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Frontpage Slideshow (version 2.0.0) - Copyright © 2006-2008 by JoomlaWorks
Schuyler Samperton
Interview by Coleen Rider and Holli Thomas
Photographed by Coleen Rider
HT: Let's talk about how your business has changed over the last couple years. We know that you used to have a partner.
SS: I did. Anna Hackathorn was my partner. We had worked together at Michael Smith and we left and started our own company in 2003. We were together for four years and then she left to have a baby at the end of 2006. So as of 2007 I've been on my own. And it's great. I mean, you've seen the girls that work with me and they're fantastic. And I couldn't do it without them. But it's nice to sort of make your own decisions. I loved working with Anna, she was fantastic. And I liked starting out that way with a partner, as opposed to starting out on my own. I think it was a smart decision for me just because it didn't seem so intimidating. I do feel like it was a good way to kind of break into it. But I enjoy being on my own. It's a lot of work, but it's satisfying. It's nice to sort of see your own vision come to life.
CR: When you start with a new client, how do you begin?
SS: I usually just meet with one of them. It could be the wife or the husband. But I get a sense of what they're like, what their family is like, what they do in their off time, how they travel, what their children are like, if they have pets. I can get a real sense of how they live, which I think is really important because everybody's different. Every project that I go into has a completely different set of circumstances and parameters. I find that interesting. I think it's much better to have each project have its own character and individuality. And I tend not to do things that look similar. That's how I get to that point: each person that I work with has got something that's unique and I try to bring that out.
CR: So you enjoy that beginning where it's sort of an investigative process?
SS: Oh yeah. I think it's like a little treasure hunt. I mean you discover things about people. Some people want sort of looks over comfort. Some people are the opposite. Some people are so particular about colors and how things affect them. I don't really impose my taste on people. I really take what they give me and try to make it better. That's my hope.
CR: What is your sort of forte with a job? Is it textiles, is it color?
A: Well personally, I love color and I love layering. I love fabrics, I think that's my favorite thing to work with. You know, whether it be the curtains or the upholstery or great pillows. I love finding things that are unusual. I do a lot of sourcing of antique textiles. Because I think that really brings a lot of character to a space. It makes it feel that there's some sort of individuality going on. One of my pet peeves is when something looks like everything is from a showroom. I don't like things to be too perfectly matched or symmetrical. I like things to look at little bit off. And I know decorators always say, "It creates tension", but tension to me sort of implies something that might be a little off putting. To me it's more interesting to kind of see something that you wouldn't expect. Like in a bedroom, I don't need to have two identical bedside tables and two identical lamps. I don't need that sort of symmetry personally. I don't bring that to my projects. I just think it looks more kind of relaxed and cool if it's not too matchy.
CR: Do you find that people when they hire you, they know that about you and that's what they're going for?
SS: I think so. I think most people come to me either through publicity that I've had, or my website. I think it's pretty evident that I'm not going to give you a hotel suite. You know, it tends to have a little bit more character, I would hope, a little patina, a little age, a little imperfection. I find all of those things really interesting.
CR: Sitting here looking at your space, it's obvious that you like old things.
SS: I do. I mean most of this stuff I've gotten over the years, either things that I've collected or things that have been given to me from my parents. Practically, I had to find a way to make them work. Little by little I would sort of weed out the things that I didn't care for as much and replace them with all the things that I love. As you can see, there's a lot going on in here. A lot of different styles, and a lot of different colors and textures. To me it all works because it's like a big jumble of some crazy kind of little English country house, my little version of that in LA. So a little bit of eccentricity. I'm not so particular about things matching in my own space because I prefer that. I like it when it's not perfect, you know, every lavender is not the same shade. I think my clients are a little bit more frightened of doing that, but in my own space I take a lot of risks.
CR: How important is art to you?
A: Art is really important to me. And again, I've collected things. Not much of what I have is very valuable, but I have things that are sentimental and that great painting of Jack, my old dog, I love. For me it's about how you put it all together. As you can see, I have some things that are not framed, and then things that are framed in very different ways. That hallway is all sort of salon style, which came about as a total fluke because I had so much of that stuff sitting in my garage. And I thought, "What am I going to do with all of that? It's just, it's sitting out there in a box and that's crazy!" Those are things that I love. And then I got this idea of like, "well I've got that weird little space, that little hallway, I'll just grab a box of nails and get a stepstool." I just totally winged it. I mean, I didn't measure one thing. I just stood there with a couple nails in my mouth and made it happen. I've been adding to it ever since. Not so much in that space because that's pretty much taken. But as you know, my apartment's pretty laden with photographs and art.
