Beyond Style
Why I Never Have a Simple Answer When Someone Asks, "What's Your Design Style?"
One of the questions I'm asked most often is surprisingly difficult to answer.
"What's your design style?"
It's a reasonable question, but I've never believed the best homes can be summarized in a single word.
Traditional.
Modern.
Transitional.
Contemporary.
Those labels may describe a room at first glance, but they rarely capture what makes it meaningful.
When I walk into a home that truly resonates, I'm almost never thinking about its style.
I'm noticing something else entirely.
The way natural light moves through the rooms throughout the day.
The proportions of the furniture within the architecture.
The warmth of aged wood.
The character found in natural stone.
The subtle imperfections of handcrafted materials.
The way the home reflects the people who live there rather than the latest design trend.
Those are the things that stay with us.
To me, style isn't something that's chosen all at once.
It's something that's collected over time.
It grows through meaningful pieces inherited from family, artwork discovered while traveling, books that have been read and reread, vintage finds with a story to tell, and furnishings chosen because they feel right—not because they're fashionable.
The most memorable homes are rarely perfectly coordinated.
They're layered.
Personal.
Comfortable.
They reveal themselves slowly.
I believe timeless design is less about following a particular aesthetic and more about honoring a few enduring principles.
Scale.
Rooms feel balanced because furnishings relate naturally to the architecture and to one another.
Light.
Natural light has a remarkable ability to shape the mood of a home. Great design embraces it rather than competes with it.
Natural Materials.
Wood develops character.
Stone tells its own story.
Linen softens with age.
Materials that come from nature often become more beautiful through use, not less.
Craftsmanship.
Quality is rarely the loudest element in a room, but it's almost always the one that endures the longest.
Comfort.
Perhaps the most overlooked design principle of all.
A beautiful room should invite you to stay.
To gather.
To read.
To linger over dinner.
To feel completely at home.
These principles can be expressed in a traditional home, a contemporary home, or something entirely unique.
That's why I don't begin projects by asking what style my clients want.
I begin by asking how they want to live.
Because when we understand the people first, the aesthetic naturally follows.
And perhaps that's why I struggle to define my own design style.
I don't believe my role is to create homes that look like my work.
I believe it's to create homes that feel unmistakably like the people who live in them.
A Thought to Leave With
The homes we remember most are rarely the ones that perfectly reflected a moment in design history. They're the ones that reflected the lives, memories, and stories of the people who called them home.
—
Michelle Murphy
Founder & Principal Designer
Brick & Willow Design Co.