What are your aims and goals for the next twelve months?:
Over the next year, my focus remains on building and growing a thoughtfully curated residential design studio rooted in architectural integrity, livable/relaxed luxury and deeply personal interiors. The goal is to establish a distinctive brand identity that centers around warm, timeless homes that honor structure or place, supports modern living and embraces gathering and connection. My biggest goal is to do more work in Hawaii – a place with unending inspiration for me. I’d also love a cabin or lake house project in Northern Michigan.
Professionally, I would like the next phase of my work to expand into full-service residential renovation, vacation home design projects, architecturally significant homes and turnkey retreat properties. Another key objective for me is to strengthen my studio’s presence through my work/portfolio and becoming more active on social media (which I’m terrible at doing) and to network more confidently with other industry and design professionals. Over the course of the next twelve months, I will continually aim to draw inspiration from travel, art, family life and my favorite places of influence – California, Northern Michigan and Hawaii. Ultimately, the goal is to create work that not only looks beautiful, but genuinely enriches the way people live, gather and experience home.
Your most treasured possession?:
I like collecting a lot of things – chairs, glasses, old dishes, platters, vintage furniture but my most treasured possessions are my family and childhood photos that predate digital cameras and i phones; letters and writings from and created by my children; photos and videos of my children when they were small. My grandmother’s handwritten recipes and other old family recipes. Old Christmas ornaments. My childhood teddy bear and pair of vintage art deco diamond earrings that my mother-in-law gave to me.
Your favourite holiday destination?:
Forever Hawaii and always Paris. Tuscany too!
Your favourite hotel, restaurant & bar?:
Hotel: Since childhood, The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel or most recently, SO Paris is a fun and modern hotel near Le Marais and Bastille and has the most amazing panoramic rooftop view of the city of Paris.
Restaurant: Oh, another tough question. So many. Bistro Jeanty in Yountville, CA, is perfectly French in all the ways in California wine country. The pasta at Cotogna in San Francisco is exquisite! Original Joe’s in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood is a go-to family favorite with its old school Italian-American vibe and dimly lit dining room and big black booths and is always a good time.
Bar: I love sitting at the bar at The Canoe House in the Mauna Lani Hotel on the Big Island during sunset or Bar Hemingway at the Ritz in Paris is super small and intimate.
Your favourite book, film & song?:
Book: Molakai’i by Alan Brennert or The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Film: Goodfellas
Song: Love me anything Motown or some Grateful Dead.
Your favourite food and drink?:
Food: Oh so many! Pasta and french fries are my weakness! LOVE raw oysters. Watermelon is my all time favorite. Figs and any and all stone fruit!
Drink: Alcoholic: A really good Manhattan, up or on the rocks depending on mood, must have a Luxardo cherry. Non Alcoholic: Iced tea with lemonade aka Arnold Palmer
Your favourite way to spend an afternoon?:
My favorite way to spend an afternoon is going to the farmer’s market, grocery shopping for ingredients and cooking for hours – cooking and preparing a huge meal for family and/or friends from appetizer to dessert – the whole shebang! Or hiking on Marin County trails with friends on a sunny day. Or on a cold rainy day, making and eating a massive bowl of buttered popcorn and watching a movie with the fire on.
If you weren’t in this sector, what would your alternative profession be?:
I think I would have been a chef. Like design, it’s equally as inspiring, creative and challenging and it’s tough work. Alternatively, I’m too old to go back and do all of the schooling but I’ve always had a fascination with being a dermatologist.
Anything else interesting?:
You can take the girl out of Michigan, but you can’t take Michigan out of the girl. I am proud of my midwestern upbringing and my Irish/Italian German/Lebanese heritage. And I am the most proud of my beautiful and talented children and raising them has been my greatest joy and the most challenging and rewarding of jobs! I also love my Cavelier King Charles Spaniel named King Kua the Gentleman (named after our family’s favorite beach on the Big Island, Kua Bay).
