your home reflects who you are you know what what are you collecting and it's just like how you dress it's such an important part of who we are this is Kelly Whistler she's the famed interior designer of private residences and boutique hotels we were doing three hotels at one time and I was burning the
midnight oil and then you lose a team because they're burnt out saying no is just as important to saying yes I think that's great life advice and design advice before before we jump into this episode I'd like to invite you to join this community to hear more interviews that will help you become happier
healthier and more healed all I want you to do is click on the Subscribe button I love your support it's incredible to see all your comments and we're just getting started I can't wait to go on this journey with you thank you so much for subscribing it means the world to me the bestselling author and host the number
one Health and Wellness podcast on purpose with J shett Kelly I'm really happy to be with you because I've had so many special offline interactions with you and I've always loved them because you always have this really bright really light energy about you and you know we'll bump into each
other in one of the beautiful hotel projects you've worked on or we bumped into each other at uh mutual friends homes or you've been here to and I've just always appreciated just how thoughtful that you are how reflective you are and I've been really looking forward to this so thank you so much for
doing it honestly oh thank you Jay well I'm so honored to be here and be one of your guests and sitting here with you super excited okay well let's dive in the question I want to start with you is can design make you happy yes absolutely and you know one of the most beautiful parts of my jobs is making people happy
which is like I me you can't I can't believe I get paid for what I do because it's making people happy and inspiring people and uh you know there's nothing better than designing a hotel and going in time and time again and seeing people laughing and having fun and listening to music and seeing them time and time
again you know whether they're there as a leer traveler or business traveler and knowing that's their place that's a local venue for them just makes me feel so good yeah I've been to two of your projects the one in Austin uh the proper Hotel there in the one downtown in LA and they are just spectacular and you're
so right like I remember when I walked in last year we were going to watch F1 and so I'd come into the A and I bumped into you and you were listening to the podcast you showed it to me which was amazing I loved it and then I just looked at this one place behind the steps and you have all these most
beautiful collected like pots and vases and like they're just they're so simply and beautifully kept on this like this kind of Step I'm I'm I have no you have such a good memory yeah I I have a picture of on my phone like I'm like it's it's stunning and it's so interesting to me because I think I underestimate growing up just how much
spaces and Aesthetics affect our mind and today as someone who wants to live an intentional mindful life I find that design and interiors and Aesthetics play such a big part in the mood we experience and how we feel throughout the day what do you think it is about design that does make people happy or
sad or drain energy or bring energy or like you just said you walk into a space and people are connecting versus isolated like what what is it about design that's doing what have you learned about design people want to see and experience something they haven't seen before and that's what you know I
love doing at for example a hotel project and they also want to feel uh a location and you know when you travel to say Austin Texas and you remember those beautiful uh the pottery on the stabs I mean all those were designed by local artisans so really bringing like this local experience and this authentic
experience to you know wherever we design and and you know all of our projects are you know very sight specific and uh you know getting very close to our our client and really understanding and listening to uh to what the client you know intentions are they're going to be no surprises and they're going to love to be in their
environment and it's going to in turn make them happy and uh and inspire them and we all want to live a better life and we all want to look better in our clothing and it's the same thing at home you know we want to surround oursel with things that are familiar and make us happy yeah I've got a lot of friends in
my life right now who are trying to redecorate or redesign their homes which can be such a challenging thing to do you obviously worked on some private homes obviously you work on hotels and so many other spaces but if someone's listening right now and they're thinking Kelly like you know the book looks
stunning like they've seen your pictures on Instagram they're like like wow that living room looks spectacular but they're thinking you know what maybe I don't have access to a designer maybe I I don't have access to Kelly like but I do now through the podcast how do I find my creative Spirit like how do I find
that spark to start that process in my own home well you know there's something that everyone gravitates towards and I really encourage everyone to to go out to museums and go to a flea market and go to vintage stores and and I always say vintage stores because I think it's important for people to see history and
see things that are Soulful and that have had like this life you know there's like you know I love like you know how I design it's like there's always an old soul and a new spirit you know I love emerging artist and I love contemporary artist and and that is you know apparent in everything I do I dress that way as
well so really looking at you know what is something you like to collect are you you know interested in art and and maybe starting there you know do you like color maybe you want to have color in your home and and uh you know maybe that's a good place to start and and and baby steps and pace is so important
because when somebody gets their apartment and I've been there it's like I'm so excited I want to get in there and make it amazing and and enjoy it right away um but you really should take your time like it's really important because you're going to really value all the pieces and they'll spark a memory
you know so maybe you went to a flea market with a friend and you're going to remember that day or you traveled uh with your boyfriend or husband and you found this really cool chair together uh or went to a gallery so baby stepping and um and being very thoughtful about about what you start to curate I really
love what you said about history and vintage and I think it's so true I I'll give an example of something that happened to me recently so I remember a quote from Robin Sharma which I read when I was very young he wrote a book called The monku sold his Ferrari the quote the quote read so it was a fiction
story and it's really funny I read it so young but ordinary people have big TVs extraordinary people have big libraries and that always inspired me and today I'm fortunate enough to have a beautiful bookshelf in in our main living room which is like you know there's a lot of books that can fill in that shelf and so
what I've been doing is travel and curating books for that for my by myself because I really enjoy reading but I also enjoy design I can't wait for this to be right there while I was doing that I was inside a store we have a local Buck Mason store here in LA and I was inside there they do a great curation
and their curat always finds books from all over and so I was in there checking out their books and they said Jay you know what if you really want books you should go to this random vintage store down the road and I'd never seen this store so I start walking around I walk past this store and it looks closed and
it looks really small and it looks really old and I don't see anyone in there but I start knocking and just to make sure this lady comes out and she opens the door and I say hey I heard you have vintage books here I'd love to see them and she goes oh yeah she binds books you could see all these like old
binding materials for like these you know massive book covers and all of the old machinery and tools and processes you would need and she said well I don't really sell books but we have all these books here and she said I'll tell you you know she told me a story she was like when I got divorced from my husband
who used to own loads of bookstores I got half the books so she goes I just have thousands and thousands of books some of them are here most of them are at home I said well I'd love to look through them so I started looking through these books and I was discovering like early editions of really special books and I was you know
starting to make a list and I got a whole pile out and she she was really like she didn't care she was like you can take them for free and I was like no no no I'd love to pay for them like you know this is such a gift and so I so I paid them whatever she asked me to pay for them and then there was one book and
she said I've been looking for this book for years and she goes I couldn't find it because it was like all these crease pages and hidden away and she said do you mind if I don't sell this to you can I keep it and I said of course I was like it's your book if you can it was I really wanted it it was called I'd never
read it but it was a little book that was called like the Hidden Temple and I was like oh that sounds so cool like especially with my background but anyway she kept that one I know that um that shop cuz she does book binding and there's very few companies that do that still and you know the like I love going
