhagen.
PERSUASION
Doing Voodoo
The first step I took towards creating the home of my family’s dreams - which would mean calmly and thoroughly synthesizing the needs of two professional (stubborn) artists who often work from home, two teenage girls (plus their friends) and a menagerie of raised vegetable beds, welding equipment and pets - was to hire a skilled professional who is NOT me. In our case, this step was easy thanks to former classmate, mentor and long time friend, architect Alan Jones of JONES Architecture located in Portland, Oregon. (Read his highly civilized take on our design process here)
JONES was fantastic and they gave us exactly everything we wanted. But here’s the rub: professional designers (like me) have a way of doing voodoo on you. They utilize exquisite tact and subtle persuasive speaking skills to create compromises and multi-purpose solutions without letting you know something was sacrificed. Therefore, a heated battle between spouses over the direction of a door swing, for example, is effortlessly settled in an instant when the architect “weighs in”.
Rendering of our Santa Monica home by JONES
PROGRAM
Meet My Needs
To be phenomenal, a HOME must meet emotional and functional needs. As the client, I’m finding it shockingly difficult to determine which is which?! Separating visual aspirations from functional needs can also be confusing. Do I love the IDEA of a dish pantry? Or will I actually love LIVING WITH a dish pantry?….I think so….?
Committing to placing necessary evils like switch plates, air grills and thermostats can put any novice over the edge. Without missing a beat, I do this work for others with GUSTO. I LOVE LOVE LOVE figuring and planning! Yet somehow, I thought my perfect home wouldn’t have any of these annoying things…? Lights and temperature would somehow be magically controlled by my imagination…?
From Left to Right: This was the first image I pulled and one the whole family positively responded to for both materials and vibe. It was my treat to learn this is the home of Keiko and Takuhiro Shinomoto, founders of Tortoise General Store. I’m such a huge fan | Several years ago when renovating my brother’s kitchen, rather than mount upper cabinets over the sink, we opted for a window box instead. This prompted me to install what I called a “dish pantry” for storage. I loved the idea of having all the dishes in one place. When planning our kitchen last year, I found this wonderful image of prop-stylist Heather Bullard’s version. | Kitchen/Dining Vibes by Tenfiftyfive | I adore this eclectic kitchen by long-time role models, Deborah Berke and Thomas O’brien. To me, it appears uber modern while still having a worn warmth.
PERCEPTION
Dream or Delusion
Lastly, I design and build gorgeous homes for a living so it’s not imperative that I include ideas from every single inspiration image on my Pinterest board in my new home. I’ll have other opportunities. But what if I didn’t do this for a living? The pressure to decide would be unbearable! I would definitely have to hire ME to sort it out for ME. So yes, of course, I’m using my instincts and expertise to hone and edit down to only what’s relevant and exquisite for our family’s HOME. As the seasoned professional doing the interiors, I’m weaving into the design only the ideas that fit the vibe that my husband, kids, pets and me (in that order) will want to live with. But make no mistake: I’m not entirely ok with it…. because YES. I want a Dan Flavin-esque neon light bulb installation across my vaulted living room ceiling. And YES. I want a powder-blue, powder-coated, perforated metal stair that stretches from landing to landing with a quirky art ledge underneath it. And YES. I also want a miniature fairytale gnome door with hand-hewn metal swirls and leather straps that leads to a secret garden. And YES. I also want it all to feel like a John Pawson temple built simply to worship the concept of HOME.
From Left to Right: Door from Hvitträsk the private residence of Eliel Saarinen. It is located about 30 kilometers west of Helsinki in Kirkkonummi, Finland and one of my all time favorite destinations | The Dan Flavin Installation in the Menil Collection's Richmond Hall | A London townhouse by Studio Ulanowski. | John Pawson’s own home at Cotswolds
This bright new year is off to a busy start and I’m looking forward to sharing much more with you throughout 2020. In my next briefing I’ll reveal exciting news about upcoming DWID service offerings and DOCENT programming plans for 2020.
Meanwhile, let me know when you want to schedule a visit to our new home. I’ll be serving tea and treats in the secret garden…