HT: Well it's interesting because I think you definitely have the things out that you love. A lot of people put everything away. But it seems like you enjoy looking at your things.
SS: I do. And I mix it up a lot. I move things around. So that tablescape doesn't stay the same for very long. Things change there and I'll move things around because I think you sort of don't see them after a while if they stay in the same place for too long. And like you said, I keep things out. A lot of my jewelry is hung on the walls in the hallway and in here and I keep it out on that dresser in my bedroom because I almost see it as art. I don't have a whole lot of storage space, so it becomes practical as well. It's a good solution. My bathroom is a perfect example of that. Ever since I was little, if I saw a cool picture from a book or a postcard or I'd go to a museum and get something, I never knew what to do with it. You kind of don't want to put it in a drawer because you never see it. And so my bathroom just became this gigantic collage of photos of friends and family and cool images that I would rip out of magazines, or postcards. And people go in there and don't come out for half an hour because they're trying to figure out what everything is.
I love going in there and seeing all that color and all that pattern. I always see something new. If I'm lying there taking a bath I think, "Oh yeah, that's when we went to Maine."
HT: It's your inspiration board.
SS: Yes. It is.
HT: Your 3D inspiration board.
SS: Exactly. There's a huge mix of stuff in there. I'll rip things out because of the color or what it is or picture of a friend or something. But it is. It's a good way of putting it.
CR: So what else do you find inspiring?
SS: You know, a lot of times it's not really a decorator per se, but it could be almost like a lifestyle. I have a lot of old books about like the Rolling Stones and that Laurel Canyon book. I love looking at things like that for patterns and for color combinations. I don't think, "Oh I love Dorothy Draper," or I love somebody else. I don't really take specific things from different designers. It's more kind of films, all those great Merchant Ivory movies.
CR: It's more of a mood.
SS: Yes. It's more mood and lifestyle and then I'll glean like some little nugget out of that. But I never do like a direct rip off of somebody.
HT: Or a style or a particular --
A: It's much more kind of the broader strokes. Although, I have to say I love that whole kind of decrepit English country house thing. I've always been attracted to that, with a little bit of that kind of Anglo Indian Bohemian flair. That's sort of where I'm at home. Although that's not what I grew up with at all. That's for sure. My dad's an architect.
Not sparse so much, but a lot more modern and much more neutral color-wise. Like our family, our house growing up is all very beige and cream and gray. And no wall had a color on it. And so this is very unlike what I grew up with.
HT: So your dad was in charge of all that?
SS: My mom was as well. My mom's got fantastic taste. So it was a collaborative effort for sure. My whole family's pretty artistic. So everybody, believe me, everybody had a point of view. But it was all very harmonious because we all kind of liked the same thing. It was just when I had an opportunity to move here, you know, this space was so dingy. I don't get very much light. And I could never really figure out how to make it feel cozy. And until I painted it, I never really felt like I had achieved that. Then I painted the walls in here. Then slowly I would sort of go into another space and another space. And like I was explaining to you when I first painted my bedroom, I did a really pale blue. And it didn't work. It just, it kind of faded into nothing. It looked dingy. So I had to go for that Farrow and Ball color there which is like incredibly deep.
CR: Do you have a memory then when you were young where you saw someone else's house that was colorful and not like yours? And did you have that attraction to that?
A: I'm sure I did. You know, I grew up in Washington. I was around a lot of different types of houses. Our house was definitely more kind of modern and funky. Everybody else had like a traditional kind of Georgetown, like much more kind of colonial or Georgian. Ours was pretty cutting edge. But I always liked that style. I'm actually comfortable in a lot of different styles, which I think works to my advantage. It just makes it easier to do what I do. I never turn down a client because they want something modern. You know, I'm willing to take that on as well.
HT: And you have experience in that as well.
SS: Yes I do. Yes I do. You know, one of my best friends when I was little had a place in Newport, Rhode Island. And I used to love going to that house because it was full of little nooks and crannies. I like those little window seats and I love just beautiful architectural detail. I love things like that. And so going into a space that just looks like a bunker, doesn't really appeal to me. I don't like things that are sterile at all. Not even in my personal style. I tend to layer stuff on, as you can tell. It's just kind of the "more is more" aesthetic.
