Rita Konig knows what clients really want

0:03This is Business of Home. I'm your host, Dennis Scully. Every week I'll be speaking to leaders and innovators from all corners of the home industry. My guest this week is interior designer Rita Koenig. The last time Rita was on the show, she and I talked about her upbringing in England and her early career as a design columnist. Two years later, Rita's profile has grown considerably. She's now a regular on the AD100. Her Create Academy course remains as popular as ever. and last year she was honored as House and Garden's Interior Designer of the Year. I spoke with Rita about why she's opening an office in America, what's behind the rise of British style, and what clients really want in a world where expensive things are increasingly common.

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1:47But did you know that most every piece of furniture is customizable? Designers can choose from hundreds of fabrics, an array of leathers, more than a dozen wood finishes. and most upholstery pieces can be made with contrast welts, dual fabrics, nailhead trims, and so much more. Design something one of a kind and Ethan Allen will bring it to life. To join their trade program, go to ethanallen.com slash trade. And now, back to the show. Well, I'm delighted to have you back on the show and we've got some big news about Rita coming to America, which I want to get into. But before we jump into all of that, I'm curious, is New Year's as big a deal in the UK as we make it out to be in the US?

2:37Do people in the UK make resolutions and talk how they're going to try to be better people in the coming year and all of that? Tell me. I think we do a bit. I wonder if it's bigger for you because we make, or it seems so because we make so much more of Christmas than you do. I must say, I didn't do that thing of writing all those things on a piece of paper and sending them out of the chimney out into the world of the things I wanted to do or stop doing this year. Well, as you were just suggesting, Christmas is so celebrated in the UK. And I'm curious, do you have any wonderful Christmas traditions that you have upheld over the years or things you particularly enjoy doing?

3:19What's rather nice is my family, we always seem to be together. I'm divorced actually, and my ex-husband and I always spend Christmas together, which is very nice. So we don't have to do that awful one on one off, which I didn't even really like when we were married. We had to be one year with one family, one year with the other. Now it just seems everyone's all together all the time, which is so much nicer. And we're very big on stockings and the presents are always rather an embarrassment of gifts, which I think he's always been loath to admit that actually he quite enjoys. So it's definitely indulgent.

4:00Well, I'm sure that was very fun. And as you say, he's a terribly good sport for hosting all the former in-laws and all of that. And how did you feel your decorating had held up? How did you feel that his house was looking? It was looking all right. It even survived my nephew's technicolor yawn on Christmas Eve, which was a wobbly moment, but we got through that. So, no, it's all looking good. And we had a ping pong tournament that my sister and brother-in-law set up, which was quite fun and also quite revealing. i didn't realize actually that phil my ex-husband where all the boys that have been at prep school were suddenly these really good ping pong players right quite funny so that was um jolly and i think should probably become a tradition although this that they all won the sharpels is my in-laws my sister and brother-in-law who suggested it were in the semi-finals finals and obviously the winner so we've all got to sharpen up a little bit otherwise that's not much fun well i assume that they suggested playing because they knew how good they all were.

5:10And they suggested a sweet steak too, which they also took home. It felt slightly rinsed at the end of that. In the office, is there any kind of turning the page or any ritual of a new year starting? Well, we had a bit of a meeting, back to school meeting yesterday. And I mean, what I would like to do this year is have a new office in London. I'd like to have this early part of the year, having quite a good sort of clear out of all the dregs that you gather in spaces the samples we don't use the things that have got left over from projects or things like that just get rid of all that dead wood right and i my daughter's going to start a new school this year so i i'm sort of waiting to see where that is and then i think we need a new space which is the thing i'm quite excited about that is exciting but always a little bit of a daunting task yes a big move Well, it would be and it probably wouldn't happen this year because what I would like to do is have a sort of proper space.

6:11We currently work in a one open plan room. But now, you know, there are Zoom calls. There weren't particularly Zoom calls when we moved into this office because Zoom seemed to only exist since COVID. So that is noisy and meetings when I'm having meetings with clients and they're all working away on their sort of what I call the decorating island. You know, I think we need different rooms now. We need spaces where there can be meetings and maybe the library can be in a different space and things like that. Well, it sounds like you've outgrown that. And it sounds like you've got a much bigger team than you had.

6:49Which is fun, actually. It's exciting. Yes. Are you enjoying growing into that and all the responsibility that goes along with? I am actually because what I suppose has happened with our growing team is that I am able to really focus on the things that I do well. And in fact, we've had a few people have said to me, oh, well, I'd love to call Rita. But, you know, I don't think we'd actually get Rita. We'd get, you know, somebody in her team, which nobody ever gets. They always get me. I do everything. I do all of the designing, all of the buying, all of the everything to the tissue box. Nobody chooses anything except for me.

