Ep. 451: The Expressive Home with Ray Booth

0:01Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home. I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn, and I'm a product designer. I'm Liz. I head up the creative team. We're your hosts. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world. Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each episode. We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at ballardesigns.net. Now on with the show.

0:32Hey, Will here. You may remember me from our yearly trends report episodes. I'm one of the in-house product designers for Ballard Designs. One of my favorite pieces that I designed that's launching this spring is the Maris desk. I was in an antique store a couple of years ago, and I saw this beautiful little detail on this desk, and it instantly was like the most unique detail that just spoke to me. I took that detail, added a contemporary finish with these graceful sweeping cabrio legs and a very seamless silhouette, bringing a touch of Parisian chic to any home office. So, go check out all of our latest arrivals at BallardDesigns.com.

1:09I have a feeling you're going to find some pieces you really love. All right, let's get back to the show. Today, we are thrilled to welcome back to the show Ray Booth, an acclaimed interior designer and partner at award-winning architecture and interiors firm McAlpin. With a degree in architecture, Ray designed spaces that are one with the architecture of the home. Blending classic elegance with modern comfort, today we'll be talking about his new book, The Expressive Home. Ray, welcome back to the show. Thank you. So happy to be here with you guys. Well, I recall about what must have been five years ago when you were on the first time, just loving your book and loving our chat.

1:49So I'm excited to talk about your latest book, your second book of published work. And it's, of course, a beauty just like your first one. Well, you're kind to say. Thank you. I hope people think so. We're getting it out there as much as we can in the hopes that we'll get some eyeballs across it. And it's always fun to get out and meet people and see their reaction to the work. And, you know, you do all of this kind of in a little bubble of your office. And it's fun to actually put it out into the world and see people's response to it. I have always admired your work because you are an architect first.

2:32You went to School for Architecture at Auburn University. School for Architecture. Not licensed, but I have partners who are licensed. God bless them. You know, it seems like your interior design choices and style just blends so seamlessly with the architecture. And that has to be because you went to school for architecture before pivoting to interiors. I mean, is that the genesis of, you would say, your style? You know, I do think we, in my offices, we have a unique perspective because everything that I look at, I look at through an architectural lens. And there are people who decorate and who are such strong decorators.

3:15And I have such admiration for how they approach their side of the work. But mine is very specifically biased towards architecture. And I look at scale and proportion and balance and how do you create intimacy? How do you create emotion to it through architectural devices? And sometimes, having spent so much of my career practicing interiors and not practicing architecture, I used furnishings and drapery and all of those things as tools to try and create space and create that emotion to the work that we do. So I think it's a different take on how to approach either interiors or architecture. You know, in the same breath, I can say my hope is that in practicing architecture now at this stage in my career, that I'm a more sensitive person in creating that architecture because of my history with interiors and furnishings and those layers and that pragmatic approach.

4:27You know, the rubber hits the road in interiors. You know, that's where it all really ends and interfaces with the people who use it. Yeah, and your spaces really allow both the layouts and the textures of the materials that you're bringing in in the furniture just absolutely sing with the architecture. They just blend so seamlessly. Can you talk a little bit about how you're choosing materials that work with the spaces? Because I feel like that's a huge part of your practice. Well, you know, in material selection, as well as furniture selection and fabric selection, all of those things, we really do try and get an understanding of who we're working for.

5:21And what their loves and likes and hates are. And what their story is. Like how, how, where are they happiest in their life? You know, what are some little, um, things that bring them joy in their everyday, um, you know, efforts and processes they're proceeding through life, any little seed of truth from, from them that we can harvest and use as, um, as a means for making the right material selections. So, you know, I guess what I'm trying to say is we try not to make random decisions. We try to tether them towards the person that we're doing it for so that there is meaning to them and there's meaning to the greater story that we're trying to tell on their behalf about who they are and how they want to be.

