A few favorite resources for interiors

I was photographed recently in our home for an upcoming piece in the menswear focused newsletter Sprezza, and had a chance to answer some questions about style and design - both in my wardrobe and in our home. You can see it here. The whole affair got me thinking about taste and interiors, and how we refine a vision for our home.

I’m not an interior designer, nor do I feign to be one, but I’ve designed five restaurants and three homes, so over the years I’ve certainly picked up enough to at least have a few opinions, and a few personal “signatures.” (I’ve ripped out my kitchen counters in every single house and replaced them with stainless steel; it is functional but also incredibly beautiful, in my opinion.)

One thing I’ve learned is that it helps to have a few trusted resources or guiding lights when you’re working on your home. Too many pictures on your Pinterest board will potentially lead to information overload, but if you can find a few designers you admire, it can be an education for the price of home internet. (I love what The Expert is doing - you can pay to have a condensed one-on-one session with some of the best interior designers in the world.)

While I personally have many friends who are very talented interior designers (so many great ones in Charleston), relying too much on another’s taste is a slippery slope. I think the best designers will simply help you bring your own interests and inclinations together in a way that works. Paying for someone else’s vision of your home is, in my opinion, a waste.

My favorite spaces are always ones that feel real, honest, and very personal. I like a home that is worn in, a showcase for collections formed over many years; I like a rambling quality, a sense that pieces have come together from different places over a long period of time. My favorite homes have these qualities of imperfection.

To that end, I wanted to share some of my favorite resources and designers. I look to them not for direct ideas, but more for the permission to take some risks, and maybe some guideposts to work within.