7:29So in fact, what having these other, the growing team means that they facilitate, they give me the time to do all of that, which is so nice. And I don't have to do any of the boring bits, which is also very good for everybody else. I'm not so good at the numbers. well so you you've outgrown the the office in the uk and perhaps next year is a time to look at a new space there but uh part of the big story in our conversation is i think last time you were on which is about a year and a half ago you you teased spending some more time in the u.s and uh and in florida in particular but it sounds now as if things have gotten a bit more official with you coming to america well they have and i suppose it's interesting that we were talking a year and a half ago, because I suppose that was when, you know, Lara, who's my sort of head girl, really, she was an amazing senior designer for me.

8:25And then she did that awful thing where she said, can I come and have a word? Which I just thought, no, please don't. I don't know. That sense of dread comes over you. Anyway, she came to me with her boyfriend who'd been living in Chile was moving to Miami and He'd asked if she would go and join him there. And she was like, I really would love to. And I feel so conflicted and da-da, but I just really handed my notice, which I sort of thought, ooh, and then gathered myself and said, well, don't be ridiculous. We have no work in America. What on earth are you going to do there? And I think you should just work for me there.

9:03So this thing evolved, and I think it's been amazing because I probably wouldn't have sent somebody. And so to have had the opportunity to have somebody who now feels like something of a partner to me, you know, she runs the sort of HR thing, she brings in all the new business, she talks to clients and goes through all of that before it comes to me. She's such a support and such a vital person in my team. And so to have her be the person there is really, I've been so lucky. and Florida is somewhere that I also sort of have a bit of history with. We used to go to Palm Beach a lot as children so I have this sort of fondness for Palm Beach so that's where we've landed really not with a bricks and mortar sort of public space but we do have that sort of where we are based and that is where now when I have projects we hail from and I can send Lara places we can now run our business from the States, which I think for American clients is a lot easier.

10:09Well, I mean, it sounded as though you were getting a great many projects in the States. Yes, we do, which is lovely. And having lived in New York, you know, that was probably one of the best decisions I ever made was to move to New York. It was terrific. I haven't really stopped working in America since I left. Well, and remind us of when you lived in New York and that time a little bit, just to refresh people's memory about your time in America. I moved to New York in about 2005, and I was introduced very quickly to Deborah Needleman, who I'd worked with. She used to be the gardens editor on House and Garden in the States when there was an American house and garden.

10:51And I used to write for her. So she was my editor. And in that way, you often have with editors that you've talked a lot on the telephone and feel that you know somebody, but you've never met. So I was introduced to her and we met. She was doing, She had just launched Domino and she was doing a party at the top of Barney's in that great department they had. And we sort of instantly fell in love. She was so terrific. It was really fun, actually. It was really a terrific way to see America. So I did that and I also decorated. And then as I was leaving, I decorated this house in Mill Valley with Gil Schaefer.

11:29And that was that was a very sort of seminal turning point project. Well, I was curious last time we spoke and we were talking about you doing more work in America. And we ended up having this conversation about the cost of things in America. And recently I was talking with the designer, Sean Henderson, and he shared that he finds himself feeling this heightened sense of responsibility or pressure because a sofa suddenly costs$20 ,000 today. And he feels like, oh my gosh,$20 ,000. I better make sure that sofa is incredible and perfect. And so everything just weighs on him more. in part because even he can't believe how expensive so many things have gotten.

12:23I know everything is terribly expensive. It's the inflation. I mean, they kept saying that we would have this galloping inflation, and I think we do. It is extraordinary when you think that one thing costs so much. I don't know if you could possibly decorate a whole house, but things are expensive, and I think one does have a responsibility to your client to make sure that they get absolutely the best thing. Also, you don't want somebody to every time they sit down and think, oh, I hate Rita, this sofa's so uncomfortable. You want them to think there's no quicker way to remember how much it costs.

13:00Whereas if you sit back and just sink into it and can hardly get out of it, you forget how much it costs. You just think how happy you are. Well, I mean, and at the time you were talking about the fact that it was less expensive for you to actually bring some upholstery in from the UK. I don't know if that's still the case today. I think it still is. I don't know why upholstery is something that we do. It's something we seem to do very well and we manage to do less expensively. I mean, oddly, we seem to do lots of things less expensively. When I lived in the States, everything in America was so much cheaper than it was in England.

13:41I think America was cheaper and also the exchange rate was very different. It was$2 to the pound. And certainly in the New York area, things have become very expensive so if if if sean is is can't get over the price of a twenty thousand dollar sofa in the us what's it what's a great sofa coming out of the uk is it is it half that is it i mean i would say it's probably 12 or 13 000 pounds it also depends what you cover it in you know the fabrics can vary so dramatically and then the insides but it's yeah it they're expensive i think you can spend a lot more in America. And also we've got all the antiques are here.

