Kate Bolick - Becoming an Interior Designer

M ASTERS AT W ORK ALSO AVAILABLE

B ECOMING A N EUROSURGEON

B ECOMING A V ETERINARIAN

B ECOMING A V ENTURE C APITALIST

B ECOMING A H AIRSTYLIST

B ECOMING A R EAL E STATE A GENT

B ECOMING A M ARINE B IOLOGIST

B ECOMING AN E THICAL H ACKER

B ECOMING A L IFE C OACH

B ECOMING A Y OGA I NSTRUCTOR

B ECOMING A R ESTAURATEUR

B ECOMING A P RIVATE I NVESTIGATOR

B ECOMING A B AKER

B ECOMING A S OMMELIER

B ECOMING A C URATOR

B ECOMING AN A RCHITECT

B ECOMING A F ASHION D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A S PORTS A GENT

B ECOMING AN I NTERIOR D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A F IREFIGHTER

B ECOMING A N URSE

B ECOMING A V IDEO G AME D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A M IDWIFE

B ECOMING A T EACHER

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ISBN 978-1-9821-3883-7

ISBN 978-1-9821-3884-4 (ebook)

T O ALL OF MY BELOVED FELLOW FORMER DOMINOS, ESPECIALLY D ARA C APONIGRO, WHOSE WISDOM ONLY BEGINS WITH DESIGN

S everal moments ago, it was an otherwise ordinary Monday at the offices of Jesse Parris-Lamb, if unseasonably humid for Brooklyn in June. The founders of this residential interior design firm, Amanda Jesse and Whitney Parris-Lamb, had been crouched on the floor, poring over a series of computer printouts of images of chairs and tables, shuffling them around like playing cards, looking for the just-right combination. Every so often one of the two would leap up to pull another image from the folder on the table beside them and introduce it to the mix. They were in the early stages of designing a two-story home library in Connecticut, and the folder contained the results of months of scouting and sourcing ideas. Now it was almost game time: by the end of the following day, they needed to overnight the client a packet of images of their final selections for furnishings and lighting, as well as paint swatches and fabric samples, in preparation for their final meeting the following week.

To a layperson such as me, it was impossible to detect any rhyme or reason to the options spread out on the floor: a pair of pale-pink wingback chairs, a wooden chair with a green seat and a tall windowpane back, a pair of low-slung armchairs in beige, a klismos side chair covered in rust-colored velvet. As someone who writes often about design, I know how to describe what Im seeing, but actually pulling together all those disparate elements to create a space thats beautiful, comfortable, functional, and original requires abilities that are many leagues beyond me. For a few minutes I tried to imagine myself into the minds of Amanda and Whitney, to see what they were seeing, and failed. (Who wouldnt want to live with every single one of these beautiful chairs? Ill take them all, thank you!)

Then Whitney walked away and returned with a rug sample. The large square of tufted beige wool depicted the head of a giant black-and-brown snake, mouth open wide, seizing what looked like an orange jellyfish between its spiky jaws. Was that a green leaf also sticking out of the jellyfish? I couldnt see what the snake had to do with anything else arrayed before us.

When I expressed my bafflement, Amanda called out to Neala Jacobs, their studio director, at her desk across the room and asked her to find the image theyd been using as inspiration. Neala has been working at Jesse Parris-Lamb (JPL, for short) for only two years, but shes so seamlessly woven into Whitney and Amandas dynamic that it feels as if shed been there since day one, five years ago. Neala found the image, printed it out, and walked over to hand it to me.

Theyd originally found the image on Pinteresta reliable source of gorgeously designed living spaces for ideas and inspiration. (That Pinterest is the backbone of our image sourcing is the dumbest thing, Amanda said, rolling her eyes. I prefer when were paging through actual books. But Pinterest provides such an easy way to collect images and share them with the office internally.) The image was of a dining room, not a library, with bare dark-brown wooden floorboards laid down in a chevron pattern, and a pale wooden pedestal table at center paired with midcentury-style molded-plastic hunter-green chairs. Long kelly-green drapes hung at the window, and a pitch-black ceiling light with three long, thin ectomorphic arms hung above all of it, like the most graceful of arachnids. The room was lovely, but I couldnt see what it had to do with the images I was looking at on the floor. Reptilian refinement? Elegance with an edge?

While I was trying to puzzle through their creative process, Whitneys smartphone buzzed, and she answered it. She walked out of the room and into the hallway they use as a concept board, then walked back out into the studio, then back into the hallway againquickly. Back and forth. Full-on pacing. Amanda began to look concerned.

Head lowered, ear pressed to her phone, Whitney was speaking in a gracious, confident tone that completely belied her obvious anxiety. Tall and rangy, she wears her wavy brown hair in a short crop, which, as she paced, fell over her forehead, obscuring her eyes. As she paced, she looked anywhere but at Amandaat the floor, at the ceiling. Amanda, unable to read her business partners expression, returned to her desk, where she sat still as a mouse, and seemed to be doing her best to absorb the contents of the call through osmosis. Across the room, Neala worked quietly at her computer, oblivious of the drama silently unfolding behind her.

Since joining forces to found their firm in 2014, when they were in their early thirties, Whitney and Amanda have amassed an impressive client list of successful executives and artists across all creative fields, from the founder of OkCupid to a famous novelist or three. Along the way, theyve developed the communication habits of a long-married couple. They are nearly always together, and when theyre not, they are talking on the phone or texting. When they are together but for whatever reason cant speak directlybecause one of the duo is locked in a delicate telephone conversation, for instancethey rely on various nonverbal methods, whether reading each others body language or simply hazarding educated guesses. As Id come to see, maintaining this constant stream of contact allows them to collaborate on every decision, which ensures they remain equal partners, always working in concert.