Getting Involved

We know ourselves only in context. We can only know others in context too. We’ve spent a lot of valuable words on this idea of deeply knowing people. But then there’s the question of taking what we learn about ourselves and others and translating it into a framework for actually producing the structure. Bringing the dream into reality. What works well and what is the end-result of this “style” of involvement?

Personal Style & Establishing practical goals. 

There are those people who see personal style as something that does not drift beyond the boundaries of their own immediate circle. Maybe about three feet if we measured. Their clothes, cars and watches matter to them, and maybe it even extends to their favorite chair, but it may not matter whether or not their entire home is as curated as their own person. This is important to know. What really matters to each participant in a home? Is it utility, or is it beauty? Is it both? 

William Morris said (in the 1800’s), “If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

So what do you believe to be beautiful? Surprisingly, everyone has an opinion here, even if they swear up and down that they don’t. The toughest old Texas Hill Country rancher has an aesthetic inclination, but it may be most clear through what he doesn’t like as much as anything. Take a look around the person you are talking to, where have they spent their money over the years? Can you see a theme in their past-decisions? From here you begin to establish a mindset of practical goals, balancing form and function in an artful way that flows naturally out of a person’s history, wraps itself around their dreams for the future and then plays into a well-combined mixture of both “usefulness and beauty”. 

Then we come down to brass-tacks, literally, or nickel tacks, or satin-black nail-heads. The kind of doorknobs a person chooses should clearly relate to the easy-chair you select for them and the rug in the hallway. At this point you’re wondering, “My word, how detailed does this process get, isn’t it just interior design?” that’s a good question!

Refinement Requires Involvement

We’ve made the distinction between an Interior Designer and a Decorator. Slaughter Design Studio is a fully licensed, ASID Interior Design firm. So that means we are technically qualified to be in the room with an architect or her drawings while making comments and asking questions that are educated and relevant. We also hang the curtains, but that’s not where we are now. We’re at the drafting board with a ruler, pencil and eraser to make sure that everything we are dreaming about will fit down to the quarter of an inch. We also want to make sure that the hardware you pick for your cabinet hinges will coordinate with the handles you want for your dishwasher. Does the back bathroom feel like the same house you entered from the front door?

You’ve probably walked into a home, or other building before and said to yourself, “This place is flawless!” That is what we like to think of as the pinnacle of refinement in interior design. Under a microscope, you can see the craftsmanship where marble abuts wood, where tile ends and plaster begins, and how a roman shade drapes over the windowsill. When it’s wrong, you’ll notice, but when it’s right, it’s nearly invisible. Everything fits naturally together, no gaps, no cracks, no awkward transitions. Everything you touch and see is contiguous. 

This is our favorite kind of design work. To be deeply involved with the entire process from architectural imaginings to the hands-on work of builders and subcontractors. Over the years we have found a  rhythm with people in each of these disciplines and we don’t waste time explaining ourselves to each other, rather, we question and respond until the details fit like puzzle pieces. We like the people we work with in this capacity, and (at least to our faces) they enjoy working with us too! It’s nice to stand back together and admire excellent work. 

But we haven’t forgotten the design client in all of this. That’s the trap we know catches most interior designers. You can begin building momentum in creating something so well-constructed and “perfect” that you lose the personality in everything. Go back to the top of this writing and remember, we’re dealing with one-another here, we’re people, and so all this refinement has to get pointed back at the person who will be living here. The building you are constructing has to be a reflection of the client, not you, not the builder.

Space for Sentimentality

Once we had a client, now a friend, who wanted to bring a five-foot wooden sculpture of St. Francis into their new house. It had lived in their hold home with them for decades, cornered in an entryway that was never designed to have St. Francis standing there all the time. But he had become a fixture, and he was going to stand in his place of greeting in their new home too. 

What an opportunity! This is the perfect chance to use design as a garden of solutions. We met St. Francis, studied the wood he was made of, the position of his head, the dimensions of his pedestal and then created a space for him to stand in this new home. He wasn’t hiding, he wasn’t in the way, he looks like he belongs here. And his greeting pose gives you an immediate sense of the home you are in. 

Sentimental: (adjective) “Resulting from feeling rather than reason or thought.”

A home has feeling, that’s what distinguishes it. Part of the refinement process we’re talking about is capturing and honing those feelings; translating them into crisp and clear points of physical and visual interaction.

What does this make you think or feel? Have you experienced this level of intentionality  before? If so, we’d love to hear your stories. Just email us. amy@slaughterdesignstudio.com.

*These writings are a collaborative effort between Slaughter Design Studio and Ben Rodgers, Pivotol. We do the designing and thinking, they capture  it in words and “essence” so we can share it with you!