In Residence Studio

In Residence Studio ART • VINTAGE • INTERIORS
Th 12-5 • Fri 12-6 • Sat 11-6
10 Westport Rd • KCMO 64111

Some of my favorite projects have been for people I already love.This office belongs to my next door neighbor and one of...
05/01/2026

Some of my favorite projects have been for people I already love.

This office belongs to my next door neighbor and one of my closest friends. She needed a space that could do two things well. A home office with good lighting for video calls and a reading corner she could actually disappear into. The room is long and narrow, and it was begging for built ins to give it some storage, some function, and a reason to exist.

It all started with a rug. She saw it in the shop, bought it the same day I posted it, and held onto it for a couple of years until the room was ready for it. That rug was the starting point and the inspiration for everything that came after.

We built it out together layer by layer. Two guided shopping trips, once to find the art for the gallery wall and once to find the objects and books that would fill the shelving. That is one of my favorite parts of working at this level. You end up with a room that really belongs to the person living in it.

The color is a rich brown that leans almost plum in the right light. It really develops the space in a way that a safer choice never would have. They have since moved and we tested this same color in their new house. It just does not carry the same impact. Paint is so specific to the room itself, the light it holds, the architecture, the things that fill it. You cannot pick it from a swatch and expect it to translate.

Six months into the design side of this business and I have been doing a lot of quiet work lately. The kind that does no...
04/29/2026

Six months into the design side of this business and I have been doing a lot of quiet work lately. The kind that does not show up on a feed. Deep diving into process, financials, delivery, and what it is actually like to work with me as a client.

Meeting with other designers locally and nationally has been one of the best parts. The more I am in conversation with other people doing this work, the more clearly I can see what makes my approach different and where my place in this community lands.

A lot of design follows the same steps. New builds, clean slates, similar choreography. What I do is different. My world is older homes, the ones with quirks and character and good bones. I love embracing what is already there and layering in pieces from across eras and styles. My clients are not trying to turn an old home into a new one. They strive to be good caretakers of the homes they live in. There is a dance between respecting what a home has always been and making it work for who lives there now. That dance is my favorite place to be. Every home has its own rhythm, every client has their own voice, and I get to be the choreography that ties the home, the people, and the stories together — what a gift!

Maybe that is why the education piece feels so central to me. I never stop learning myself. The concepts, the rules, the tension, the restraint. And then there is the collection. Helping someone build something that functions and evolves and serves them over a lifetime. These pieces have already lasted decades, that itself is a testament to quality, good design, and investment in a more interconnected sense.

04/28/2026

Your room is giving mid. And I mean that technically.

Mid-tone sofa next to a mid-tone chair on a mid-tone rug with mid-tone artwork. No contrast, no tension, nothing to ground the space and nothing to give your eye a place to rest.

This is a visual weight problem. Every object carries visual weight based on its color, size, texture, and form. Dark, dense, and solid things feel heavy. Light, open, and leggy things feel light. A room needs both. And the heavier things belong at the bottom, the same way earth sits below sky on a horizon. Flip that and your room just feels off.

This is Episode 3 of Composition, In Residence. New episode, every week.

The studio got a full flip this week and this little moment might be my new favorite vignette.I do the same exercise eve...
04/24/2026

The studio got a full flip this week and this little moment might be my new favorite vignette.

I do the same exercise every few weeks. I pull everything out, start over, see what wants to live together. It keeps the space feeling alive and it keeps me sharp. Styling is a practice. The more I do it, the more natural it becomes.

This vignette came together the way the best ones do, making small moments with what I have. Two stamped metal lamps at different heights, a hand carved Chinese chair, a wicker ottoman, an old newel post turned side table. Pieces that have nothing in common on paper but create a real moment in person.

The last layer I always add is art. I wanted something tucked behind the lamp to anchor the back of the vignette. This little original charcoal sketch was exactly right.

And that velvet ball on the chair? I drove to Springfield two weeks ago and found her. She’s a permanent resident. Some things are simply NFS.

If your space is feeling stale, you probably do not need to buy anything new. You just need to mix it up a little.

I turned a corner at last month’s Urban Mining show and my heart skipped a beat.That is the only reason I ever buy art.T...
04/22/2026

I turned a corner at last month’s Urban Mining show and my heart skipped a beat.

That is the only reason I ever buy art.