CR: Do you find, do you have trouble with clients buying a crusty antique piece and they don't get it?
SS: Oh yes, some people don't get it. And I understand that. It's just, that's kind of my personal aesthetic. But yes, some people want everything to be in perfect shape. To me, I just, I like the imperfections. The sort of, individuality of it all. Because I want it to look like it's their house, not like it's something I bought out of a box and brought the truck over and unloaded. Ideally, and I know everybody says this, but it would be my hope that it looks like evolved over time.
CR: Do you have rules for how you use color?
SS: No. But I do hate gray and yellow together. I can tell you that.
CR: That's interesting. Everybody's so on gray and yellow right now.
SS: Are they really?
CR: Yes, don't you think?
SS: Really?
HT: I've seen a lot of that.
A: It's just so vile to me. I can't stand that combination.
CR: Interesting.
SS: Yes. Sorry to all those gray and yellow fans out there.
CR: You just alienated half of our readers!
SS: Now I'm gonna get those nasty emails.
HT: Well, it's definitely not very organic, those colors together.
SS: I remember when I was little and my dad said to me, "You know, all colors in nature go well together." I've never forgotten that. I don't know if I've ever seen gray and yellow together in nature. But, I have a very wide berth when it comes to color combinations. And again, people have very particular personal preferences. I almost wish that I could come to a first meeting with like a 600 page questionnaire. How do you feel about birds and flowers? Because you could show somebody a great piece of fabric and then, "Oh no, no, no, I hate birds, I can't do birds."
HT: Who doesn't like birds?
CR: A lot of people have a weird thing about birds.
SS: Some people don't like stripes or plaids or, you know, everybody's got something. So you just kind of learn to work around it. It's actually fun because it gives you something to work with.
HT: Some sort of parameters.
SS: Yes, exactly.
Q: So you don't have a formula like - this shade goes with that shade?
A: No. I don't do that. I really don't. I'll put things together for clients - some ideas. I put together a few schemes. What I do a lot is bring my favorites to a meeting, but I mean a lot. Like I don't bring five. I'll bring 25.
CR: Favorites, meaning?
SS: Fabric swatches that I like. And then quite often, and this depends on the personality of the client, but I'll say, "What in this pile do you respond to? Don't think about where it's gonna go or how it's going be used? Just look at this whole big pile of fabrics and what are your favorites?" Then they'll pull some out, then I'll say, "Okay, I'm gonna go back to the office and I'm going to come back with some ideas." Then I'll work off of those. Then I come back with a broader scheme.
But a lot of times, I can - this is weird, but I'll wake up at like between five and six in the morning when I get a new client, and I have like a vision of what the whole room looks like. I can see the colors and the furniture and I get the whole thing at once in my brain. That to me is the easy part. I don't struggle, knock on wood, I don't struggle with how to put a room together. I'm very grateful that I have that.
CR: It's like a burst of creativity, and there it is?
SS: Yeah. It comes all at once.
CR: Kind of like a song.
SS: I see the whole thing. I'll fine tune it when it comes to looking for the details because what's in my dream is not always what I can find. But I can sort of picture the scale, the pieces, the fabrics and the rug.
CR: Why do you think that is?
SS: I have no clue. But I've always been like that.
HT: Do you think it's after you sort of get to know the client? Or you think it's the house that speaks to you?
SS: I don't know. Maybe it's the half gallon of chocolate ice cream I have before I go to bed. I have no idea. I guess after I talk to the people and I get a sense of it and I see the space, it's just visually easy for me to put it together. Like I don't go back to the office and like tear my hair out like, "Oh no, what am I going to put on that wall?" I feel like I can see it.
HT: That's so wonderful. That's what Carleton Varney said. He dreams it.
SS: Really?
CR: He did say that. It's like he has this vision. It's in a little different way, he has a little more fantasy.
SS: My process is not academic at all. At all. I didn't go to school for this. I have no formal training. I grew up with a father who's an architect and I took one super cheesy interior design class at Parsons in the summer when I lived in New York and it was horrible. We had some woman who had vile taste and it was more about how to use a template. But my work is all sort of intuitive and I could never explain how I do what I do in any kind of like way that makes sense.
CR: Have you ever had a client that you start off and you just think, I don't think I'm the decorator for you?
