When you design a restaurant you need to CRANK. IT. UP!

Public space design is different from residential. A good residential interior should look like the client might have done it herself. Personal objects, a bit of choreographed disarray, and a soupcon of patina, some photos, et voila -- a nuanced, personal home.

Residential design is about the homeowner. Commercial design is about the designer's vision and nothing is more fun. Kelly Wearstler (or K-Dubs as I like to call her) ain't just a pretty face and an all around funster. She is a brilliant designer and her restaurants and hotels are testament to her majesty. She takes a theme, a motif, a spirit and pushes it to the limit.

I love to design public spaces. When I worked on The Parker Palm Springs hotel, designing the restaurants was my favorite bit. We approached the whole project by creating a narrative. We imagined the hotel as the estate of Mrs. Parker, the great aunt you always wished you had. Mrs. Parker (in my mind's eye) is a fabulous Auntie Mame kind of gal -- fun, glamorous, well-travelled, unpretentious, insousciant, chic.

Throughout the design process the whole team would say "Would Mrs. Parker do this?" or "Would Mrs. Parker have that?" Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Parker. Enough!