6:19you know it is such um you're so exposing yourself in your heart in this work and our clients go through this all all the time and we try to encourage them to bear that to us so that we're able to use it and represent them in the work that we're doing i'm not sure if that answered your question. Totally. I mean, it's, it is so unique to every, to every project, but yeah, the, I just feel like, um, textures and materials and layering seems to be so prevalent. Well, you know, it's, it's context too. It is, it's not only the people and the context that they bring to the process. But it is also the site, the specifics around where you're building and what has resonance at a coastal property is not going to be the same thing that has resonance in the city.

7:21So really understanding where you are and trying to allow that to have some bearing on the decisions that you make. I feel like it helps ground the work in, I guess, a sense of place. It is of the place that it is being built. A lot of that applies to material selections and textures and certainly colors and those decisions. I love so many of the projects in the space, but one of my favorites was the one very close to us, which was Morningside. So when you're talking about, and maybe you can kind of give our listeners a little, you know, brief on the project, but you kind of talk in the description of the project about how their art collection inspired many of the choices.

8:17So that was sort of where I was thinking when you were talking, because It was very specific. It's very specific. And they were, you know, it's so fun to get with clients that collect and have a point of view that is different than everyone else's point of view. And these guys were two clients that came to us. And they had lived across the street from this property that they bought, that we ultimately tore down an old house. And my business partner, Bobby, designed a new house for them. But they, one of the gentlemen, he worked in the train industry, literally. And they had collected over years and years and years, a lot of this industrial art and its photorealistic art, you know, of bridges and even like blenders and just kind of wild things.

9:15But all of that, of course, spoke to me having a degree in architecture and appreciation for structure and the beauty that exists in our built world, even in everyday things. And that bias for them led us to make so many decisions on their behalf that related to that industrial aesthetic. Not that we were literally going in there and doing something that was heavy industrial, but those textures and those colors. And even, you know, it came down to accessories that we would select on their behalf that were literally old. I think they were off a power plant or something. They were these spherical cast iron objects that you can see in that job.

10:04But those type of the inspiration that you're able to derive from your clients allows you to make those decisions so much more fun to make those decisions when you're doing it with that kind of information behind it. It's just not random. Okay, one of the things you use, and this has to be an architectural influence. I don't know, you tell me, but drapery, you are like, I don't even want to know what the drapery budget is. But the drapery, the way that you use drapery, just kind of talk our listeners through that because it, of course, is flanking windows, but it's also dividing rooms. It's just as a backdrop.

10:47There's all sorts of applications you have. And I love how creative you are, even though often they're solid. Or if you're really getting crazy, it's a horizontal stripe. Yeah. You know, we'll set every rule and then we'll try and figure out how to break it. You know, drapery is not just for windows. And really, hearkening back to our earlier conversation here today, you know, there was a time where I wasn't able to move walls and create windows and create intimate spaces that contract and release you as you move through space. So some of those things that I got to use were drapery and furniture of a certain height or certain scale.

11:29And what drapery brings to any interior is it is that ethereal, emotional, romantic softness that any piece of architecture needs. And when you're telling a story and an interior, you need to have these devices. I often say that their Draper can be like punctuation. They can kind of give you moments like a comma would in a long sentence. Let's say you've got a large room and you want to break it into more intimate seating areas. It's sort of like putting a comma into a sentence. It really allows you those moments where you pause, you take a breath, and you appreciate that particular vignette or that moment.

12:21It frames that particular vignette or that moment. So it's not just for light control. It has an emotional quotient that I think is critical to use in any space. I have actually had people say, oh, no, we're not going to do any drapery. And gasp, gasp, You're taking away some of the tools in my toolbox. And here's why you are going to need to use straight free. Well, you know, the way you do it is so interesting because it's odd. They're so dramatic and yet they're often neutral. So I love this sort of play of that because, you know, they're so like billowy and soft and they are floor to ceiling and they're probably like four times what you would need to actually cover the window.

13:12But that stack, that stack of fabric, just like, what is it about that that is so delicious? I don't know. There's got to be studied. It's got to be studied. Right. There is in the material selection, you will find more often than not, you will not see heavy, heavy drapery in our projects. I mean, there are occasions where, where you will, we've even done suede drapes before, but again, those were more as room dividers from an entry to a living room. But most often you will see very gauzy, light, ethereal, and it is for that that billowy, that dreamy kind of quotient that offers any space, any room, more of that softness.

