People Making a Difference - Part 1

If you don't know already, we are known for designs that CELEBRATE LIFE. After years in the business, we found that just making a space beautiful is boring. What gets us fired up is digging into the things (collections, music, art, colors) that are meaningful to our clients so that we can create a custom design in their homes that is celebratory of their life, their memories, their travels, their family and more.  To do this takes a lot of energy, time, sensitivity and relationship building with our clients.

I guess you could call this a form of hospitality. We think that Michael Chaffin probably would.  If you follow our Facebook page, you know we are HUGE fans of Steve Jobs, Seth Godin and Tony Hsieh of Zappos. Well, we just added Michael Chaffin, Chief Operating Officer of the Capital Hotel, to our inspirational blog roll! He's a mover and a shaker in the hospitality industry and he has created a high touch hotel that we adore. We were honored to have breakfast with him this morning.

We recently stayed at The Capital Hotel in Little Rock, AR for our third stay while being coached by our friend and nationally recognized designer Tobi Fairley.

We have long, busy days every time we come to Little Rock. No worries though. We know we will be picked up at the airport in a shiny black Escalade courtesy of our concierge friends Rich, Mike or  Jerry. We know that our bags will be taken to our room AND put in our closet for us. Easy listening music will be playing, there will be a fresh flower in the bathroom and a letter personally addressed to us on the desk. We know that the pillows are ALWAYS right (a rarity in hotels), the duvet isn't too hot, the sheets are luxuriously soft and the furniture in our room is going to be from the likes of Maitland Smith, Henredon, Drexel Heritage (yes we open all the drawers) and our room will be beautifully lit (on dimmers) with lights from Visual Comfort (yes we checked that out too). The best part? Southern Pecan Toffee on our pillow every night. (Oh one more thing - Jerry always prints our boarding passes for us before we leave). Perfection!!

Check out Michael Chaffin's blog Star in the Margin. See for yourself how "remarkable work changes things".