to a bookstore and just getting lost in the aisles and just randomly just pulling books out of something that I know nothing about and there's a The Strand Bookstore in New York it's amazing bookstore and there's so few now there's a few downtown that are so good but I agree like going and and just
digging around and exploring and Discovery and and really it's all about having an open heart and being open to all the possibilities and you know enlightening yourself I think one of the challenges that makes it hard to do what we're both agreeing on is that we're so used to now seeing the same thing like
if you're on Instagram and you're following these channels everyone's posting the same kind of Interiors the same kind of rug with the same kind of table which there's nothing wrong with that that's how things get mainstream and and bigger and scaled how do you challenge yourself to stay curious and try and discover new things like how
what do you do what are the practical steps that you take to be open-minded I guess I'm constantly you know in search of something new that I'm F going to fall in love with and I know if I go uh to a gallery and I'm so moved and I might see three new materials come together in this unbelievable creation
and something I've never seen before and my heart stops it's like seeing you know that cute guy and you're just like oh my God like like you're just so moved and it's so inspirational to me and it's that feeling of falling in love and you want to keep falling in love and continue to discover and there you know
there's so many new technologies and you know I'm inspired by pulp culture and uh AI which is like such a huge disruptor in in the you know world of du know everything it's like a major earthquake happening right now also all of our clients are also different and they come you know they're from all over the world
and all the architectur is different and the landscape the view from the window is different so everything truly is one of a kind so I'm just always searching like you know I have my bar is like super high and I just want to keep doing better and and striving you know to be a better designer and I kind of live that
way I want to you know be uh you know the best mom I can be the best you know wife I can be and and and you know leader at my studio for my team you know just being inspired and sharing you know my love and uh you know continuing to make people happy if there's people watching and listening right now and
they're like Kelly I just have bad taste like they're like you know I just I just don't you know I can't I don't know what matches like I try but it doesn't look right like if if the people feel like that like have you I'm sure you've worked with places people homes hotels where you kind of see that creative
slump what is it that you say to someone who's struggling goes I just have bad taste I can't think about this like how would you encourage them to think about that well nobody should B with all of the visuals in our world with magazines and social media and everything like there's so much inspiration out there so
it's really just having an open heart and and being aware and and finding your passion and what you love and what moves you like what excites me is seeing something that I haven't seen before and you can't find that unless you go out and seek it out like even you might find somebody's like oh my God I love the way
they dress or I went to this home and it was so incredible and inspirational and it happens to me all the time I'll go to um to a party and it's like how they set the bar and it's like wow like I haven't seen that and that's really cool and I'm going to put it in my bag of tricks for
the next time I have you know and I'm inspired and I love it I take photos of everything that's like my journal like I take photos of everything and every month I always go back and and look at you know what has inspired me and U you know I I share it I like to share it with you know my team and um and social
media and just see you know how my eye wanders and and what excites me yeah I think you spot on when I was on my tour this year I took so many pictures around the world of stores Arts Fabrics textures details like there were so many things that I was like wow I would never have thought about that
together or and there's a pattern like that's where you'll discover like your style like would you Jay if I said what is your style what what would you say oh my the way I dress or the way I uh design like my home just inherently because they go like how somebody dresses and before you answer that question like I always I
have clients who'll say you know what like I really I'm not sure exactly what I like and I'm like listen we're going to go in your closet and we're going to see like what you gravitate towards is it all neutral like do you like pattern do you like little bits of color is it modern is it more minimalist and like
the answer is there yeah absolutely i' I'd say that my overall style is I try and wear something that's a more or not where I try everything to have more of a untraditional silhouette or something that's hopefully a bit thoughtful I like my spaces to be very calm and very approachable and I think about
everything like a sanctuary so I think about the energy that it has even more than the item and I think when I'm especially putting my spaces together I'm like okay well what how do I want to feel when I walk into this room and you know even when we had a tiny apartment back in New York which we lived in like
this 600 foot apartment every corner of our apartment was thought about in that way like what can we put in this corner to make it feel special or like how do we differentiate between the bedroom and the bathroom when it's like in the same space right like what do you do whether it's a scent whether it's something you
see I even think about like what's the first thing I see in the morning and what's the last thing I see at night all of these kind of things to me are really important and like like you said it could be an art piece it could be Pottery it could be a picture of your family like I think it can be anything
and everything but I think we don't often use visual cues and Aesthetics we think of it so aesthetically that we forget how emotional it is if that makes sense we think of it as like oh that's just about looking cool and being cool it's not about feeling a certain way but to me like even when I walked in today
and I saw the cover of your book and I was like oh wow that looks beautiful like I wanted to feel it and I wanted to I was drawn towards it I was like wait a minute what what's the texture like and I think when we were kids that's how we approach things when you're a kid you see something cool and you want to touch
it you want to press the button you want to and I think as adults I think we sometimes lose that do you ever how how do you feel about do you think that as children we are naturally that way and that you are connected to your childlike feeling or is that is that something else well I'm like the most curious
person and uh and that drives my passion and you know I'm just I want to know how something's made I want to know you know and I love going to artist Studios and seeing how how they operate I love going into a creative's home and just see how how they organize curiosity is such a big driver and I just love the
imagination you know and it started when I was like really little I had um when I was about 7 years old we would go visit my grandparents and our you know cousins and everyone and I would make these little uh designs like I would take like an an egg carton and do something interesting you know with it I would
make little cards for the family to buy and you know blank cards with a drawing on it and then uh I would pack everything up and I would take it and put it on my grandparents table and put little price tags I was in business I wanted to make money because my mom was always taking my sister and I to the
flea market and that's where I really started educating my eye going to the flea market and not having any money is not fun so I'm like I'm just going to like start making money myself and you know and it was a great um fun thing to go and now I can go to you know these vintage stores and flea markets that my mom would go to all the
time and uh and be able to uh to shop so just in going to these and being very curious and just seeing and and also I was educating my eye from you know a young age yeah no and I think that that's it's f how much you pick up from from those moments and those times about what you gravitate towards and I I
always wonder whether we've yeah whether we block that as we get older and we start to follow a more status quo or start to follow a more rhythmic routine like approach to our spaces as opposed to like that childlike as you said curiosity but also that I don't know that kind of contagious feeling you get
I I guess how do you know when when how do you know as Kelly when you're saying okay I need to be patient you were just saying that when someone moves to an apartment or to a home they should take their time how do you know when you should take your patience with an item or when you're like no I need to buy it
now and it's almost like taking your example of the cute guy how do you know when this is the one to be with or whether you feel like you're settling like that's such a good question like it's intuitive I think you know and the more that you see and the more that you know what's out there like you're uh
you're you know what the anomalies are and what what's really special but it is it's an intuitive feeling and working with with clients and you know these projects that we work on can take two years you know five years and so really taking our time to find things that are meaningful and that the clients truly