14:07It catches the light. It glows. It's not opaque. There is a life to it and a luxury to it and how it catches the light. Yeah. And the balance of your drapery that you use, because the architecture in so many of these projects is more on the contemporary side, and there's lots of glass and lots of sharpness, that curtain, gosh, it just makes it so warm. well 100 % I need to record this and play for any of my clients who are who are hesitant about their drapery budget and you do such tall ceilings too that I think the impact of that fabric is so important I mean it captures your heart right when you see a tall bank of drapery that just rises to that ceiling it cat you cast your eye up it offers you a perspective and a you know it's that aha moment, really, when you've got that kind of drama to a space.

15:14Something I always marvel at, too, about drapery is the way it changes the sound. Yes. And sound is something that you obviously can't see. And so you can't tell in a photograph of someone's house how impactful it is. But when you walk in, there's this air. Right. There's something about the air and the sound that changes with drapery. Well, you know, again, with any interior, with any piece of architecture, I think you want people to feel it. It is about the emotion. It is not just how it looks. and an audible quantity. That is one of our significant senses, as is aroma. And there are things that we can factor into design that make it all that much richer of an experience.

16:12And I think having an audible quality, a lot of times I'll encourage people to upholster their bedrooms because you walk in there And it's just like automatically there's a softness, there's a caress that that offers to the clients, to the users that immediately starts taking it down for you. And let's face it, in this world, we need every tool that we can get to start taking it down and to quiet our mind. So really thinking about fabrics and drapery and upholstery as means for calming, embalming our hearts and our souls and setting us up for what is hopefully, you know, tranquility and a peaceful night's rest.

17:05Yeah. And OK, I want you to go into color a little bit because many of the projects are very neutral. But I want to know about how you build your neutral color palette, because, you know, in many of these you're using every neutral on the scale, right? like you're using cream and white, like pure white and cream and light beige and darker brown and like mid-tone brown and then black and bronze. And so there's like all of these shades, sometimes even in the same room. Is that like, what is the method to that? So, you know, again, I think in any neutral color palette, having that modulation of color so that You've got one thing playing off the other, that there is this harmony that is being created from one color transitioning to the other.

17:58But then we talked about the importance of contrast and of bracketing that between a really light color and a really dark color. You know, it's just, it's like any good conversation. It's got to have the diversity, even within, if you're talking about one subject, you've got to have that point of view that really allows it to be understood and appreciated on some level. I love the analogy of the harmony of music because often I think people worry that their colors or neutrals even need to match and need to be the same. So I like the way you framed that in the sense that having the different shades of the same tone or, you know, similar tones actually support one another.

18:52And, you know, they work together to create that melody. Well, let's face it, nothing in life is perfect. And we can all strive for perfection. But I think when we can celebrate a bit of the differences in us or in any, you know, apply it to fabrics as well. If you can celebrate that diversity, one kind of supports the other. One allows the other to be the star for the moment and perhaps a darker color becomes the backup, the contrast, the thing that allows the crispness in that one lighter fabric to really shine. So, yeah, it's a little bit of a play with all of that. Well, and you've done actually the same thing with the wood tones.

19:46So, I love this. It's the project with the London family in California. Oh, yes, yes. And there are so many wood finishes in the project, lots of antique pieces, wood paneling, wood floors, obviously wood beams, but you have some real ebony kind of wood tones, like the coffee table, but then you have these lightness too. So walk us through that and how wood tones or, you know, how you think those through. Well, it's applying a lot of the same logic, which is just to have that richness displayed from dark to light within that particular job. It is set in Southern California. So there is, you know in in any piece of architecture from mcalpin there's going to be an abundance of windows and there's going to be a lot of connection from the exterior to the interior so so finding those wood tones that kind of harmonize with with what's happening outside of those windows is key um and in that particular project we really did want it to have a lightness emotionally You know, it is in sunny California, so we didn't really want to go in with a lot of heavy, dark things that you might, you know, might be more appropriate to Connecticut or to New Hampshire.

