I have many of what I call “Evergreen” clients – ones I transition from home to office, children’s nurseries to their own assisting living spaces. I even find myself performing estate sales for long-term customers and finding new homes for the classics I sold over the years.

I am often asked to move their favorite possessions from one home to another while giving their surroundings a fresh spin. A classic is a classic whether it is from 1850 or 2022. I truly believe that innate talent and studied experience give one the ability to spot a classic in the making. The principles of good design don’t vary tremendously – balance, scale, repetition, rhythm, “the golden mean”. All of these elements are made to be bent through creativity but not broken.

I have written a course on American Antiques that I am in the process of transitioning to an online course. The one thing that stood out to me in the process of compiling the course was the pendulum of fashion in design. That pendulum swings from vertical spaces (Classicism) to horizontal ones (Mid-Century); busy highly detailed interiors (Victorian age) to simple quiet spaces where ornamentation was sparse and the beauty was in the materials (Arts and Crafts Movement). Our current waning trend of quiet monochromatic interiors of white and gray was calming in a post Recession/ Pandemic time but is moving back to color and pattern.

I traveled to the coast recently to stay with a client while attending a wedding. I hung my wedding attire on a door in the bedroom. When I looked up, I noticed a painting that she had commissioned from Gregg Howard. The hula-hoop of design is still swinging!