SLHL: What is the biggest compliment you’ve received in your career?
Lauren: The biggest compliment a client can give me is “I trust you.” Hearing that from a client means that I’m doing my job right and inevitably we will all be proud of the results.
SLHL: Who has been the biggest influencer in your career?
Lauren: The biggest influencers on my career professionally have been Emily Castle and Dana Romeis. The opportunity to be able to work with both of these women has been immeasurable. Their commitment to helping advance my career as a designer has brought me to where I am today. On a personal note, another big influencer in my career is my husband, John. He’s just an amazing partner who encourages me to pursue my dreams and works really hard with me to balance work and family.
SLHL: Tell us a story from your childhood where your creative design genius kicked in.
Lauren: I love change. Rearranging my room was endless entertainment for me as a kid. Luckily, my dad was a civil engineer, so our house was always stocked with graph paper, scales and colored pencils. My dad taught me how to measure my room and make scaled drawings with the graph paper. I would draw my furniture to scale in various arrangements and choose my favorite. It would be years later when my career was far from design that I remembered how much joy this gave me. Funny how looking back, I was always headed toward design; it just took a few detours for me to get here.
SLHL: Where do you see your field expanding in the next 10 years?
Lauren: In the next 10 years, I can see working with more clients on their vacation homes. People are really working toward a strong work and life balance and investing in properties away from home that they can retreat to frequently with family and friends. I can see my design work shifting to traveling with clients as they invest in their homes away from home.
SLHL: What’s your favorite part of your job?
Lauren: My favorite part of my job is showing clients a fresh perspective. I love hearing “I haven’t seen that before” or “I never thought of that.” Ultimately, helping people make their homes feel like a representation of themselves while offering a design edge is what makes this my dream job.
