In Conversation With Abigail Shea

What first sparked your interest in interior design?

I have been interested in interior design for a very long time, since I was probably five or six. My mom has a very keen eye for home design and from a young age I was thinking about and aware of how my space made me feel. I'm doing pretty different things compared to my teal bedroom at 14, but the importance of a personal, considered, collected space has always been a big part of my life.

In what ways has your practice evolved over the years versus stayed the same?

Early on I think I was leaning into natural, organic materials pretty heavily, which is still a huge part of our work but I have learned that balance is critical for an elevated space. For example, my designs used to layer raw wood with jute with shearling with cement – all kind of one note. Now we take a more nuanced approach and layer in polished metals and marbles, some cleaner lines and more elevated styling pieces, etc. Personal taste is always evolving but I'm loving this balance we're striking at the moment of clean lines and minimalist rooms with layered, luxurious materials.

You used our work in your Portland Victorian and Cambridge Contemporary projects — what initially drew you to the pieces?

I am really drawn to pieces with clean lines, in quality natural materials, with a little something special about them. I would not call myself an absolute minimalist, but I definitely gravitate towards pretty simple profiles that don't feel boring. Sun at Six is a go-to for us for that reason. The pieces are interesting and complex, but ultimately simple and quiet. In the Portland Victorian, our brief was to layer modern furnishings into a Victorian home in the most thoughtful way possible. The dining room had this rich, ornate original paneling and we needed a dining set that felt like a soft visual reprieve from that woodwork. In Cambridge Contemporary, it was almost the opposite goal – we needed to add some depth to a modern, crisp white new build. The heft and perfectly modern-but-nuanced lines of the Reka chairs was a home run.

How did the architecture of each home influence your design approach?

Existing architecture is always our biggest inspiration when starting a project. The Portland Victorian clients were looking to add a tension between their home's architecture and their new furnishings, which is an approach we sometimes take, but more often than not we are working to bolster existing architecture. So the Cambridge Contemporary project architecture was modern, clean, and in need of some layered warmth. That was the approach we took when furnishing – keep the profiles simple and the forms modern, but add depth and warmth through varying materials and textures.

What did working on two contrasting projects teach you about your process?

It taught me that really spending time to understand our clients early in the design process is critical. These two projects had very different clients – one was an almost retirement-age couple, new to the home and area, and another was a young family looking to refresh their existing space. Knowing who it is we are designing for, and the lives that are going to unfold in each space, is the ultimate way to understand what the house needs and what pieces will make their way inside.

How do these projects reflect where you are in your practice today?

We are a relatively young firm, about five years old. I am so nostalgic about these projects, specifically the Portland Victorian, because they were within the first wave of projects we produced. They taught me so much and have laid the groundwork for the clients we are reaching these days, and I am grateful that we are expanding into bigger, more architecturally-driven projects. We love a furnishing project, don't get me wrong, but I can't wait to publish some of the interior architecture work Studio Eastman has been doing recently.