Designer Meryl Hare on creating styling interiors and the power of layering

Author: Nicky Lobo on Houzz

Meryl Hare, of award-winning interiors practice Hare & Klein, is a veteran of the industry, who is still leading the pack in beautifully layered and constructed residential interiors.

What do you do?

We are interior designers and decorators. We offer a full interior design service, from concept to completion, including all aspects of the planning and documentation through to bespoke furniture and furnishings, and even the artwork.

What are the three most important things to consider when designing a home?
The client’s lifestyle. The architectural envelope. The opportunity to create something beyond the client’s expectation that adds value to the project.

How should a client form a brief for their home?

By thinking about how they want to live, now and in the future. A home is an expression of the owner, so it’s important to take the time and opportunity to think through likes and dislikes and to communicate them to the designer, either in discussion, in writing or through images.

Sometimes a room remains unused because, for instance, the formal light pendant in the dining area doesn’t reflect the owner’s casual approach to entertaining. So we need to ask the right questions to get inside the client’s head.

What’s the first thing you do when you need to prune the budget for a project?
Every project is different, so there is never one answer. We would look for solutions with the builder or joiner, which don’t compromise the essential aesthetic, perhaps re-select finishes or redesign some elements – but always in collaboration with the client.

What’s the one thing you always include in a project?
Our design philosophy is embedded in our strong conviction that interiors should balance aesthetics with layers of visual generosity. We weave texture, visual warmth, refined comfort with a sense of the client’s personality.

This is the visual language that we start with in our concepts and that we stay with throughout.