Get to Know Lisa Davenport Designs
Interior Designer Lisa Davenport and her team at Lisa Davenport Designs (LDD) are devoted and enthusiastic users of the Studio Designer platform. With locations in Connecticut and Florida, LDD is a full-service interior design firm that pays close attention to their clients’ needs, wants, and styles to ensure every design project is thoughtfully developed and truly one of a kind.
Lisa Davenport is a big fan of Studio Designer and actively uses the platform for all of her item sourcing and design projects. She considers the Studio Capture browser plugin to be her favorite aspect of the program as it allows her to automatically add items from most online retailers. She leads an enthusiastic staff at Lisa Davenport Designs who truly love the work that they do on a daily basis. Lisa herself considers her personal brand to beCashmere & Blue Jeans® and in her own words it means, “authentic, polished, supple, splendorous, rustic, refined, easy, chic, comfortable, time-honored, organic.” Lisa even named her Instagram account after her personal brand. With Lisa in charge, it is clear that LDD is a place where creativity, gumption, and genuine love for design work come together to create their clients’ dream interiors.
In this blog post, we share a short interview with Lisa Davenport and a few “A Day in the Life” testimonials from LDD staff.
Interview with Lisa Davenport
What are some of your design inspirations?
Oddly enough while I follow many other designers my inspiration and passion for design are and were built on the backs of Michaelangelo, my mom, and my first commercial design professor, Pierre Strauch. When it comes to inspiration for a specific design, many times I turn to coffee table books, history books, and even Instagram and Pinterest. Sometimes I feel as though that may be a cop out, but there’s great creativity, photography, and inspiration out there to be had! At times I find myself hitting social media before I hit the top-shelf magazine sites.
What are some of your favorite vendors?
Theodore Alexander; they have a large variety of styles, the quality is consistent, and it’s priced well for the product you are receiving. We love Visual Comfort and Currey & Company for lighting. They both carry wonderful spinoffs of mainstream designs, which offers a comfort zone for my clients, but with a twist! Again, the quality is excellent and customer service is a breeze to work with.
What is a design trend that excites you?
COLOR! Thank God we are embracing color again and soft gold is back. The warmth of using gold in hardware, lighting and lamps, and furnishings totally ramps me up! The cold harsh feeling of stainless steel and chrome is warming up! It doesn’t mean that I don’t still enjoy using the cooler palette for finishes. They can still be made warm and inviting with a little work.
What design trend do you think is overrated?
DIY…anything! I’m all for being creative and celebrating your own talents, but the DIY movement has made everyone a designer. Designers bring to the table not only talent, but time management, and are liaisons for builders and contractors. They teach you and introduce you to products and materials you’ve never been exposed to…and they challenge you to push the envelope just a bit. Designers, contrary to popular belief, will save you money in the end.
What would you like your design legacy to be?
Wow…now that’s a loaded question! Right now, at this moment…I want my legacy to be that Lisa’s designs always reflected her clients’ tastes, desires, and style. She created these by making design fun and relaxing by challenging her clients to push the envelope and introducing them to a new exciting design landscape. I want to work in this industry till I’m 102, I just love it that much! So what I see as my legacy today may change if I can keep going another 52+ years. If you ask me this question in 10 years, maybe I’ll say my legacy will be that I was an amazing designer and writer. That’s the beauty of life and our careers, they morph and take on lives of their own…so who knows what my legacy will be!
“A Day in the Life” Testimonials from LDD Staff Members
Senior Designer Kathleen Rapp
Working for Lisa for over four years now, I can honestly and passionately say I love working here because no two days are ever remotely the same! We have a fabulous team that always enters our LDD green colored front door with enthusiasm for the new day. Now, whether we’re running a little late from our crazy home lives or arriving a little early to seize the day, that’s a different story.
We typically all begin with a nice cup of joe (or tea) and catch up from the previous day’s account or our weekend activities. This usually is full of giggles, jokes, hugs, and sometimes squeals from our fits of hysteria. All in all, I would say that our studio environment is very positive and upbeat.
When we’re having a client meeting in the studio you’ll find us buzzing around, tying up loose ends on a presentation, setting the table with our signature cookies and tying off a bow around the presentation boards in anticipation of greeting our clients at the front door for another unique LDD experience.
Other days you might find us racing out the door to meet up with a client at their home or a local trade showroom. Still other times we can be found loading up our LDD trailer with fabulous furniture, lighting, and accessories for an installation that is sure to delight the client waiting on the other end.
Occasionally we have furry four-legged friends visit—Izzy and Piper (Lisa’s Rottweiler and rescued Georgian mutt) who bound up the stairs like a herd of elephants with anticipation of the belly rubs they’re about to receive.
We’ve always got music busting out of our Bluetooth speaker, typically spilling sounds from country music, acoustic, or oldies playlists sourced from Spotify.
Design Assistant Sara Cotter
I can honestly say that a day in the life at LDD is never dull! It is unlike anywhere I’ve ever worked, in the best way possible. When you ascend the staircase to our office in the morning, hearing the music drifting out of the green door, you never quite know what the day will hold, but you know that it will be filled with laughter, learning, creativity, and support.
Most mornings begin with a trip (or two) to the coffee maker…one of the ways that I knew that I would fit in very early on. Then, depending on what is on the agenda for the day, we all jump into our respective tasks—frequently coming together to ask questions, tell a funny story, or just chat. Our days are very team-oriented—even when we are working on different projects, we always strive to support each other any way we can.
On days when we invite clients into the studio, we work hard to make sure that it is a unique experience. The client always comes first, so we usually try to wow them with homemade goodies and other little extra touches that always go a long way. On other days we may travel to a client’s home to check on an ongoing project or to install a room, or house, full of furniture and accessories—and get to watch, along with them, LDD’s vision come to life before their eyes.
While no day in the LDD office can be called “typical,” you can guarantee that every day is an adventure!
Studio Manager Laurie Tuttle
I am amazed every day with what my team members bring to fruition from their visions! As the Studio Manager, my talents lie elsewhere in what I bring to LDD. However, watching the creative flow of Lisa and our design team is nothing short of an experience. The positive energy that exudes around the studio is contagious. We have a great camaraderie and team spirit. We want each other to succeed and you can feel it. When we succeed it means we have happy, satisfied clients…and that’s our ultimate goal.
Studio Designer is proud to be the platform of choice for Lisa Davenport Designs. If you are interested to see how Studio Designer can meet your firm’s needs, send an email to info@studiodesigner.com. If you are a designer who would like to share your experience using Studio Designer, we’d love to hear from you at contact@studiodesigner.com.