14:20So for us, it's very easy to send things from here. We have a big container and we send a lot of our stuff from England because it's easier buying furniture here. And it's fun for Americans buying them here because they are so much cheaper than England. I think it just feels like monopoly shopping. It's just great. Yes. Well, do you take clients from America over to the UK with you to go? go shopping? Yeah, often. I'll suggest that they come and say that we can do some shopping together. And otherwise, there are sort of furious days at the Battersea Fair on a phone, sending pictures and showing things.

14:59But it's always better to see it. And also, it's fun. I mean, that is a fun bit of decorating. And if some clients don't want to shop, but if they do, I think it's a fun thing to do together. And also, it's a really nice thing when you have your house to remember buying some of the things rather than it all just appearing. And also, you get to know somebody so easily on a shopping trip. You're together chatting, you see what people gravitate towards, what they like and don't like. And you also have an opportunity to explain things and your thought process behind them much more. You know, then sometimes there are things that when they're on a page sent over an email and somebody looks at it and just goes, oh, no, I don't like that.

15:47No. And I've done it too when things are sent to me. But if you're with somebody, you go, oh, look, how about that? That would be great here because of this. And if we use it in this way and we added that or change, you know, suddenly things change a lot. It's a bit like dating. You know, you look think I fancy them. And then if you hadn't seen a picture of them and you'd met them, they look completely different because they're amusing and intelligent or they're incredibly attractive and irritating and annoying and rude. And they're not attractive. And things are a bit the same, you know.

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17:07And now, back to the show.

17:14Many designers say to me today how much that whole dynamic online shopping versus shopping in person, especially with with dealers that you trust and have worked with for a long time that how how different it is to today and and often designers will say oh the younger people in my office just want to shop online and it's so much easier uh but the the fun of it is the relationships that you have with so many of your vendors and and going and seeing what they have and what you know and learning as well and i think you want both you know we're so lucky to suddenly have this way to able to do it quite quickly.

17:52But the thing when you go shopping is you have no idea what you're going to find. Whereas when you're shopping online, you've got to slightly know what you're looking. You've got to ask the search engine what you want to look for a bit. And when you're scrolling through Instagram, funny enough, I've stopped doing that. I used to do it so much. And I sort of decorated North Farm entirely on Instagram, really, lying on a sofa scrolling, which was amazing. But I also love dealers. I think they're so, as a sort of genre of people, they're terrific. They're like gardeners. They're a bit eccentric. They're all quite different.

18:32They love what they do. They're always on the road finding things. I like the mix and I like finding and I still do it online. I think it's really useful. It's become so much easier, which really just means you have a richer selection because you've got it coming at you all the time but going out shopping is really good too i like that well and as you say i mean the the colorful characters that are the dealers themselves make it make and especially if you're taking a client around and i'm building those relationships you know with them sending you things that they think you'll like or keeping things for you and i like all of that chit chat yeah no that that seems to be an important part.

19:16And in the US, are people, you and I, when last we spoke, were talking about so many Americans very much wanting this English countryside look. And do you find that still the case? It seems to be. Long may it last. And I think it's also as long as they all like going to 5 Hartford Street and they like that. I think Robin Burley's done a lot for this look and And showing people how rooms can be so comfortable and collected. And I think that's the change. Do you think that's what it is? It's this sort of collected feel? I think probably collected and layered. But also remaining modern and crisp.

20:04I don't like too much muddle or mess or clutter. But I do think that the layers are so lovely, pictures and books and things and comfortable sofas and fires and log baskets and things. Make you want to settle in. I was talking recently with the editor of House and Garden, Hata Bean. Hata, yeah. Yes. And we were talking much along these same lines of the kinds of projects that she looks for, how she wants that magazine to feel and the lack of celebrity covers and all of that. But real homes and sort of a homey feeling to things, even if often, of course, they're very grand homes, right, with 24 foot ceilings and all of that, but still feeling warm and real.

21:00And I think that that's part of what's so appealing. It's striking to me how many American designers love that magazine so much. And I think it's... I think it's something also that the Brits have always... I mean, if you think of that white drawing room at Chatsworth, I mean, you can't get a house grander, really. I mean, you probably could. But I mean, that's up there as the sort of pinnacle of a grand house and a grand room. And I would say that that room as it was then had a softness and a comfort to it that did make you think, oh, I could really spend an afternoon in that room, sitting around chatting or reading or, you know.