are are going to you know they're going to live with these pieces and and it it makes them feel good also when you when you're working and and buying things your house you should have like an hierarchy everything can't be super expensive so that's where if you want to buy something new and you want to you
know have a really amazing comfortable sofa versus you know piece of art is knowing where where to to spend the money like a sofa you're going to have you know probably for a shorter time where you'll have a piece of art and you invest in it it brings a a memory and it's so personal that you can take it
with you in your next uh your next home so you just encouraged everyone to spend more money on the than the comfy that you sit on every day yeah you know because it's just it's like you know it's furniture and it's so it's so true what you said about how just with social media and everything is there's so much sameness out there and
so you you know your your home reflects you know who you are your home you know reflects who you are you know what what are you collecting and and you know it's just like how you dress and it's such an important important part of of who we are and don't you look like when you do Zoom meetings are you checking out
what's behind them always always I know and it says a lot about about the person and I'm looking at all this amazing things behind you and like it's all of this are these all personal choices yes so we what we tried to do so my biggest goal for this space obviously this space is just so everyone everyone who
listening and watching you know that we're in my podcast studio and this room is only used to record the podcast and so our goal was I wanted it to feel intimate because a lot of production sets have like 30 people on them and I find conversations like this to be much more intimate and close and like this is
how I would sit with a friend so that was a key need the second thing was I didn't want it to be packed with too many other people because I think that removes the intimacy the choice of art was all to evoke emotion so I chose that piece there with the heart because to me I want to only have heart-based
conversations here that's that's what onp purpose is all about where we reveal our hearts to each other me included and even our audience and Community is opening up their hearts to the ideas and topics I genuinely put eyes there through that art to because I think eye contact is such a beautiful way of being
present and being still and being focused with someone and again these are I'm giving these subliminal not messaging but the deeper meaning behind why these things there this is an afan shield and we had that there because I wanted people to reminded to put their guard down it almost like hanging
hanging your Shield up the the thing that blocks you and then there were and they're all pieces by uh people of color so all the art in here were by people of color and this was to remind of the highest good which is of serving and offering and uh which is such a big part of the philosophy that I followed and
stud you know one question that I had is because you obviously were working in finance and in London and you uh went you became a monk how has like material things and design and and fashion you look amazing uh and super stylish and like how has that changed for you it's so it's such a good question I'm so glad
you asked me that honestly because I think that I was always interested in fashion and design before I became a monk so I was always intrigued by graphic design I loved collage art and design was one of my favorite subjects at school and I did really well at it and I've talked about my art teacher often who I credit so
much with my intentional thinking so let's say we're doing a collage and we're doing mixed design I would put something together and I think it would look amazing and my friends would think it would look great and my teacher would look at it and say why did you do that and if I didn't have a good enough
answer I didn't get a good grade and so he was training me to always ask why he was like why would you put those two things together what's your reason and I started to realize that the intention was so important the intuitive design of putting things together it wasn't just about the form it was about the substance and so I
would I loved that from before I became a monk I even wanted to I had the dream of becoming a graphic designer or art director when I grew up and put magazines together that was always kind of what I enjoyed and obviously I left that all when I became a monk and and moved away from it and the monastery was
always very minimalist right there was no it's not that there was no design and I think that's always important to remember like if you've ever seen an altar an altar is highly designed whether it's deities of God whether it's uh forms of sages or gurus if you ever walk into a temple atmosphere it's very
decorative very decorative and some of the temples that I visited in India had like the most ornate carvings around them telling stories and histories and pastimes of incredible epics and you'd see a you see that the design that was above the place where you stand when you're in front of the altar had
specific markings on the ceiling like there's so much intentionality even about a temple and how they were designed and so I think I appreciated all those things although in the temple it was very minimalist it wasn't you know it was it was it wasn't I guess material in that sense but I think for
me now I've just allowed all my passions to infuse and I really do believe that designing your home designing what you wear or choosing and selecting it carefully allows you to feel different and so to me design and mindfulness or fashion and mindfulness or how you dress is probably a better word than even
fashion but how you dress and mindfulness and how you design your home and mindfulness are completely synchronized uh and they can't be separated because I feel different when I wear something different I can express myself differently when I dress differently I can sit with you and we can create an atmosphere hopefully in
this room for you and our guests that allows you to be comfortable and open and that allows you to feel safe and so hopefully that answers your question I don't know if it does but no it does it's great and it is it's a lifestyle it's like how you dress and how you uh how you design your home and and two how
you operate your your lifestyle whether it's Wellness to what you eat you know the whole thing goes hand in hand I think one thing about your work though Kelly that I like and it kind of reflects on the question you ask me is you know one of the things I often struggle with is because I lived as a monk and now don't at all and I'm
married of course and we have businesses and companies and everything else I've given myself permission to be all of the complexities of who I am and I love meditating but I also love media I also love sharing messages I also love management and strategy and I've just just allowed all of myself to coexist
and I feel that allowing myself to do that has allowed me to be happier with who I am and when I look at your work and I'll let you comment on that in a second on me but when I look at your work I see that same juter position of things that people would often say well that doesn't work or that wouldn't make
sense and if you walked it through theoretically most people would argue I think with your designs that they wouldn't make sense because I think you put things together that seem so alien and challenging and random that people would say yeah that doesn't make any sense now you've found a way to make it
cohesive and make it work I wonder are you trying to do you do you agree with that first of all and and how have you allowed yourself the permission to put things together that people would find unexpected you know that that's such a good question and when I was starting out um there was a very specific style
it was like the slip cover furniture and everything was neutral and I came to Los Angeles and I you know so grateful for this first job that I got for a couple that lived in Venice Beach and they needed help with like one dining room and I was going to actually work with a design studio and this job just fell
into my lap and so uh it was on the canals in Venice this really cool Bungalow and designed they were like listen all we do we only have money for one room so let's do this I did it and and there was color and there was like vintage things and there was some contemporary artist pieces and the room like looked you know incredible they
didn't quite understand it and they were like well it doesn't feel like maybe what I'm seeing and so you know I had to really like talk them through it and this is you know before you know now you're doing like renderings for you know your clients to really understand you know there was a lot of
communication you know I took them to the flea Market with me you know and we really made these decisions together they were a little apprehensive but it turned out great I ended up doing the whole entire house and then somebody saw that and so yeah it was it was a little scary and and still now there are
clients that are maybe we'll do a presentation they'll say you know I like part of it but maybe this part I don't like and if I truly believe I'll take the time and and kind of show them the way and my thought process and uh maybe give them you know a few more visuals so the team and I will work on that you
know but if it doesn't if they're not 100% dialed in and excited then we'll come up with another option and you know we're all about you know making you know our projects you know amazing and unique but we also you know want to make sure our clients are like so happy and and love the space so it can be challenging
