Our Duality: Interior Architecture + Interior Design

March 15, 2022

As custom designers, every aspect of our process is tailored to our clients as individuals—how they live, what they love, where they find joy. Decades in design have taught us to trust our clients as much as our instincts. Only together—with our clients—can we do our best work and make a series of spaces a soulful home.

Underpinning our bespoke process is a core distinction between the two modes in which we work: interior design versus interior architecture. We coined these categorizes to clarify the services we provide: interior architecture defines our involvement in spatial configurations, schematic design and design development. We refine scope, we consult on spatial progressions, and we help set a schedule.

Stone house surrounded by nature

For instance, when working on Ranch X, we introduced contemporary aspects into the architectural program, including large patio doors perfect for the clients’ predilection for entertaining. Once a project is programmed, we guide our clients through construction documentation and administration, conducting regular site visits as the project proceeds, ensuring adherence to the design direction.

Modern walls mixed with rustic furnishings like a red chair

Meanwhile, interior design describes our placement of objects within those thoughtful spaces: furnishings, fabrics, flooring, rugs, lighting, art and accessories. We listen to our clients’ aesthetic inspirations and we manifest those affinities as harmonious schemas. Once mapped, we source, purchase, expedite, receive, inspect, install, and style each and every piece in our clients’ homes. Seeing—and fulfilling—the whole picture is our passion.

Sky blue kitchen cabinets with white walls and tan curtains

When a client approached us with a guest cabin concept, we recognized an opportunity to create a cozy yet transitional retreat for the owners as well as their guests. As such, we chose a brighter palette than that found in their main residence, striving for big charm in the small space. This bold design direction found its way into every detail of the cabin, from the blue kitchen cabinets to the salon-style wall of avian paintings in the living room.

Rustic cabin with glamourous furnishings like a crystal chandelier and avian paintings in a gallery installation.

In practice, we move fluidly between the structural and aesthetic aspects of design, allowing our clients to experience a seamless evolution of space. No matter the realm in which we operate, we manage all aspects of building our clients’ beautiful lives, plank by plank, piece by piece.

A rustic cabin. A woman is in motion in the image.

Cupid’s Family Feast

February 7, 2022

Our families, ever a source of unconditional love, need not be sidelined on Valentine’s Day. Designing as we do for living beautifully ensemble, we offer a recipe for celebrating as a crew with a dinner inspired by a rouge palette.

As backdrop, play up your tablescape with fuchsia blooms such as tulips or anemones and fold classic crimson bandanas as napkins. Ever a crowd pleaser, Elisa’s recipe for Bolognese sauce manifests the cozy warmth of Cupid (sans saccharine sentimentality). She serves it over Rummo’s gluten-free pasta (“their penne and rigatoni are superb!”), which always comes out al dente, i.e. delicious. Get ready for your family to swoon!

Bolognese à la Elisa

serves six

Ingredients

6-8 cloves of garlic, diced

1 yellow onion, quartered

½ teaspoon fennel seed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound organic ground pork

1 pound organic ground round beef

2 large cans (28 ounces each) San Marzano plum tomatoes

1 can tomato paste (6 ounces)

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

1 cup half and-half

1 cup water

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper

  1. Sauté garlic and onion in olive oil until the onion becomes translucent. Add pork and beef and cook with Italian seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.
  2. In a blender, purée the canned tomatoes and pour into the sauté pan with your meats. Add the bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add tomato paste with water. Stir and re-cover pan. Simmer for 3 hours on low heat, stirring periodically. As soon as the timer sounds, add the half-and-half and continue to simmer. Sprinkle in the fennel seed to cut the tartness of the tomato and continue to slow cook for several minutes. Finish with more salt and pepper to taste. Once you’ve achieved the perfect spoonful, serve.

Bon appétit, mon amours!

Thrive in Twenty Two

January 5, 2022

It’s time to thrive. Done with coping, we bound ahead into 2022, keen to imbue the interiors we design with boundless possibility and potential. Seizing the day (or year), we ask ourselves and our clients: How can a space empower us to live our best lives? How can a house inspire our highest functionality?

In 2022, we expand the notion of home beyond a site of resilience, embracing our walls as sources of catalytic inspiration. “A well-designed home should not only enable you to live beautifully, but also encourage you to grow,” Elisa Chambers says. When she started Snake River Interiors 22 years ago, Elisa began with the profound principal that in order for people to live beautifully, their homes must function beautifully. Then as now, she empowers such integrated living by listening and leading. “We get to know our clients. We get to know their rhythms and their routines, their wants and their needs,” she says. “We earn their respect and practice open communication, which often includes highlighting when certain aspects may prove unfunctional.”

Connection lies at the core of our work: connection with place, with space, between people. Connection physically too: How do we flow through rooms? How do we flow into different modes and operations? Through design, we enable greater forms of connection and expression. Personality becomes concretized. Vision leads us to imagine future utility that builds upon current use. Ever educating ourselves as designers, we approach interiors with both optimism and realism; we know what works and we listen to what inspires. No matter the scope or scale of project, we ask: “What will make you thrive in this home?”

True to the roots of our name and our wild and free county, let’s embrace twenty twenty two as our year—a year ripe for discovery and creativity. Recommitting to our hearts and our homes, we wish you love, peace and perspective in the new year.