With more than 16 years of experience in the design industry and dozens of turnkey projects under her belt, Kathryn Hunt recently turned her focus to new projects in the Hartford region.
The principal and founder of Kathryn Hunt Studio, the West Hartford-based designer specializes in high-end new home construction and renovation. We sat down with Kathryn recently to talk about her services, her design philosophy and how important it is to work with a designer when building a new home or renovating an existing one.
Q. What’s your background and experience?
A. I’ve always loved art, even as a child, and I was introduced to the world of interior design by my father, who is a custom home builder. I studied history and architecture in Florence, Italy after graduating college and I worked for a few designers in New York City. I then moved on to designing textile showrooms and was selected to design a wedding event space and so I launched my own design business in 2015. Since then the company has expanded and we’ve worked on dozens of residential and boutique commercial projects throughout New England, in NYC, the Hamptons, Catskills, Nassau County, Fairfield County, and Litchfield. We have the capabilities to work on projects nation wide.
Q. What services do you offer?
A. We provide interior design and project management services, and we specialize in working with clients who are building a new home or undertaking a total renovation of a home. The process of building or renovating an entire home can be overwhelming. We listen to our client's needs and provide vision, organization, and facilitation to make the process easier for them. I work directly with architects, builders, and the homeowner and we generally get involved from the beginning stages. We want to start to tell the story of the home before the plans are even drafted. We then help plan the interior details, materials selection, lighting, etc and we also furnish the home. Delivering Turn Key projects is one of our main services that we offer, where we deliver a fully furnished home and the client has hand selected everything inside. The result is truly a dream for our clients.
Q. What’s a typical project profile for Kathryn Hunt Studio?
A. Our clients are typically residential homeowners who are looking to redo their interiors or are in the beginning stages of planning their construction projects. Alternatively, we are often referred by the builder or architect because we organize the project and that helps everyone involved, and we also have some experience in boutique commercial spaces and wedding event spaces. We have been doing more work for sustainability and our Litchfield County project is an energy Net Zero home that was built for generational living. It offers a beautiful home for a young family and a wing for their in-laws to age in place. We worked closely with the architect to make sure the interiors met certain energy and sustainability requirements.
Q. What is your design philosophy?
A. Our philosophy is to deliver the highest quality and functional design to help make our clients lead a more effortless lifestyle. We collaborate with our clients and team and provide our organizational processes, beautiful and realistic visuals, and our relationships with our trade vendors to execute our design plan. We really enjoy what we do, we love creating beautiful spaces that make people happy. Our clients often come to us and say “I don’t even know where to start.’” Or sometimes people come to us with a very specific look and we take direction from that. We’re very good at knowing how to guide our clients with their designs and decorating projects, regardless of whether they’re looking for input on where to start or they have a specific design in mind and want help in executing it. By the time we complete a project, we have gotten to know the client and their families very well!
Q. What are some design/home trends that you’re seeing right now?
A. Bringing color into the home is currently trending. More people are asking for colorful kitchens and more sustainable, organic materials than before. As a designer, we appreciate that this offers more variety to design.
Q. What goes into good design?
A. Lots of planning. We listen to what our client's needs are and set realistic plans and goals for the project. We believe good design can be achieved at any budget with the right amount of planning. We provide a variety of services for both clients and assist other trades. We can help clients through smaller renovation projects such as kitchen and bathroom remodels, renovations or additions, or delivering a full home from an architectural plan to a “turn key” walk in ready furnished home. And we can assist the trade (builders, developers, architects) through a variety of services such as project estimating, procurement, specifications, and general project organization.
Kathryn Hunt Studio
631-240-3871
970 Farmington Ave.
Online: Kathrynhuntstudio.com
Visit her on Facebook or Instagram: @Kathrynhuntstudio
Our philosophy is to deliver the highest quality and functional design to help make our clients lead a more effortless lifestyle." Kathryn Hunt
