Design That Evolves

When I moved from Argentina, I packed more than suitcases.

I brought memories. Traditions. Expressions that don’t quite translate into English. The little habits that quietly remind me where I came from.

And I brought this chair.

It has been in my family for generations. Long before it sat in my Arizona studio, it was the chair where I did my homework after school. The chair we gathered around for family meals. Like so many things we live with every day, it quietly became part of our family.

It followed me from Argentina to Michigan, and eventually to Arizona.

After years of use, I realized the chair didn’t need to be replaced.

It simply needed another chapter.

The carved wooden frame remained exactly as it had always been. The upholstery changed. Bright stripes replaced the original fabric, giving the chair a different personality while preserving everything that made it worth keeping.

It once belonged around a family table.

Today, it lives in my studio.

Its role has changed, but its meaning hasn’t.

I never felt the need to preserve it exactly as it was.

The chair had already lived many lives. Changing the fabric didn’t erase its history. It became part of it.

That idea finds its way into many of the homes I design.

People sometimes wonder if an antique chair belongs in a contemporary room, or whether a family piece fits with a new renovation. I think those questions come from the idea that everything in a home has to belong to the same moment.

I’ve never believed that.

Some of my favorite rooms are built from different chapters. An heirloom beside a modern lamp. Contemporary artwork hanging above a traditional console. Pieces collected years apart that somehow feel as though they’ve always belonged together.

Homes evolve the same way people do.

We don’t become someone entirely new with each chapter of life. We carry parts of where we’ve been into where we’re going.

I think our homes should be allowed to do the same.

That’s why I’ll almost always look for ways to keep a piece before replacing it. Good furniture is built to last. Fabric can be changed. Finishes can be restored. A piece can take on an entirely different personality while keeping the craftsmanship that made it worth bringing home in the first place.

That little chair has traveled thousands of miles.

It has looked different in every chapter of my life.

I hope it continues to.