By Shelby Deering | Portrait: Patricia Anderson Photography; Product Photography courtesy Curate Design Group
How would you describe your design style?
[Heavily] masculine! [And], I absolutely love mixing elements from different eras. I hunt for the unusual pieces that you cannot just run out and buy. I do not like to be bored with what I am looking at, so sometimes the louder, the better.
How does the Lake Geneva area inspire your work?
We are such a melting pot around here. I think that is one of the best parts about this area. Clients are from all over the country — and the world, for that matter. Getting the opportunity to [work] on some of these properties around here is where a lot of our inspiration comes from. The families that we get to meet and become friends with — just having the chance to experience life through all these different moments is where the inspiration comes from.
What words of wisdom do you have for designing challenging spaces?
This is a hard one, as every job is so different. If we do encounter a challenge at a job site, we just take it head-on and see how we can work with it. If it’s an option to remove that challenge from the site, we do so accordingly. If it is something that we cannot change — let’s say it’s a graphic tile for instance — we neutralize the entire palette around it. Let the tile take center stage and layer in texture to ground it and calm it down.
How do you like to push the design envelope?
I could not do this without my amazing team, including April Leuhne, Suzanne Augustson and Brianna Flower. We like to get a general idea of a client’s taste and then level up their overall style. We try to stay away from mainstream trends. Do not do something that won’t look good in 10 years. Either keep it classic or go all out on a design that blows your neighbors out of the water. Put that sculpture of Bacchus on a pedestal in your entryway — and then light that bad boy up!
In your opinion, how do antiques bring soul into a space?
You just cannot replicate the craftsmanship and character of these pieces. You want the depth of the texture that antiques hold. If everything is brand-new, it does not have enough character in my eyes. Adding antiques breathes life into a space that was not there before.