SS: No. I would usually know that in advance and not take the job. But there's a compromise just in definition of this job. You don't always get a blank check and carte blanche to do what you want to do. I really try to sniff out the relationship in the first meeting and see if it would be a good fit. Because you're so in these people's faces, in their lives for quite some time, that I really work with people that I think are fantastic and kind and nice and have a sense of humor. If somebody doesn't smile or laugh during the first meeting --
HT: It's not gonna be good.
SS: No, I can't do it. I just can't. And I have turned down jobs because of that. It's too much work not to enjoy it. There are so many areas that can go wrong that you can't control because it's not just you doing the work. You've gotta sort of put your faith in all the vendors and all the work rooms that they're going to follow through. And if a fabric doesn't get delivered on time, things inevitably come up. I'd much rather be with somebody that kind of is gonna start off being nice and have a good attitude.
CR: Do you like the shopping end of it?
SS: Yes I do. That's always fun for me. I love going out there and seeing what's around. I tend to get things locally most of the time, at least the big furniture pieces because my clients like to see stuff. And I do, too, I like to see what it looks like in the space. That really kind of cements it for me. I had to go to New York to buy an antique pool table. It's something that I had seen online, but it was quite expensive and I just didn't feel comfortable recommending it without seeing it. So I flew back there. Luckily I went, because I ended up getting something other than the one that I saw. So that was a good move. But most of the time I find stuff here or Santa Barbara or Montecito. I keep it pretty local.
HT: That's good. I'm sure the businesses around here appreciate that.
SS: I have a hard time recommending something that I haven't seen. I just worry about it no matter how many photographs there are.
HT: Well, it's your name.
SS: Exactly.
HT: Your relationship with your clients depends on that.
SS: Yes. I'm a big believer in the follow up and good customer service. I think that's really, really important. So, if anything goes wrong we're really on top of it. And even if it's something that we had nothing to do with - we're on top of it.
CR: Do you do like the whole help people kind of style their lives thing?
SS: Like tell them where to go shopping and go on vacation?
CR: Well, not that far. But,
SS: Because I know some people that do that.
CR: We hear sometimes about how decorators style down to the weekly flower arrangements.
SS: You know, I try not to insinuate myself too much in something like that. I think it can be kind of rude because the people that I work with are all great and fantastic and smart and accomplished.
CR: You don't need to tell them how to live.
SS: No, and I just think at a point it can be a little bit rude. I mean I would certainly say, "You know what would look amazing here," and give a recommendation, but I'm not the type to say, "Darling, really, that has just got to go!" I've never said that to anybody. I know people do that and I know they don't get jobs by doing that because I've gotten jobs that they haven't gotten because they acted like that with a client. I think people can be very put off with that kind of super didactic, know it all attitude. I don't think that works, from what I hear.
CR: You seem to be very sort of grounded and open and that goes against that type of behavior.
SS: Well, I hope you could have good taste and be cool about it too. I mean I would never want to be a diva that had an attitude. I wouldn't want to work like that with somebody. If I were hiring somebody to do what I do, I would want it to be somebody that had good taste and that was fun to hang out with.
I don't understand those people that are like, "I need to do it 100 percent my way and you have absolutely no input." I would rather it be a collaborative effort. Otherwise, there's not gonna be a vestige of their personality in the outcome.
CR: Do you mostly do residential projects?
SS: Mostly, yes. I did the lobby of Imagine Entertainment and a lot of the executive offices there. But most of it's residential.
CR: Are you interested in doing more commercial?
SS: I'd love to do a hotel. That would be cool. Or a restaurant. I'd love to do projects like that. A hotel would probably be my number one choice.
CR: Where do you like to shop?
SS: I like JF Chen and Dan Marty's new place. I like Bennison Fabrics a lot and Claremont. I like Hollyhock. And there's Tim Clarke, Nathan Turner and Peter Dunham's place. I like Peter's aesthetic a lot. I love the Henry Beguelin Home stuff, which is a little bit of a departure for me. They've got a store on Melrose right by the PDC and another one in Malibu. I wear a lot of their clothes, but they have some furniture as well. I would say those are probably like my big go-tos, off the top of my head.
CR: Those are some good ones. JF Chen -
SS: Yeah, he's got great stuff. He's got everything. I mean no matter what you're looking for, he's gonna have it.
CR: Right. And something that you never thought of he'll have as well.
SS: Yes, absolutely.
Schuyler Samperton
Samperton.com
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