for sure how did you get that confidence especially early on right so you asked to do a dining room I can't believe that you was you know like it's beautiful to hear that that that today when you're designing multiple hotels and that it started with just designing a dining room and I think that's so inspiring for
so many people listening and watching who either want to follow in your career path or do something creative that they can think wow that that's where it can start how did you have the confidence at that point to walk them through it and say hey even if you don't get it this makes sense what gave it to you at that
point or did you feel at that point did you feel a bit nervous when they said hey we're not you know we don't get it or or did did you always have that confidence about your work no I was nervous 100% like I was like oh my God am I making the right decision like I felt like in my heart it was the right
decision so I really wanted to not convince them but have them like understand like where I was coming from and and they they uh had faith in me and we went for it and it looked amazing and you know you we still have those those clients but yeah it was a nervous uh nerve-wracking um experience and we
still now will do a presentation like the team and I will work on something for weeks and it's like a really big concept presentation and there will still sometimes be like this just doesn't feel right because our audience maybe whether it's for a hotel and it's a group of people they might not they
might not have seen it before and and I strive for that I want to do something that is unique and site specific and and so they might not see before so they get a little a little timid so again it's being um you know really communicating and letting the client know what what uh you know is in our Mind's Eye tell us
about some of the communication skills that takes because I think when people think of creative careers we think of them as purely artistic but actually you're dealing with someone's intimate homes or a hotel space which again is people are coming there to rest or relax or connect or take a break so they're very important
spaces for us and therefore people are quite opinionated about them how what have you learned about communicating more effectively with people especially when things are so personal because I think that's a unique skill set that people wouldn't understand that you've had you'd have to have but you you
obviously have to because you're talking to people about things that they have very clear thoughts about and specific choices for de with confidence like presenting it like you have to believe it and having confidence is everything the visuals are so important and so I like to communicate with the visuals
because I can talk for an hour and and the client might still not understand like the direction so having the visuals is everything and the confidence confidence is so is everything for you you know like we just talked about your career started from like humble beginnings and I wonder what is what was
the hardest thing about getting started what was the most difficult thing on this journey to get to where you are today what was the thing that scared you the most the thing that you struggled with the most like I'm I'm a really hard worker and I I know what I like probably going into it like by myself like I did
the job starting out for 3 years by myself I was the the the business person the creative person I was loading my car up at the flea market with a huge chair and putting it in myself and doing everything and so doing that by myself and I didn't work in a design studio so I didn't have that visibility to how a
design studio truly operates so really figuring out the contracts the budgets and how to present that I did it you know on my own and I ask a lot of questions and there were some great contractors and people that I was working with and collaborating with on these projects and I just ask you know a
million questions but I would say that doing that alone and now when I go to a big meeting and I get nervous doing a big presentation and I have my team and my support team my family um my my husband who's like my biggest cheerleader and uh and and we do it as a team and that was probably like the the most uh kind of frightening part of
starting yeah and I'm hoping that the reason I asked that is I think there are so many people right now who are listening have a passion have a creative project that they want to work on and it can feel daunting when you say oh I don't know accounts I don't know how to do my taxes I don't know how to put a
presentation together I don't know how to pitch that but you're saying asking questions and just doing it I guess I'm guessing there were lots of yeah you just have to do it I mean honestly you just have to do it it and really you know just having the passion and really you know the the drive to to wanting it
and educating yourself along the way and I'm continuing to educate along the way and every project we have there's a new group of creatives whether it's a landscape or an architect lighting designer that we all learn from one another and and that just makes me and and my team a better designer and uh any
we pass it Bel to all of our next projects and clients what do you think was your biggest mistake that you made on that part of the journey like something that now you look back and like oh that's ridiculous I can't believe that was a mistake that it doesn't feel that big but at that time you like oh no I don't know how to do
this or you know this oh my God so I worked I worked on a project um and I had one assistant we were working on this project for this um uh music executive and she loved color and so she was traveling and um and this was actually starting out she had a really low budget and so we were like listen we're going to
have this painted we're going to do something unbelievable and it it looked awful it was like so it was a wreck and it was just too many colors just went overboard which you can do which is great you you to make mistakes it's so important in the creative process to make mistakes and um so she was going to
be back in a week and my assistant and like we' spent the money on the painters so we so I painted myself with with my assistant the entire house ourselves wow wow you know we wanted to make it great and that's not the first time I've done that we worked on projects that there was like a little budget and I wanted
the project so badly to be amazing and I wanted to make the client happy and they're just and so I just like painted myself that's amazing that's incredible can that person now claim that Kelly painted my house I think they moved since then uh but you know I just did it myself and sometimes you just you
know you have to do it you have to just put in the extra work and and make it happen what do you think was the biggest risk you took on this journey where you felt like you were kind of leveling up I feel everyone goes through this phase of they're doing the work they growing
the're building you went from doing the dining room to the whole home what was a big risk that you thought or a leap you had to take which kind of shifted your career I would say you know when I was um doing interiors and um and this is like what's so great about you know my job is like anyone can call any moment I
got a call from Bergdorf Goodman you know this incredible store in New York and they were looking for a designer to do the like iconic restaurant on the top floor and so they're like we'd like to come out and meet with us and we did like a presentation and I was like they were like well listen we're speaking to
a few other people and I thought for sure I was going to be a New York designer like I was the only one on the west coast they were speaking with and we ended up getting the the commission which was like unbelievable and this is like a store that you know you just you just dream about because it's you know
so you know iconic so doing that project and it was like a really you know big success it looks the same way I think it's been like 12 years since that project was was completed so after the project the president uh of the company said Hey listen you know we would love for you to have uh a shop and I was
thinking but I don't sell anything like I'm a designer and I don't have products so I said well let me think about it cuz that was like a dream now I'm going to have like a shop within berdorf Goodman and um so I uh went back and I was like you know what I have designed a lot of things like a lot of uh commissions for
some of our projects and we've done a lot of custom things that we couldn't find and we ended up designing So within about um 6 months we designed this incredible space it was like a little Jewel box and um we were in business and I had accessories and it was there for 10 years it did so well and it
was and you know I I took as a challenge like I want to do this I was so excited and I you know really educated myself on how to you know find uh you know Fabricators you know around the world a lot of our things were made there in different places so it was a you know really cool thing and that got me into
having uh a a store mhm that's completely different completely different and I think that's having an open heart and just like riding the wave and being open to like any opportunity and now we're you know designing product and you know hotels I never thought in a million years I'd design a hotel and uh
you know work we're now working with a lot of Brands doing really like unbelievable cool things um and um so it's it's like really exciting are there any particular cities in the world that you feel you just constantly gravitate towards or have they changed over the years and what would be some of your memories of going to any of your
