We are thrilled to kick off HDR Remodeling’s Focus Time, where we talk with prominent and inspiring experts in the remodeling and design industry to share a piece of what they know with our audience.

Our first interview is with Oakland based Interior Designer, Heather Cleveland.  

Heather has over 22 years of residential interior design experience and has won numerous awards including 7 consecutive years of Best of Houzz. Her level of commitment to the design industry and her entrepreneurial spirit are some of the many reasons we are very excited to sit down and chat with her today. 

Watch the interview with Heather

What inspired you to become an Interior Designer?

I always had that creative gene. I would paint my bedroom as a kid and sew curtains and that classic story of many interior designers. When I went to college, I had no idea that being an interior designer was an option, so I joined the tech industry in sales and six months later the dot com crashed. I was last hired and first fired. I called my mom weeping and she said what would you do if you didn't have to earn money. I immediately answered I would decorate everybody's house so she said go to design school and I did. I went back and got a two-year degree at FIDM. I knew day one this is exactly where I should be. 

Where would you say you look for design inspiration or how do you let your mind be inspired to find the right aesthetic for certain clients?

My mom is a fine arts artist and my dad is a musician and I went to the Waldorf School in Sacramento which is an art and nature based program. My eye is trained to recognize it in small things. I will notice the chartreuse color of a leaf and think that's such a beautiful color and that'll translate into something. Or I will be out on a hike and see the way the light plays off of something and think how do I bring that kind of energy or vibe into a space? 

When you're walking with your family and going on a hike do you stop the whole family to take a moment or do you just take it later? 

We were on treasure island hiking last Saturday and the clouds were puffy in all the right ways and the sky was super bright blue and I saw those classic hills of San Francisco and the buildings and stopped my sister dead in her tracks and said that reminds me of a Diebenkorn painting which is a California painter from the 60’s who painted a lot of impressionistic style watercolor of San Francisco scenes. Other times I just observe and collect the feeling and reserve that for later to see how I can translate that feeling into the space that my client is looking for.

When you're interviewing potential clients what are the things that you look for? 

Aesthetic plays a role. I have a design point of view but most of my clients look at my website or social media and they're already primed for a certain look that they want. If someone calls and says I want to do Neoclassical, I will refer you to someone if I don't think I would give them the best design.

The way we're living in our homes has dramatically changed. How has this shifted your design process?

I have thought for years about virtual design and this lit a fire under me to get that up and rolling. Now I have virtual design packages. I thought that was going to take off but what I’m finding is that people still want me to come to their home and have the personal meetings which I do. We wear masks and take all the safety protocols but they really want that personal touch.

Do you feel that the open concept model is going away based on how we’re using our homes nowadays?

It's funny, I'm getting a lot of requests of people who have had way too much together time and really feel like they need some walls in order to hold a meeting without some screaming child in the background so i'm definitely seeing a shift in that. 

You spend a lot of time preparing for the time before a project starts and the demo happens. What do you look for when you're helping your clients find the right fit to realize these designs and ideas?

That's a challenge in our industry. As a Design Build firm i'm sure that’s less of a challenge for you because you've got a great Project Manager to run your projects. I care deeply about what I call respecting the back of the house versus the front of the house. If there's something wrong with the project, the first phone call is to me for the sake of the client. They don't need to see all the minor things that go on because that's stressful to them. We're veterans at this and if the tile is short two square feet I can find that with samples or I can fix those issues. And then obviously having someone who understands their responsibility for maintaining knowledge around code compliance.

There's a lot of people out there that don't know what their design aesthetic is and many times reach out to designers like yourself to help them develop that. What's your design process in helping them to figure out what their design aesthetic is?

First I have a discovery call and I get the broad strokes of what they’re thinking. Often, they will say things like we love Studio Mcgee. And then I know exactly what you're after. 

Sometimes I come out and talk in more detail..It’s very informative to do a site walk because there's always some pieces of furniture or some architectural element that they like in that home.

They also share a Houzz Ideabook or a Pinterest board because that usually has a lot of volume. I see the pattern they’re attracted to so I can play detective a little bit and find some consistency throughout. 

They may have the words modern coming out of their mouth but transitional is where they are really headed so I give them the language to use. As we flesh out the design they start to better communicate to me what they want because oftentimes it's not that they don't understand their taste, it's that they don't have the words to describe it. They don't know that boho modern is a thing or eclectic transitional or all of these looks that are really a mashup of multiple looks and they think they don’t have a taste, but actually, they do. 

Last year we all experienced a very bumpy year but were there any learning moments or anything positive that came out of last year that you took away?

I learned to be really straightforward with clients if there's a challenge. I think women have a lot of internalized pressure to be this perfect veneer of only a professional with no depth to them and I learned this year along with everyone else that we are not one-dimensional and it's okay if my kid is having a breakdown that I clear my plate and call my clients and, instead of making some excuse, just being honest. I'm finding that this year clients are so much more empathetic and compassionate about that because they probably have been in some sort of situation like that so my hope is that the silver lining is the work world in general will really start to respect and understand that we are pulled in many directions and that work is only one of them.

We've had the opportunity to work together on several projects. Are there any memorable moments or elements on these projects that we collaborated on?

We've done a couple of really cool projects. I think my favorite client interaction was with Tomimatsu. I really enjoyed them. I felt like they were really open and willing to let us go there with the design. That was my first real inside peek at how Chris runs the construction side and I was really impressed by the tight ship that you ran. I've had so many contractors who just get months behind schedule and don't really communicate it and you guys do a really good job of staying on track which is super rare in our industry.

Last year we were limited in going to showrooms to touch different fixtures and finishes. How has that changed your process? Do you feel like you're able to develop the same kind of design or the same caliber of projects?

I’ll go to a tile place with an appointment to pick up some samples real quick that I saw online so part of me feels that there's a loss because sometimes, I think I'm going for a cognac colored leather fabric and I come out of it with five other fabrics that could be the accent pillows or one of the chairs. Just pawing through everything brings about inspiration, but the flip side is that I've actually ended up broadening my circle of vendors because I've gone online so now I don't have to have something that's within a half hour 45 minute drive so I feel like being online has grown my resource pool. I'm finding that I actually have way more diversity in my designs because there's all these other products that I'm discovering that I wouldn't have if I could go to my usual showrooms.

If you could go back to when you first started, what would you tell your younger self about the journey that you're about to embark on?

I would say take more risks than I was willing to take in the beginning. When you're a sole proprietor, if you mess up it's on you and when you're first starting out that's a super scary thing to think about so I would say take the risk. Allow yourself to grow. Take on projects that you don't think you know anything about. I've learned to just say absolutely I can do that and then go home and learn how to do that. It's an opportunity to learn something new instead of fearing and trust that you will figure it out. 

How much of your success and your company growth would you say is hard work or good fortune or luck?

It's a cocktail of all three. Hard work is a hard thing to say because I absolutely work hard but because I like what I do so much it doesn't feel really hard. I'm sure that luck plays a role. My ego is not such that I think I manifested all of this on my own. Certainly the level of awareness we have around institutionalized racism and white privilege and opportunities that are presented to certain people plays a role. That's not luck, that's actually our society's being set up in a way that favors me over others so I'm not unaware of that and I think that along with the determination, I am willing to try new things that will grow my knowledge. I'm willing to do all those things to keep myself relevant. 

Thanks for talking to us Heather! We look forward to working with you again soon! To learn more about Heather’s work, take a look at her site.

Check back for many more interviews with industry leaders coming up.