Interior design is something that all homeowners have to think about at some point or another. Some people look forward to it; others are terrified at just the idea. But it’s something you have to do. For Lauren Liess, an interior design professional and author of upcoming design book “Habitat,” it is nothing short of a passion.
Liess has been working professionally as an interior designer for eight years with little formal education. She has made her way from rearranging her friends’ rooms as a little girl, to arranging and rearranging her first apartment, to doing her own home and working on steady projects while sharing her thoughts and projects on her blog.
Over time Liess has made the move from interior design hobbyist to design professional and from design blogger to design author. Her first book, “Habitat,” was released in October.
What was it like honing your interior design skills through experience?
It was definitely interesting. Looking back at my first apartment, now I know it was a mess. I thought it was good back then. My poor roommates, they were so sweet. I was constantly repainting and rearranging, and they would just let me do what I wanted. Looking back now it was this sort of design lab of horrors. But at the time, I was learning. It was definitely a lot of experimentation, and I also had some friends who were in the business who were very influential in me honing in on my style and my setting. Still, obviously, I am learning every day. I also took a distance learning course and started getting my hands on any book I could to try and learn that way. Mostly though, it was trial and error.
How did you get from self-taught, to blog, to book?
The blog is very informal; it’s very off the cuff and just what I feel like sharing that day. I had been asked to do a book much earlier, but at that point I didn’t feel ready. I didn’t feel like I had learned enough or that I was ready to write about design. It eventually got to the point, though, where I realized I wanted to have all the information I learned compiled into one organized manner.
I wanted an all-encompassing brain dump on what I learned, and I felt like at that point that I had learned enough and done enough exciting projects to share that I thought it would make for a really beautiful book.
How do you think the design of a house can affect the people living in it?
I think, number one, the design of a house can put people at peace and make them feel good and make them feel happy. I think we are all more productive people when we are more organized. I had a client who just redid her home, and she said, “I know this sounds really weird, but I just got a promotion at work, and I literally think it has to do with my house because the redesign just made me so much more of a happier person.”
Do you have any tips you’d give to someone designing their home?
I’d say that they should really just start by getting to know their own style and aesthetic and figure out who they are design-wise. At the same time, they should figure out what their house is design-wise and architecturally. Once [they] can really figure out who [they] are and what their house is, then there is a place where the house and who they are can meet in the middle, and that is what will become a well-designed home.