favorite cities or countries where you discovered something new or something fresh or even something that felt familiar I would say uh going to uh to Europe like I love going like the Paris Flea Market is it's like unbelievable and just any of the European cities like I was in Amsterdam the summer and I was
in so great and in Belgium and the so many uh incredible artists like these really great emerging artists and when you travel you just see like what's special and and I think it's so important to travel because if you our world is becoming so same there's not a lot of you know if you look on your Instagram and uh you know in your
technology things are feeling the same so it's so important to travel because you really see what are the special materials and the the inherent designs and craftsmanship that many of these different countries have so it's very important to get out and see things in person absolutely Kelly I want to do
something intuitive with you the singers we're both being intuitive so I'm going to look through your beautiful book which I love to do in general anyway and I'm going to pick things that intuitively call out to me okay and then ask you ask you the story about them how does that sound okay amazing does that
sound okay yeah okay there's so much stuff already I saw this picture I fell in love with this actually I was like addicted to this whole space for a second maybe I should ask you to walk me through this because I saw this on your Instagram too oh yeah that's a project uh that's in uh California we worked on
it with um an architect uh Marwan elad and he did the Aman in um Airi right yeah and he's just such a a talent and this is U an Anish kapor uh artwork uh a Jonas Bolan chair that from the 80s that chair was is stunning the chair is like sculpture yeah and that's why actually Jay like one of the things is you know
you think you've seen everything and so for example like a stiletto heel you think you've seen every stiletto heel and someone comes out with something that totally blows you away and it's like a new thing that that your heart stops and it's the same thing with a chair and and having like artists find
their creative spirit you know that's a three-legged chair and just people continue to to uh design and come up with things that you you've seen you've never seen before and it's the same thing with music like you think you've heard like every kind of Rhythm or sample and you just hear something new
that just blows you away what about people who think they're like you know Kelly I don't have enough money to make a space look good like do you need to spend big in order to create a space that feels good to you no 100% because you can just like I did you can paint a wall and it could be one wall which is actually kind of cool
every wall doesn't have to be the same color it makes it more interesting and just have one amazing chair that you love in one light we need light uh light fixture and and a table and like let it sit for a while and and really just um that showcases your style and it's nice to live in something a little more
minimal for a while like I used to live where I just had so many things that you know I found on my travels and there would just be a lot of stuff and I've kind of changed I like things that are really like a little more minimal and important and it lets the peace shine and have its own moment yeah I think
minimalism is definitely where I feel like I feel our home is quite minimalist there's a lot of empty space everything's very low as well which I really like I know love like like some of these like beds and Furniture I mean you need like a stool to step on they're so they're so tall and it's and it's the
same everything's getting big yes everything like literally mean we're design designing tabletop and you know we plates like you know they're so much bigger now it's like everything and so what I love really low beds because I think you feel like really low to the ground and it also makes a small bedroom
like feel more expansive because it doesn't cut the room in half so that's a good note yeah a bed that's like 12 in in height and it's so nice I mean it's very you know it's how like in J in Japan everything's like really low and it doesn't get in the way of Windows and it makes your space feel so much more
expansive these are very good practical tips I think everyone everyone's everyone's going to be getting low beds because of that this space is spectacular I don't think I've seen this in real life actually with all the tiles and everything oh yeah that is uh in Austin where we met we actually spoke
over on on the right side there oh hidden behind here yeah yeah so that is um a restaurant and so all those tiles I was in Portugal and I stumbled upon this uh shop that had tiles and it was like a 75-year-old family-owned tile company and I went inside and I was so moved and this restaurant the chef that we were
designing this restaurant for it's Mediterranean and so uh the reason why it's patchwor is because all of these tiles came from different like decades and periods and so you know many of it's like dead stock and there was seven left or maybe 20 left and so really created this Patchwork of all of this you know
different color and pattern and and reliefs and it looks you know amazing yeah I love it it's I I didn't I didn't see it that day I think we were what hidden on the other oh we're on the other side right or through there I'm trying to figure that out yeah and it's also like making do with what you have
or what you've seen like I could easily gone in this tile store and seen one tile that I absolutely loved and like okay let's just do the entire wall in that but you know having something that that you know okay how can we make this work and make it really interesting and um kind of just you know letting your
creative Juices Flow I think that's what's so beautiful about it is that when we're present and when we're when we observe I find that and I don't know how I started doing it with furniture and things like that but I feel like when you re I think it's just mindfulness training but when you get really present with like looking at even
the direction of like the Grain Lines you know on a piece of uh wood or whether it's looking at like how it's cut or connected or you know and I don't have any of the vocabulary of an interior designer at all or the language or have any skills in the space I can appreciate something that that looks
beautiful and so as I'm looking through this yeah and things that are also like imperfect and if you you you know if we're skinning if we're skinning a wall in in Timber and you know you want the hand of it to really uh show its like dimensionality and and how things are are assembled and put together and and
it's all you know part of the storytelling and it does like things that are imperfect are so beautiful which is kind of crazy because I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and I'm trying to like you know let things go a little more like sometime like I literally will go to like one of the hotels and I will see
the furniture that's out of place and people are like oh God there's Kelly like she's like moving like the furniture I'll I can tell if things are like 2 inches off I mean I like to keep things like super tight but sometimes you just have to like Let It Go no I'm with you my my wife and I get into this
all the time I will rearrange our dining chairs around the table every night just because I I totally am that person yeah I my wife's like what are you doing I'm like like no these are just too close and I can't appreciate this space because of this I I'm totally like that so I get that and I told my boys and
like listen I see everything like you'll never like pull anything over on me yeah I see everything I love it this piece I saw uh I loved it from the moment I saw it I it looks spectacular yeah so this is uh in the hotel that's in downtown and it's a pool Suite because the the building is a historic building and uh
it used to in one of its lives be a YMCA and so in order to get the historic tax credits uh you have to keep a lot of the programming there so there was a pool and it's quite it's like a 30 40 foot pool and so it's a three-bedroom suite and it has its own kitchen so you know you can stay in this you know really
incredible I mean this is an experience that you'll really rarely get and that's what we like to do is like you know give people an experience and something that they can take an incredible memory home with them wow I mean there's I could stop at every page so I'm I'm really trying to be intuitive as I said yeah and you have to
go to the Santa Monica proper yes I've been there before oh you've been there no I've been there it's beautiful no I've been there I've had uh I've been I've been there for birthdays and events and yeah that that space is spectacular downstairs upstairs I've been on the rooftop as well it's a it's a really
beautiful space I love the use of like plants and nature like to me these kind of spaces of course these kind of spaces are really special with like this kind of composition but that feels similar to the first one I showed you I think but when people are trying to do plants in their home how should they think about
it because I feel like that's something that people try hard and and struggle with keeping them alive is one thing but what about in terms of placement well you know like that is where having something that if you have a really amaz incredible yeah that's that's so great well we are so fortunate to work with
some amazing talents and but I actually love going to the nurseries and seeking out these unbelievable specimens that have that are imperfect and that uh really transform your interior and I think too like less is more although I do love uh you know we're working on a project where there's a salarium and
