Being included in the D*S book has made me reflect on my creative career up until this point. (Perhaps I am trying to convince myself I deserve the honor!) If you’ve read my ‘Meet Hana’ page, you know I’ve been an interior designer here in NYC for a little over a decade. So I thought I’d share a few photos of the projects I designed in my past life.
Before starting Bolé Road Textiles, I was an associate principal at Studios Architecture. When I tell people I am an interior designer, most people have only a vague sense of what that means. The most frequent response I get is: ‘oh great, I need help with my apartment’. The good news is that now I am more able to help with that request! But at Studios, I primarily designed commercial and workplace interiors.
Jamestown Properties in Chelsea Market | photo courtesy of Jamestown Properties
The best thing about being a commercial interior designer is that you get to work with a cross section of nearly every type of industry – from entertainment to finance and law firms. And since you and your team are charged with creating their new home, you are often at the table with the company’s leadership – their C-suite. An equally amazing part of the profession is the balance of left and right brain work. Many people assume being an interior designer is all aesthetic and perhaps it could be depending on your role. My position involved as much analytical work – like reviewing square footage of real estate, assembling a program of the company’s entire staff, as there was aesthetic work – selecting furniture and materials. And there are plenty of unglamorous parts like working late nights to finish a set of construction documents, or walking a raw job site. But overall, it is and amazing profession and I had an amazing experience working on all of these projects.
Arent Fox DC | photo by Eric Laignel
The projects range from small office renovations to new construction spanning multiple floors. Of course I wasn’t solely responsible for creating these projects. All interiors projects are made possible by a team, including principals, project managers, project architects, interns and the consultants and contractors to see it through to fruition. That being said, there’s only one designer :). I selected some of my favorite projects over the years to share.
Left: Juice Lounge Concept | Right: Inscape NY photo courtesy of Inscape NY
I never thought I’d be brave enough to start my own company, but I am so excited and happy that I did. And while I am focusing on building Bolé Road Textiles, hopefully in the future I will be designing interiors as well as textiles!
xo,
Hana