CARA WOODHOUSEFor NY-based interior designer Cara Woodhouse, the art of creating spaces that evoke emotion is something she had an inherent ability to do—never subscribing to any sort of formulaic approach. For Cara, design is all about intuition. Here, the acclaimed designer dishes on her windy path to her craft, why her clients are her greatest collaborators, and her love of retro curves.
I’ve always been a creative and I excelled in anything artistic. In fact, I initially wanted to be a sculptor, but I was discouraged from that path and then felt lost. So, I went to school for apparel design and quickly learned that wasn’t the right fit for me either—my creative direction was starting to feel hopeless. Then I studied fashion marketing at FIT and still, nothing really felt right. I dropped out and started to do some serious soul searching and one day, a dear family friend encouraged me to go to NYSID. The first class I took sparked so much excitement in me—It was an immediate love and I knew it was for me.
My clients are my collaborators. I love my clients and most of them have amazing design sensibility and they come to me for a specific look that aligns with theirs. They often come to me with inspiration they’ve pulled, which ignites a conversation around lifestyle, time periods, color palettes, everything! My starting point for every project is different—It could be a color or a light fixture, there's not a perfect science to it, it organically comes together.
When I’m designing a space I’m always thinking about creating an experience and evoking a feeling first and foremost. Whether it's punchy and fun or whimsical and romantic, I always add a bit of eye candy. I’m very inspired by jewelry—from the materials to the silhouettes. I love working with stone—marble, onyx, terrazzo, I love it all! I also created a capsule collection of jewelry where I used stone as a muse!
