IT'S PERSONAL
a new beginning: on making things more personal
This year I committed to making things more personal. The first step was to make my instagram public. The second step was to actually share more about me, my work, and my life as a designer. The final step was to join TikTok.
I have spent the last eight years designing custom homes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before that, I spent four years at architecture school at UC Berkeley thinking I would be a set designer. I loved fashion and runway and convinced my studio professors to let me design fashion runways for my studio projects. That changed when I landed my first job out of school at an architecture firm.
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
I got really lucky with my first job. I met a wonderful mentor that would become a sort of older sister/best friend to me. She is texting me as I type this. Asking my thoughts on wood flooring options for her new home in Connecticut (she likes Scandinavian bleached oak, I’m pushing her to go for something with slightly warmer undertones).
After a few years of working with architects, and a master’s degree in sustainable design, I was curious about the other side. The interior design side. It was a big culture shock. Even though I was busy designing the usual kitchens, bathrooms, and custom furniture. I learned about drapery, ripple folds, rug piles, and pillow piping. Working on both sides of architecture and interior design have been influential in making me the designer I am today. More importantly it helped me carve a liminal space between architecture and interior design that I exist in today: interior architecture.
WHY PERSONAL?
Those that know me, personally, know that I may be a bit of a perfectionist. Sometimes it’s crippling, and sometimes it's fantastic, especially if you’re my client. I will lose myself in the details for hours, days, or weeks, to get something just right. It is my achilles heel. It prevents me from showcasing my work, because I am constantly tweaking and making things slightly better each time.
After all this time, I can’t help but walk into a room and notice the details. I can call out most stones and light fixtures by name. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of a designed space. What I cannot unsee are the lost opportunities. The misalignments. The lights hung too high. The mismatched grout color. The uncoordinated tile layout. A bad kitchen layout. A bathroom with no space for towel bars (a huge offensive to me).
Nothing has brought me more joy than sharing this knowledge with my friends and family. Especially if I am only advising and not project managing. The stakes are low and the fun is high. I love going over to a friends house and rearranging things or brainstorming their new kitchen. I am hoping this can be a similar space to share my thoughts on design, what I am working on, and what I am learning.
A GOOD FOLLOW
Until this year, I had a very impersonal existence on social media. My accounts were private with mostly photos of things I liked with minimal context: a chair, an art exhibit, a building, and occasionally me in front of a chair, an exhibit, or a building.
I use social media primarily for inspiration and to follow my favorite designers and discover new ones. I reflected on what I loved most about social media and who I was drawn to. My favorite type of follow was: a designer/ creative director/ artist and my favorite thing to see was her everyday life. What she was wearing, what her messy desk looked like, what she was working on, a cute photo of her pet beneath her while she worked. While I was drawn to people because of their artistic work, I truly enjoyed the unaesthetic. The everyday. The nitty gritty. When I thought about sharing the everyday myself, I was resistant. TikTok helped me get over that.
TO TOK OR NOT
It took six months for me to start posting on TikTok after I made up my mind to. Do I mind if I don’t have a lot of followers? No. Am I concerned about its looming ban? No. That’s because it has already taught me so much. It has made me more comfortable with my imperfection. Pushed me out of my comfort zone and forced me to share my thoughts and ideas. It has also introduced me to a new world, a space where those of us in the high-end custom design world sometimes forget about entirely. I would be designing a multi-million dollar home then come home and make a video on my favorite design details only to realize that most of us don’t live in delulu-land where budget is unlimited and everything is custom. When designing my personal spaces, I have to do a little brain re-wiring because what I spec for clients is so dramatically different than what I should be spec’ing for an affordable rental of my own. I have been trying to find my voice and path while I navigate a dynamic future.
There are so many things that deserve a larger conversation than a 30 second video can provide and I am hoping to explore more things like:
why everything is made of toxic materials
why a custom sofa is the same price as an RH sofa that is made in China
what makes a design trend
affordable design tips
supporting independent designers and local craftsmen
lots and lots of lighting…
Hoping we can all learn and grow together.
Until very soon,
Carina