Boutique Design - Winter 2023 - 46

they each have their own personality. And
sometimes, even when you know us, we try
not to be as recognizable. We intended to
be an arm of Lark, to design and manage.
Then, through word of mouth, people started
reaching out for design only.
Neither of you have traditional design
backgrounds.
RB: Meg's mom always had a very eclectic
style. She was a fi nder and gatherer of
things. That defi nitely got passed on to Meg,
who has a knack for collecting items that not
many people would put together. But once
they are put together, they're magical. You
can see that in Blind Tigers especially.
We have creative vision. My sister is a
trained interior designer, though she works
in a different space than us-for the TSA and
airports. She supported us in our early years
with technical drawings. I would draw things
on graph paper, Meg would explain things,
and Abby would draw the FF&E specs and
the elevations. Now, Tory and Alejandro are
the technical side. They certainly provide
vision and inspiration as well, but if we were
Pinocchio, they would be the ones who made
us the real boy. We couldn't have done what
we've done over the last couple of years
without them.
MK: I love art in all forms. I paint, I love to
create things, I like fashion a lot. It's all like a
canvas to me. How can you mix these things?
How do they work together? My favorite
thing is to fi nd the oldest, grandma-looking
couch and mix it with a geometric pattern so
it comes back to life.
How do you fi nd these eclectic items that have
come to be a design signature?
MK: I use Chairish a lot. I browse, and it's
a good source of inspiration. Last summer,
for example, I wasn't working on anything
in particular but I came across this couch
that was fully [upholstered] in Levi's jeans. I
couldn't not have it. So it's in the warehouse
somewhere, and I'm waiting for the perfect
opportunity to use it. I had one set of these
enormous purple kidney-shaped sofas in
the warehouse for three years. I was getting
worried they weren't going to fi t anywhere.
But when I got to Asheville for our Blind
Tiger, I had them sent down. Sometimes I'll
go all in on a prize piece and spend a good
deal of the budget on it. But oftentimes these
are steals, so we can afford to have a couple
of mistakes (not that we ever want them).
How do you leverage design to help create the
guest experience?
MK: We like to push the boundaries.
Sometimes [it's only a space] you want to
be in at a hotel. Maybe you don't want your
bedroom to feel that way, but you want to
experience that style for a few days. It allows
us to go out there if we want to.
46
W I N T E R 20 2 3 / 2 0 2 4
RB: For Meg as an artist and a curator, it's nice to have
other people experiencing these spaces and having them
become a meaningful part of their vacation or travel.
Most people are looking to go to a particular destination
and then they choose the hotel, which is often just a
place to sleep. We want all 24 hours of their day to be
part of the immersive experience of their travel. Design
has to be important in that. We love hotel design so
much because we can create immersive experiences.
What is your process like?
RB: We approach each of our projects very differently.
Sometimes it starts out with each of us working on our
own, creating a presentation and then pitching it to each
other. Sometimes it's just one of us taking the lead, like
Meg is now leading a Portsmouth hotel renovation. We
had pitched a concept for modern Americana to another
client. They passed, but Meg found some
great inspiration.
A GUES TROOM AT THE BLUEB I RD SUNAPEE IN NEW HAMPSH I RE
SHOWCASES THE PROPERT Y ' S ELEVATED OUTDOOR AES THE T I C
A TWO-BEDROOM SU I TE AT THE BL I ND TI GER BURL I NGTON IN VERMONT
INCLUDES ONE-OF-A KIND FURN I TURE PIECES AND UN IQUE ARTWORK
GO LD KE Y D E S I GN ER OF THE YE A R
Boutique Design - Winter 2023

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