Manifesting Dream Projects

We have a pretty broad stylistic range here at HPD, and I’ve always prided myself on being able to work in most styles. Common advice in this business is to niche down; that if you are talking to everyone, you are talking to no one. I recently realized I’ve been trying to cheat that system by having our niche be a set of looser constructs (“master the mix” and our set of Design Principles) as well as our distinctive process, which has lead to so many repeat customers and referrals. All of that is well and good, but its not an AESTHETIC niche.

For a long time, I would start a new project with a question: Who would this client hire if they could hire anyone, outside of practical considerations of location, budget, and availability? I would decide on a designer and use this as a sort of filter to create a language for the project. But guess what I realized? Most of these clients already DID hire who they wanted (ahem, me), and I was perhaps shortchanging them (and for sure myself) by trying to speak another designers’ language. And so began a journey called What do we love and What do we want to do most? We have been working as a team to embrace our own unique aesthetics which, to be clear, still has plenty of range.

As a creative exercise, I put together a series of mood boards for Dream Projects we would like to manifest. This was a fun but odd exercise because generally speaking, I like constraints. I need an actual house and a real client with a point of view to respond to. I suppose that was partly the point: what do I like right now and how do I want to put it together? When I brought the boards to the team, I realized that none of the imagined projects were local. (e.g a Farmhouse in France. An apartment in Italy. An adobe home in Santa Fe.) I had recently identified a desire to work more locally, and truly, Minnesota has a wonderful range of architectural styles, so I started digging in to the real estate listings to find the hidden gems of our market.

The houses that I like the most are the weird ones that people don’t quite know what to do with. I found so many fabulous places languishing on the market for months.

I decided to give them a little love.

Stay tuned!