Walk the house.
Photograph every room in the order you live in them — kitchen first if you start there, the front door if guests do. No styling. No tidying. Truth is more useful.
Most design projects begin with a meeting. Mine begins with a quiet week of noticing — yours. Before we sit down together, I'd love for you to walk your home, slowly, and tell me what you find.
The best design work I do happens long before the first sketch. It happens when I can see your home the way you live in it — the corner that's bothered you for years, the chair you'll never give up, the time of day the light turns gold in the kitchen.
So I built a small practice for the week before we meet. Six gentle prompts. No pressure, no styling, no performance. Just you, your phone, and your house, on your own time.
By the time we sit down together, I already know your home. The meeting isn't a discovery call — it's the second conversation. We start already in the middle of the work.
Take them at your own pace, over a week or an afternoon. There are no wrong answers — and the small details are usually the most useful.
Photograph every room in the order you live in them — kitchen first if you start there, the front door if guests do. No styling. No tidying. Truth is more useful.
Tag three things in your home you would never give up. A piece of furniture, a view, a particular doorway, the way the morning sun hits one wall.
Tag three things you've been meaning to fix or change for years — even small ones. The drawer that sticks. The corner that has no purpose. The color you never loved.
When are you home? Which room do you sit in at the end of the day? What time does it turn gold? Light is half the design — and it's the half most people overlook.
Save anything that speaks to you — a magazine clipping, a screenshot from Pinterest, a photograph of a friend's living room, a fabric you bought without knowing why.
If this project worked — if you and I really got it right — how would your home feel different on a Tuesday night? Write it in a single sentence. We'll come back to it.
Fill in what you can — even a few answers are plenty. I'll read every word before we ever speak. Within two business days, I'll come back with first impressions, a few good questions, and an invitation to talk.
In the end, the best design isn't imposed on a home — it's heard from inside it. The walking, the noticing, the small folder of clippings — that's already the work beginning. By the time we meet, you're not hiring a designer. You're meeting the one who already understands.
— Elizabeth