Lee Melahn Designer Spotlight Q&A


What originally inspired you to become an interior designer?
I had a neighbor when I grew up that would sit with me for hour on end designing room after room.
I don't know what it did for my aesthetic but it really honed my space planning skills

Where did you grow up, and how did it affect your sense of design?
I was inspired by Sunday afternoon car rides with my family through the neighborhoods of Madison, Wisconsin. We were crammed in the backseat listening as my parents discussed which homes they liked and why.

What is the most common place you find inspiration for your designs?
How can you not be inspired by your peers. I analyze and critic and marvel over every shelter magazine and book that I can get my hands on.

What is your definition of good design?
A good design must create a sense of comfortable elegance for the user. The design also needs to posses an aesthetic that reaches beyond what the client expects while reflecting your professional vision. If those two things are in place, you have achieved a successful design.

What rules of design should everyone follow? 
My golden rule is that the client has to love what you have done. No matter how much in love with what you have done you may be; if the client isn’t in love with it then the design is no good.

For this room in the Kips Bay area of New York City, we wanted to create a sense of serenity. Using clean, comfortable elegance as defined by the French term, we selected a palette of grays to give the room its calm tranquility. The photography by Sandi Fellman draws the element of nature from the outside into this reading room. Using furniture from our own collection, the room also features a rug by Odegard.

What is the best design advice you ever got?
Never try to lie your way around knowledge you don’t possess. If you don’t know the answer, say you don’t know and then find out what the answer is.

What is the most common design challenge and how can people overcome it?
Getting a client to commit is sometimes very difficult. You need to understand that they are placing an immense amount of trust in you. If they felt capable of making these decisions on their own they wouldn’t have hired a designer. So as a designer you need to brace yourself with huge dollop of patience and a dose of humility.

What is your favorite new design trend for all rooms?
Breaking away from stark and focusing on clean. Making spaces comfortable and not being afraid of doing good design as opposed to being innovative for the sake of innovation.

To honor our client’s request for an oasis from his hectic life, we used a monochromatic palette to neutralize the space in this Tribeca loft giving it our signature sense of tranquility in an area known for its hustle and bustle. The textures of the heavy shag rug, the earthy Venetian stucco on the walls, the smooth fabric of the sofa and the airy pieces of glass all combine to give the room an amazing depth.

What new technologies interest you?
Color photography printed traditionally has been surpassed in terms of longevity by color photography printed digitally making it a viable option as collectible fine art. Digital imaging is also becoming a usable material in the faux wall, floor and ceiling covering market.

What, in general, does the future hold for design?
Definitely tougher competition. Presentations are now three-dimensional and a Web presence is mandatory. Publications are offering how-to-do-it-yourself advice and the products that were once the domain of designers only are now being offered to the public at large. It means that as designers we must be continually updating our knowledge, proving ourselves as a better alternative to the I-can-do-it-myself approach and offering design that goes beyond two dimensional and into a full blown service with in-depth insight into what will make the client know that they have made the right decision by hiring us.