21:39And so I don't think that grand should negate warmth either. I think the two can. It's a bit harder, but they should be able to coexist. Absolutely. Speaking of House and Garden, a belated congratulations to being named, my goodness, the Interior Designer of the Year from House and Garden. Thank you so much. That was very exciting. I would imagine. And it was so sweet the way they talked about how they had first introduced you, I guess, in 2001, remarkably, saying, oh, they had an eye on you then and knew that you were going to be. I know. The whole thing was really lovely. It really took me by surprise.

22:20And in fact, it was last January that Hata rang me and told me. I was absolutely really bowled over. I thought she was, I don't know what I thought she was ringing about. And it was just the nicest thing. And then when she gave it to me and said that, it was also rather amazing to realize how old I am. So there's that moment, sure. But how long one's had these relationships for is so nice. And I, Sue Crew was the editor then and she published my apartment back then, which was lovely. And I've had my column when I came back from the States, I had a column on House and Garden. And so I really know the team there.

23:06And funnily enough, knowing that they had voted for this and Owen, who's the picture editor, said, you know, it was really, we all did and we were so pleased. And sometimes being voted by your sort of peers and colleagues is even more touching. So often the person you know you just think, oh, that rubbish that she produces or, you know, whatever. It was really especially touching that they thought that. I couldn't be more delighted, really. Well, it was very exciting. And I love all the coverage that it got. And I'm always curious because, and again, congratulations in the US, AD 100. And that's very exciting for you as well.

23:54Thank you. Right. So I'm wondering, do those two things land differently? So in the UK, does something happen? Is your life transformed when you're named the interior designer of the year in House and Garden? There's wobbles beneath me. I think that it's funny because I think a lot has happened in the last year. You know, that was incredible. I moved into this apartment that I'm in now, which was also published by House and Garden, and the AD100 came out, which felt very different this year somehow from previous years. How so? I don't know why. I felt like it was heard much more than the previous years I've been on it.

24:46I feel like I've grown up. I mean, I turned 50. I redid my apartment. I was the designer of the year. I just, I do feel like suddenly, finally, I'm a sort of grown-up. But the business has changed. This turns out to be the big news. Here we are thinking the big news is you come to America. Turns out you've actually become an adult, Rita. This is so exciting. But I think the business, the jobs, they are sort of changing. And what's required has changed. And the budgets have changed. And it's very exciting because we're able to work with really amazing people and the specialist painters and the detail in that and looking at the trim colors differently and specialist painting the trim rather than just flat painting it and the enormous difference it makes to a room and how it elevates a space.

25:42So that is exciting. And that's the change that I really feel. Well, I'm so curious about how that really does feel for you, because it sounds as though what you're suggesting is that you've reached this level in your career where the scale of projects is quite different. and the work, therefore, that you're able to do as a result is even more layered and detailed. And it also sounds, and I'm guessing these go hand in hand, that perhaps there are greater demands on you as well or more. Well, the bar is higher, which is, you know, it's really exciting delivering those really excellent things, working with the really good upholsterers, working with the really great people making beautiful rugs, making beautiful embroidered fabrics.

26:40We did a curtain the other day for somebody. You walk into the house and at the end of the hall is this drawing room with French doors going outside and these windows are very dramatic. We can't get saying we really need something amazing on these windows. And in the end, I realized it was like there wasn't a meterage fabric that was going to really do the trick. And it needed to be separate to what was in the rest of the room. And so I went to see Christine Vanderherd, who I just think is so talented. And actually also won, she won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Super, which was so lovely to be on there with her, because I think she's just terrific.

27:21And we did this beautiful curtain in felt which she did all of this folk embroidery on and she took the fabric herself to India because she was like I can't bear it get lost or get mucky or get something will happen to it so she took it herself she brought a sample back that when we I've burst into tears it was so beautifully done it was so exciting it was unlike anything I'd seen before it was so you know the curtains are amazing the client was thrilled and it was just all those things are so exciting when you can start doing those really special things that are actually special rather than just expensive and not special of which there is a plethora of that yes you know yeah I think that's why so much now is about experiences and people having unique experiences and those things that money can't buy.

28:14And in many ways, there's so much wealth in the world, weirdly, as well as things becoming so unaffordable. But those things that are very expensive can become very ordinary. So it's finding the things that aren't, which is so much, I find, is the fun. And it's really our job. And that's what I like doing.

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29:22Take me back to this moment that you're in right now of sort of recognizing how far you've come in your career. suddenly whatever scale you are appearing in the United States right now, and let's see if it justifies opening up a big office in the coming years. Who knows? It's always a bit of a leap of faith, isn't it? Well, but it may well make sense. But it certainly seems as though your business has grown and people's awareness of you has grown quite a bit as well. I think Create Academy has had a lot to do with that sort of recognition and things. Yeah. I mean, and I wonder what people have reached out to you from that or how that, and are you planning new things there or what's in the works?