Ep. 84: designer Susan Ferrier

Award-winning decorator Susan Ferrier joins the show today. Known for creating sensuous, atmospheric interiors, Susan created Susan Ferrier Interiors and co-authored the book Art of the House. She talks about how she lights a room while creating drama, creating an architectural rhythm and symmetry in a room, breaking rules, and being bold.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:Why Susan believes the people in the room need to be the pattern.Her creative and explorative use of texture, and strategy of creating shadow with light and darker tones.Her rule of thumb for having a way to read and drink wherever you sit in a room.The two reasons she loves banquettes.How she got into the business, and why she decided to start her own firm, Susan Ferrier Interiors.How she gets inspired by her projects and the ways she digs in to develop a relationship with the people behind every project.How she balances her clients’ with her own personal sense of style and expert quality of being what she refers to as a “visual mathematician”.Which design rules we should be following, and which ones are meant to be broken.The analogy of decorating our homes compared to dressing appropriately for our body type.How we can afford to raise the dynamic design in our kitchens.How Susan challenges the visual aspect of design by combining age with the sleek, modern, and shiny.Susan’s rule for using metals, and if she thinks it will go out of style anytime soon.What we can do to show those 1980’s homes some love and highlight the positive attributHow she lays out a room, and ways we can work with the view to best socialize the spaceHow to not have the price tag displayed on the back of a mirror or painting, and instead have a clean and consistent view.The foundation of creating a good interior for both very large spaces and smaller scale projects.