there's there's so many you know incredible you know plants and uh in different uh colors of green in the pots and it just was like a really beautiful story and that project that is a artwork that's a vase the chair do you see this yeah this this this is probably one of my favorite rooms have you've ever done
like I love this room yeah so that's The Grotto and uh The Grotto actually the inspiration it's a library when we were working on this hotel I wanted an intimate space where people could go and have a meeting and hang out and this is a hotel that's in Santa Monica and so the it's like merry time I mean that was
the the inspiration and so I went to a friend's um parents house and there were an older couple and they live in Malibu and I remember walking in their home and being so inspired because they had this incredible artwork and they had a library and all of these things that you know they're well-traveled couple that
they've collected their whole life and it just felt so real and represented them and so this room the grot we called it um we brought in a lot of emerging artists from Los Angeles and then we also found a lot of vintage pieces as well and it's just a great place that you can have a meeting and it's like
being in a in a grotto yeah little little podcast studio right there I love it no it's beautiful and like I said I could go on and on I'm glad we did that though because I love hearing you react and tell us the story behind incredible things and I'm such a visual person like it helps to like see to see things
because I am like so visual and it's such a you know a big part of you know my spirit and and what I do and that was like when I was doing the master class they were like listen we want you to you know you're going to be you know the teacher and you're just going to talk and I was like but you guys everything
is like so visual and tactile and there's like materiality and so much to the story and so um we uh went outside the box and went on some uh site visits was so fun yeah absolutely oh oh yeah you actually went out with the course we went out yeah that's incredible yeah we went out to um entor and and I think
then people can apply and I think if somebody is not like really skilled at design like they also need to see things as well so that helps them you know to apply it to you know what they're trying to do absolutely and people can actually learn from you directly from the masterclass so that's that's a great way
of giving people the tools if you're inspired from today then hopefully the masterclass will help you piece together all these amazing lessons that Kelly's sharing Kelly you didn't you've said before where I've learned before that you didn't always plan on being a mom or like you didn't think about it as your
natural course but it's something that of course I've even met some of your children I believe as well so yes yes yeah so my like growing up you know my my mom worked my grandmothers both worked and so having you know the white picket fence was not you know in my in my mind I wanted to work and I really
love designed you know from when I was doing my bunny shop when I was seven years old and really discovering my passion in high school and just like you I love graphic design and that's kind of where it all started from is going to the flea markets with my mom and seeing all the magazines and so I really wanted
to to work and be uh you know have a career and then I met my incredible husband Brad and a family was important to him and I was like okay uh I got to think about it you know have an open heart like I'm in love with you know I'm in love with my husband and so I said let's do we'll have one we got engaged
and um and I got pregnant that was the most transformational like moment in in my life my family is everything and kids are like the most like incredible layer to life and I love what I do like absolutely love what I do but it's like there's nothing like it oh and it's like just everything and um yeah it's the
most beautiful thing like my kids are my heroes they teach me like so much about life and you know um and I just had a baby and you know so many people are like oh well you have two older kids and like you know what would you do differently like reflecting and is spend the most amount of time with your kids
now because it goes by so fast yeah where how's that how's that been with also of course your ambition and you're working on so many projects like you've been able to it sounds like be so present with your kids and not have to give up your passion and I think that that's such an important thing that we also need to see
as well because I think in that advice of people thinking God I need to spend every time we kind of let go of the things that you value how have you and I don't like the word balance because I don't think that's necessarily what I'm asking it's almost like how do you keep passion and presence alive present with
your family but then your passion which kind of keeps you alive how do you keep both alive it can be a struggle and what I do is when I'm at work I'm so present with my team and and I go to my studio like I love going to my studio I'm like in the thick of it with them every day but I make time for my for my kids and
obviously there are things that that you miss out on and you know it's all about prioritizing and having a a routine and and schedule and yes like reflecting you know with with all of and Elliot when they were younger and this is before there was like Zoom meeting and working from home and all that is I missed
things I was traveling and you know it it it broke my heart but I was also happy I was happy that I was being fulfilled as a designer and I was living my dream and I am living my dream and and they see that and and makes me an incredible mom because I get to teach them things but yeah it's definitely you
know can be be tough what is the difference between creativity and replication and is replication the thief of creativity it's it's such an interesting question and for me creativity comes within it's your soul and it's your stylistic voice and replication is looking outward so what maybe inspires you to uh design a
certain way um and you know for example replication can inform creativity and if we're designing a front desk of a hotel and the functionality works so well we're going to incorporate that but then we're going to give it a new spirit by skinning it with another material so that's where
the replication comes into play uh but creativity truly comes from within and it's an artist or a designer or chefs it's like it's their creative uh their creative voice when when you were on the journey towards this successful career you have now were there moments of experiencing burnout where it's like okay I'm taking
this project on okay well I've got another project but oh no they want me to do the whole house and oh my gosh now I got another one and I feel like a lot of creators today especially online feel a lot of burnout because they feel like they have to keep up with their own success they may have had an overnight
moment which led to more work which is exciting but equally challenging even during the pandemic there were so many companies that went through their biggest scaling but also led to people having to work harder and longer so how have you thought about burnout saying no is just as important uh to saying yes
and there are projects that I really wanted to take but it just would have just over and dat and stressed the studio and so timing is everything and I know there's going to be other projects that will be on the horizon but you want to do a great job I'm personally so involved in every aspect of my business
I'm in my studio every day providing the creative leadership to the team I'm involved in the business I'm involved in so every aspect of the studio and so you really have to uh kind of pick and choose like the right time yeah how do you trust that the next project will come I think that's so brave and thoughtful that
you're like look I want to do a great job I'm only going to take these few projects I get it have to say no even though I'm so in love with this but I trust that the right projects will come how did you kind of build that sense of trust because I think a lot of us fear that oh no maybe I'll never get an
opportunity again if I miss this one so how did you have that more open mindset that yes I trust well because it came from um the mistake of taking on at one point I took on a lot of work and I just remember just oh my God I cannot wait for these projects it was we were doing three hotels at one
time and some residential projects and so of course I'm like we're just going to hire more people but you have to be so in tune with your team and when you have a lot of new team it takes like a year or so for them to really get in sync with what's going on in the studio how it operates what's the the the
philosophies and so making the mistake of taking on too much and I remember it was a really like you know stressful time and I was burning the midnight oil and uh you know and the team was and and then you lose a team because they're burnt out and you know that's you know terrible and uh so so really from those
mistakes I learned to uh to Pace myself do you have a turn off when I sleep that's good when sleep and I hit the pillow so hard and I'm out and I have the aura ring which I love so I know I sleep very well but um yeah when I sleep is when I completely turn it off and uh but then I dream design I really I dream
design it's amazing and I wake up and I'm like oh my God I wish I had turned the corner to see like what was next or so uh but sleep and I go a million miles a minute and I love it I would not have it any other way I love I'm not like a great person with a lot of free time I love being busy I mean tell us about