21:16It's, again, trying to think about the context in which you're building and how to set up something that feels timeless because it feels like it's grounded in where it is. You know, it's...

22:01today. It's meant to be part of that exterior landscape. Again, because architecture is so important for your work. You know, the buildings themselves are truly, you know, art in themselves and your interiors obviously just, you know, finish it off. But I really wanted to talk about the actual using of the black mullions and window frames. Like I feel like every job of yours, That's not true. But most of the work in this book, you do use these windows that kind of project from the actual structure and almost become their own visual focal point. And so I just wanted to talk about like, you know, we've been seeing them the last few years.

22:49And is this something you see going forward? I mean, I hope so based on your work. But yeah, tell us about using those. Sure. So, you know, I don't think of it as a trend. Because I think there's logic behind it. And that is, you know, the windows certainly are the eyes to any structure, any building, any piece of architecture. And we have the good fortune of working with a lot of people who create beautiful landscapes outside of their windows or their beautiful views, a hillside, a mountaintop. And so you really want the architecture to, again, integrate for there to be a flow between the interior and the exterior.

23:33But within that, the windows frame that view. And you've got to have structure when you're us, when you're McAlpin. We don't do a lot of planar glass. I mean, there are certain jobs that call for it where that transparency is just almost impossible to delineate between the inside and the outside. But we most often, we like working with panes of glass. there's just a continuity architecturally to to that kind of language that i think a lot of people understand and respond to it's very different from just a 100 percent painless panel of glass so those mullions if you paint them light and you're looking towards a beautiful landscape and towards the the sunshine and the light that lies outside the window if they're white they're going to stop your eye optically.

24:32Your eye is going to focus on that lighter, brighter, closer thing to you. If you paint it dark, a dark bronze or a dark black, your vision discounts it. It looks past the dark. The dark becomes background. And again, your eye is allowed to focus on the light, the brightest thing that's outside of the window. So it's really an optical device that allows your eyes to see, it almost makes those windows that much more transparent for them to be painted in a dark color because you look right through them. And they also have the added benefit of creating a bit of a frame. You know, you're creating moments through each pane of glass.

25:20And I've also compared it before to eyeliner. You know, you want those eyes to shine. You want the beauty that anyone offers in how they look at you. And women, more often than men, although I guess there are some men who do it, you know, mascara gives you that crispness, that edge that really lets you focus on that eye, frames it. So some similarities through all of that, I think, are employed. you're a master editor so and and that's such an emphasis in your work um you even talked about in one project i believe it was in florida there was sort of a 80s house and y 'all renovated it and took took you know you worked on taking things away to i guess simplify but let's talk about that project but also editing because it's so hard and you're so good at it.

26:22And I want to know, I guess, how you think about it, how you approach it and when you know to take something away, when you know to add and the whole kind of, yeah, it's just your ways. Sure, sure, sure. I say actually in the book, you know, editing is the key to happiness. and i apply that as i do with most things and you have to forgive me for it to life as well as design we are in an age where things are coming at us 90 to nothing we're getting you know context and information and input where it's just exploding across your your visual and mental capacity to to try and ingest. And so all the more important in this day and age is editing so that you can really drown out the noise, drown out what is superfluous to telling the story that you've got to tell.

27:27And our clients more and more, because they're exposed to things online, they're taking in all of this content. So they're always coming at us with, what about this? And what about this? And what about this? You know, you've got to boil it all back to how does it tell the story that you want to tell? And, you know, another thing I say all the time is just because you can does not mean you should. Because using all of this, it can become a cacophony. And responding to all of these trends can become something that dates a project so quickly. So trying to be a little more conceptual as to how does it support the greater story that I'm trying to evoke from people who are using this, I think, is all the more important to try and to employ that editing tool in any interior.

