How has working on this book shifted your conception of what home is?
Oh my God, so much. I think it’s changed the way I create a space. When I design a room now, especially with clients, the first part of our process is always just getting to know who they are: their past, their present, where they want to go in the future, and really creating a soul for the home. It’s not just about pulling pretty images. It’s about infusing it with nothing but their story, and what they need from their space.
Do you have any tips on layering meaning and character into your home year after year?
I think you have to stay consciously connected to your home and that is easier said than done. A lot of people stop because you set your room and you move on and then you’re like, “It’s pretty, who cares?” Your room should have one thing minimum from your past. It should [also] have something new and fresh that’s current or present or whatever you want. Like, where you’re at currently and then you have to leave space for the future. I’ve said that for a long time. There’s a lot of power to editing your home—which could mean curating, moving things around, rediscovering things. We change as people and what we prioritize changes, so your space should reflect that.
In the book, you compare the relationship that you have with your home to a love affair. Do you have thoughts on how to know when a house is “the one” or worth looking past the immediate flaws?
Well, that’s what I hope the book gives people. I think with most people that I’ve talked to, when you walk into a home you usually can feel a whisper of, This is great. There are gonna be things that are great about it. There are obviously gonna be things that are bad about it too. Nothing’s perfect. I think what I realized over the course of this book and what I hope people get from each chapter is, what do you need from a space to feel quiet and to feel centered and to feel present? For some people, it’s a view and nature and trees. It’s the sound of birds. For some people, it’s light. For some people, it’s memory and a sense of history. I think that is really the cool thing about this book and the journey is understanding the nuances of these stories and what you connect to. When we found this farm in Portugal, it was dilapidated and nothing like I would have ever fallen in love with, but I think it was all about the promise of what it offered.