some of your dreams do you have you ever invented created curated in your dreams and taken something out of it or 100% like there was um like the staircase actually in Austin I love that staircase like that was like kind of a moment of something that that I dreamed about and and the pottery and it's kind of like
not something you would traditionally see like a really big staircase in a new you know contemporary architecture and um so that was something that that I dreamed about and like the other night I was having a dream that I was in a house and there was like this really amazing light fixture that had all of these um um like
uh strings of some sort with these small little uh lights and it was like really like very artistic like it's in my mind's eye and we'll see where it comes up in in the design but yes I I do dream design I love that that's that's wonderful to hear because yeah it just shows how obsessed you are and how
immersed you are in the world that it's it's even happening in your dreams and that staircase it's so it's so amazing though and I love that it's dreamed to design also it's being visual because I see so many images like all day because when we're doing concept presentations like we're constantly curating images to
help uh present our story and the concept to to the client and so I just have like this library of like images concept L going through my head so I know that obviously is the inspiration for my brain mhm yeah and I love the dream to design because when I'm reacting to that staircase people like Jay it's a
staircase relax but it really does spark so much joy like I look at it and I go wow like you know and so it's amazing how design from your dream can actually spark moments of awe which are so nice to experience when you're just walking around doing your daily tasks you know so special sure I I want to ask you a
question Kelly around artists valuing their work or even creatives or coaches or experts or whatever it may be I think so many of us and I get this question a lot Jay I don't feel confident enough to charge what I think I'm worth like people forget the amount of time they trained people forget the amount of time
they worked it becomes really hard to come up with an hourly rate or a project rate or a piece of art right I have friends who are artists who are con L like not knowing how to charge how did you make sense of how you wanted to price yourself and how do you encourage people to figure out how they priced
themselves what things could they think about in order to do that well it all has to do with if you if you really want to be involved in the project for example we just had this happen like there's a really amazing project um that's in Asia that you know I'd love to be part of and our fee was too high and
I know I'm going to be very involved but I really want to take the project and so the client came back and was like how can we make this work so I think it's like communication and uh you know and really uh you know both parties valuing each other's worth and uh so I think just being in really you know great
communication and we'll have uh you know some emerging artists that I know are struggling and they're just getting started and we want to bring them on to a project as for a commission and um you know we'll figure out ways like can we internally help them get to a place where it's not going to be as time
consuming so I think there's really many different ways that communication is key how did you go about creating your first pricing structure because I feel like when someone's starting out as a creative as a designer as an artist they can struggle so much with their self-worth and what their value is but
they don't want to miss out on the client and so how would you encourage someone to think about pricing themselves and how did you do it I really wanted the job like my first project I really wanted a job and as I said I didn't work for a design studio so I didn't know really how how to charge and so I asked them I said what
do you feel comfortable paying me to do this project and they told me and I was like Wow and and so I came back to them with something I found you know thought was fair and we met in the middle but I was doing I really wanted the project and so you know that is one of the projects that I actually did the painting myself
and if you know this is a stepping stone in your career then maybe you do take less for it I think you have to like look at all the um the different factors in in how you charge and is it you know for a friend is this going to be a big step in your career or um or is this something that uh you know is going to
take a lot of time on your part and your team's part and you have to charge accordingly yeah and I think that Honesty that's a that what you just shared there is really smart and I want people to really listen to that is it a favor for a friend is it a project because it's just so epic you don't get
to do things like that is it actually just going to take a lot of your time and it's not that epic like it's just work which level is it because that's going to affect how you price yourself and I'd also add that I found that when people are coming up with their hourly rate they're usually thinking about how
much an hour is worth but really it's not about your hourly rate it's about the hours it took to get there so for you to learn the skills you have the hours it took for you to make it as simple or as accessible or as useful as it did to that individual whatever it is offering of course it includes the hard
costs of materials and things like that but really you're charging for how much someone values that time or effort or work and in these circles it can be hard to understand and I think looking at other people that you aspire to be like or people that are in your Fields can help you find that middle ground but
again I love what you said about figuring out where it ranks in the order of yeah and most clients and are like reasonable and if you if you really lay out like it's going to take me this amount of hours or it's going to take a year to get this done and it's like this you know uh this much of a team and on
also the skill set because if you're if you're going to bring someone on you know that they have an incredible skill set they're going to save you time but they're also going to save you money at the end because a mistake is is money and so is it worth to pay someone up front who knows exactly what they're
doing and how to operate absolutely that was great Kelly it's been such a joy talking to you today and I'm glad that we've this has been a very unique episode we've been reacting to beautiful pictures in your book I've loved hearing about your stories as well of just you know the steps that it's taken to build
this phenomenal career that you're having and I love that you still feel like you're just at the beginning which is such a great mindset to have but as you know as a fan of the podcast we end every episode with a final five and you have to answer all these in one word or one sentence maximum but I always
digress so let's let's start with the final five all right question one is what is the best design advice you've ever heard received or given diversity of everything I'll let you expand now diversity of scale of eras materiality because you don't want to buy all your furniture in one place and so many people do they'll go to one
place and buy all their Furniture because they're in a rush and so diversity is like so so important good advice all right so don't don't buy everything from Ikea uh trust me I I know yeah I've done that many times all right got it uh second question what is the worst design advice
you've ever heard received or given that a project has to be done in such a short amount of time that you're forced to buy everything right now good advice because you want to to curate everything over time so it's meaningful I I made that mistake earlier this year and we didn't luckily I didn't go through with it but
with the house was finished and I wanted to do art and that's the thing you should least rush but there was so much a part of me that was like I'm just tired of looking at blank walls and I want to feel inspired in this space and I like I was quickly looking at Collections and everything luckily my
wife is the so I'm a very decisive quick person and my wife is like really slow and will never make a decision if she doesn't have to and so we balance each other out really well because I'll be like yeah I think this will fit there and she'll be like no I don't think so and then we sit with it and I think this
idea of sitting with things is such a great you you mentioned it multiple times in this conversation and I've learned that skill through through working on my own home that sitting with something is the most important thing but often we think once we bought it and put it together we have to keep it and
luckily there is a refund policy and a return policy you can give things back and I think it's it's interesting the idea of sitting with something is something we struggle to do we think once we bought it we have to keep it or we didn't buy it well everything just so fast now everything like just is like
going a million miles a minute and you feel like you have to get something done and it's such an exciting process of like you're curating things that you're going to put into your home uh but um you know Take the Long Road Home uh question three I know you do a lot of health and fitness is a big priority in your life in order to how
does that that affect your creativity I come up with a lot of ideas it's just it's unbelievable having just this it's active meditation for me where I can just cleanse my my brain and uh and a lot of things come to me when I on to run and uh and I love Dana as well yeah it's my Act of meditation and when you