28:40Okay, but being so selective, I want to know, what is exciting you right now? What is something new that you've been playing with or seeing that you're really excited about? gosh that's a hard question to answer um because i'm just trying to get through every day um i guess maybe on on some plane i will i will take it um to what is possible with all of the new technology that that is coming at us um i had um a lovely dinner with um with friends who are also architects and designers, Steve and Brooke Giannetti. Oh, we love them. I guess it was last Saturday. They're amazing. And, you know, I am someone who is really prone to kind of doing it the way I know to do it, what I'm going to have success with.

29:35And Steve showed me how he is employing architectural intelligence, AI. Oh, virtual reality? Yes, he does. He does the sketches and then he he he puts them into this ai program i think it's called um genesis um anyway uh i was really intrigued with how it can tell your story faster and you know it doesn't do it without his direction specific directions for certain aesthetics or even emotional content that he wants any of these projects to have. And again, it doesn't exist in perfection without editing. So we're back to that topic again. It becomes a tool that gets you a little further, that allows you a jumping off point where you can take it from there.

30:36So that's one of the positive things that I will say about AI. There's so many scary things that I'll refrain from saying, but let's focus on what is maybe possible and the potential of it. So that's an exciting thing that I kind of want to try and get my head around, how that will facilitate our work and help us do what we do for our clients better. On the vein of editing, how How extreme are you going in your personal life? Like, are you very, like, you know, do you have a junk drawer? Like, what's... Hell yes. I am not going as deep as I need to go, Caroline. I mean, really, there's a lot of editing to be done.

31:24But I do it occasionally. You know, I do. My husband will tell you, will attribute to this. sometimes you just got to empty everything out of that drawer and just put back what you are really wearing because it just gets too complicated. I need to go through that process right now. I've been so focused on work this year and transitions through in my own business and evolution of my business and the book and product lines and all of those things. I need a real good editing session. Yeah. I recall in your last book, it's evocative interiors. Evocative interiors, yes. We saw your house in Nashville.

32:11And it's very edited, very streamlined, you know, consistent with what our listeners would see. Don't open the closets. But you've been there. So you've been there a while. You've been, what, probably five? Fourteen years. Yeah, yeah. And I imagine that, you know, anyone who's been in a house for a long time, like you don't, when you build a house or when you move houses, you have an opportunity to reassess the things that you have. Yes. Whereas when you've been in a place for a long time, you don't necessarily have that opportunity. Do you find things like living the way you anticipated they live?

32:50Has the way you lived in the house changed? you know for the most part it it works as it was designed um i think what has maybe gotten where it is not working as well is myself and my husband we're not employing um all of the tools to put things back. Well, sure. And certainly John more than I, because I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off most of the time. But I do think design-wise, it will function the way it's needed to if we step up to the plate and get it where it needs to go. Yeah. Okay, when you go on a trip, you go somewhere fabulous, are you shopping for things? And if so, how are you being very critical about what it is you pick up and bring home and what it is you maybe admire but don't bring home?

33:55You know, I think for me, I am not a big shopper in all truthfulness. I am shopping for experience and for visual inspiration and emotional inspiration. So more often than not, those are the things that I'm paying attention to. I have had occasions where we've gone, I'll use the example of Morocco, where I did specifically say, I've got to go and look at some rugs. And I purchased a number of them. We've got some in our home and I put some in multiple clients' homes. but for the most part I am looking for what is going to inform me and influence me and push the boundaries of my own imagination and how I take that home to to ingest in in in employ in a project that makes sense and that probably is a great way to travel because then you you know, get to go and experience.

35:10It frees you up a little bit. It frees you up. I, you know, I wish I had that shopper gene, but it's, it's just, I want to be out in it. I want to be experiencing it. And I, I, I don't always want to be that pragmatic or that focused on the end game. I got to walk home with, with something here. Um, it's up here. Well, you talk also, and I think this is in the introduction of the book, about human scale and why it's so important. And maybe kind of go into that a little bit, because as we mentioned before, so many of the projects, they're grand houses. They're, you know, not crazy, but the scale is grand, double, you know, story ceilings, tall ceilings.