This painting is exactly what my collection has been missing. The layered, textural, impasto abstract. I have plenty of charcoal sketches and simple forms, but this kind of color and chaos? It was not until I was standing in front of it that I understood what was missing.

It is unsigned. Came from an estate sale, pulled from a collector’s home. Probably 1970s. The artist is a mystery and that is part of what I love about it. The work just has to be good enough to stand on its own. And this one is.

I sell at too, so these are my people. It is a tight knit community and one of the best kept secrets in Kansas City. Once a month, same crew, and what comes through that show is genuinely some of the best in the city. This piece came from my girl

It is hanging in my living room for now, but I never promise a painting a permanent address. Art should move around. Different light, different seasons, different neighbors on the wall. That is half the fun.

Do you have a piece that stopped you in your tracks? I want to hear about it.

04/21/2026

The objects around you every single day are the backdrop of your life. That’s not dramatic. That’s just true.

I have a console table I bought at a thrift store for $10 when I was 24. It has been in every home I have ever lived in. Every city, every job, every stage of life. Simple, well made, exactly the right proportions. Still one of the most versatile pieces I own.

That is what I mean when I talk about building a foundation first. Before the personality, before the color, before the one of a kind vintage find that makes your heart skip a beat. You need the bones. Once those are right, everything else falls into place.

This is episode two of Composition, In Residence. A new episode every week. Follow along if this is the kind of thing that speaks to you.

I have two sofas and I never sit on them.This corner of our living room gets more use than anywhere else in the house. T...
04/17/2026

I have two sofas and I never sit on them.

This corner of our living room gets more use than anywhere else in the house. That’s not an accident.

Most rooms are rectangles. Most furniture is rectangular. Sofas, coffee tables, side tables, rugs. We fill our homes with right angles and then wonder why they don’t feel as warm or inviting as we hoped.

Humans don’t naturally gather in rectangles. We gather in circles. Angling a chair into a corner creates an oval, a pull, a reason to sit down and stay. It softens the edge of a furniture arrangement in a way that no amount of throw pillows can fix.

The gallery wall behind it grew over time. There is a sketch my husband made in art class. A crest from my grandmother’s family. A pastel from an artist whose work I have sold for years but could not part with myself. A little wire sculpture, because I always advocate for something three dimensional in a gallery wall.

This is my living room. It is also the best argument I know for buying one really good chair and putting it exactly where it doesn’t belong.

Where is the corner in your home that you always end up in?

04/15/2026

One of my favorite things that happens when I’m working with a client is the moment something clicks.

Not when they love a piece or get excited about a direction. The moment they understand why. Why the rug needs to be bigger. Why the furniture has to come away from the wall. Why that room that has everything still feels like something is missing.

That moment changes everything. Because once you understand why a room works, you stop second guessing every decision. You stop buying things that feel right in the store and wrong at home. You start seeing your space differently.

I have been having that conversation one client at a time. This series is me having it out loud. “Composition, In Residence.” The theory, the language, the framework behind how rooms work. One episode a week.

If you want this thinking applied to your own space, the link is in my bio.

Natural light is the one thing in a room you cannot buy or source.Morning light coming in at exactly the right angle, th...
04/13/2026

Natural light is the one thing in a room you cannot buy or source.

Morning light coming in at exactly the right angle, throwing the shadow of a vase and a chair across the wall like a second piece of art. The kind of thing that lasts maybe twenty minutes before the sun shifts and it’s gone.

How light moves through a space throughout the day is such an important part of how I think about a room. A wall color that feels heavy at noon can feel like a warm embrace at this hour. The whole mood shifts.

The light will be different in an hour. That’s the point.

04/11/2026

Before I was a designer or selling anything publicly, I was just a collector. Someone who bought things because they made me feel something.

This burlwood armoire was one of the first pieces I ever bought when Travis and I moved to Kansas City. I needed storage. But I wanted it to be beautiful. When I saw it I knew immediately it was coming home with me.

The grain of the burl wood. The arch of the cabinet. The smallest hand carved detail at the top. The doors that close just a little wonky. It is book matched and perfectly imperfect and it will probably live with me for the rest of my life.

That feeling, the one that stops you in your tracks in front of a piece of furniture, that is what I am always chasing. In what I source, in what I bring into a design, in the spaces I help people build.

Furniture should make you feel something. Even the simple pieces. Especially the simple pieces.

Address

10 Westport Road
Kansas City, MO
64111

Opening Hours

Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 11am - 6pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when In Residence Studio posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category