create this clear space in your brain it allows for creativity and is running your main form of that or is and SW or are there others is that your yeah no I do uh I do a little bit of everything I like to change it up cuz you want to surprise your body just like you always want to surprise your audience you know
it's the same thing with you and me and in design and uh so surprising your body is so important so I'll do Pilates uh cardio strength training like Mobility work like a little bit everything and I love playing tennis and uh also padel MH oh I love padell padell is so fun p is so cool I keep missing your tennis
parties I'm so so upset with myself I love tennis too and whenever you invite me I'm out of town or traveling it makes me so sad we just put in a pedel court our house and it's so much fun it's such a great like social um sport with the glass walls with the glass walls and we played the first time uh last year we
went to Brazil and they're all over there and uh it's so much fun I got into it in Dubai and so Dubai's really taken off and then I played it in Miami but it hasn't taken off in La cuz pickle ball has so I've been playing pickle ball but padel is we just this weekend met this guy who's a padel uh he's from Spain
he's like a padel expert he's a teacher and he told us there are 11 courts in in Los Angeles where they're like there were people's homes there's actually one ironically on Santa Monica like near um uh like by the Peninsula Hotel like a really random place but it's such a it's such a fun Sport and I like it because
it's a little more like skill and um uh a little more challenging it's a little more unpredictable than pickle ball for sure because you've got to be great at physics to play padel have no idea it's like chess it's like active chess it's like so um yeah so fun and soal and really uh social absolutely all right
question four and five last two questions question four what's the first thing you think about when you look at a space to bring it to life what's outside the window interesting walk us through that it's like what is outside the window is so important because it's part of your Interiors like you have to look
at it is it's like your first piece of art in the room so is it a tree is it another building across the street um is it the mountains you know it's so important to to the space wow that I I did not expect that there you go you know and and how how do you use that to infer what goes on inside well if we're
selecting like we were working on a project in New York and there was a terracotta building outside the window and so like and it was there were large Windows there was five of them that go across um this elevation and so it's really it's like a large piece of art in the room so we need some something that
really um speaks to to the window and and the materiality on the building and so we had to consider it and um so it's it's really you know important part of design what are some of I'm digressing here from the final five but what's what are some of the biggest mistakes you think we make when it comes to setting
up our spaces and our rooms what are some things to avoid that people can look out for like one thing that I love that I think a lot of people um like for small spaces mirror goes so such a long way and it actually really feels good like there's a great Fu in mirror and where it's placed is so important and uh
it not only creates a window if you have one window in your room like we're working on a hotel project in like Tahoe and you know we're using you know really beautiful mill work and incorporating mirror and like the transformation of the room and what it does to the space is is unbelievable wow yeah that's a
great note but but I would say too the the furniture like really low seating just is makes your space seem so much more expansive and lighting is so important and like one thing like we really avoid is like just directional downlights you have to be so uh careful that they're not over seating areas
because you know we have people and come to the hotel we want people to look like great and feel amazing and um so lighting is like really I think underestimated and um should be really considered got it all right great aners all right Fifth and final question if you could create one design law that
everyone in the world had to follow what would it be really I understand what your style is and frequent museums and Galleries and go out and see what things say to you because you're going to discover something that you didn't know was inside you that's going to make your interior represent who you are I think
that's great life advice and design advice it's it's knowing who you are and and and allowing enough input I definitely found that when when we moved from London to New York and then from New York to LA it was just I just got exposed to so much more than I'd ever been exposed to and that exposure is what also helped Define and
edit who you were and who you wanted to be so and you're constantly changing like the more you see like I look at projects I did 20 years ago and they're they're great and but they're different than how I would approach things now just taking your time it's like so so important and I go M A Million Miles a
minute and I get excited about things and I want things to happen now and but really it's like taking your time like pace is everything well Kelly thank you for your time today and thank you for being so present and gracious and kind and thank you for being so trusting of me I've loved having this conversation with you
and I hope that everyone who's been listening or watching has found some inspiration some spark some creativity to help enliven and and uh bring to life their spaces because I I really do believe design can make you happy I really do believe that design and Aesthetics in our spaces can Define how
we feel and how we move and the emotions that we go through and so thank you and design Too Jay's something else about design that we're speaking that is is very more aesthetic but it also makes our lives easier MH and that's something that continues to get better and better and which is going to give us more time
and so not only the aesthetic of design but also the functionality which is really you know critical give us an example of that because that's a great great point and we didn't talk about that tell tell tell us a bit more about how we can think about our spaces functionally in order to make them
easier as well what have you found or what little tips have worked for you for that well in our studio we're actually uh working with AI and after uh like during theid holidays and you know the fall when open AI um announced the the you know generative uh intelligence and and what it can do uh I just listened to
a lot of podcasts and read up on it and I was like I'm going to implement this in my studio in some way and obviously you can't go full force into it so I in each department I uh have like a director and we're using it uh every day and it's been like really profound and really inspirational and it's not
designed designing um spaces for us but it is actually generating ideas that we can Implement into a project and something that maybe we never thought of and you know and I tell the team I'm like listen this is like you have like a junior designer by your side that can help Implement and I'm super bullish on
AI and what it's doing for my business is is unbelievable and we're only like at the surface and soon we're not going to have just a junior designer everyone's going to have a senior designer working for them and it's not going to take away what we do because you got to have somebody driving the ship but it's um it's fascinating and
love it yeah no I love hearing you Embrace that because I think so many people get scared like oh no like people can just design their rooms by AI but I think when you're confident and conscious of what you're doing what do you think what parts do you think it's going to help replace and help solve
versus what parts do you think you're like well wait a minute my brain will always be able to you know do this part uh it's just generating like idea generation but also like photosop and how quickly that you can get things done now so maybe we can take on a certain amount of work a year but it's going to
enable us to probably take on more projects and be more efficient with our time and then when you're more efficient with your time your team's more happy because then they have free time so so I think it's going to make are and this is I'm not an expert in AI I'm just telling you how I'm using it um and my studio
using it but it's going to benefit us in so many ways and helping give us more free time and idea generation which is great because it's like having a new person on your team a new creative Spirit on a project every day which is is unbelievable it was just unbelievable yeah that's great I love it
well thank you again Kelly thank you so much so Wonder I hope you yeah you're amazing and I and thanks for having me and I'm so happy to be here finally with you and uh and you're uh you're amazing oh you're so kind well I'm glad that we keep uh deepening our friendship and I I'll never forget the FES when I met you
and how how kind and sweet you were to me so thank you so much and I'm glad that you know the book's available I'm glad that I'm glad that we're drinking from your classes this is this is spectacular these are beautiful I can't wait to shop the whole collection thank you so much if you love this episode you
will enjoy my interview with Dr Daniel aan on how to change your life by changing your brain if we want a healthy mind it actually starts with a healthy brain you know I've had the blessing or the curse to scan over a thousand convicted felons and over a hundred murderers and their brains are very damage