BrinG Your own BAnk

What are you excited about right now?

Design! Working with new clients, especially clients that are open to new ideas and are willing to let me introduce them to new things. This job I’m working on in Austin, they are away on their 30-year wedding anniversary. They gave me the keys and budget and said, “Whatever your little mind comes up with, do it.”

Wow! How did they find you?

I did a house in Kessler Park, and the owners of that house are friends with this client’s daughter. After the reveal, the client’s daughter loved it, so she told her mom. She is very quick-witted, and she gets it. She has a wacky sense of humor like I do. She’s very cool. They wanted to see my apartment, and she said, “I want my house to look like your house. Do this to my house.”

Since mid-century modern is kind of your thing, how can people incorporate mid-century design if they have a more traditional decor?

It could be something as simple as a pillow placement or a rug you choose. You can pair a traditional sofa with mid-century lamps. You can mix mid-century chairs in the dining room with more traditional ones the old stuffy rules of yesteryear are out the window. When I flip through design magazines, I’m seeing such a marrying of new and old, midcentury with traditional. The old rules don’t apply any more. In the Austin house, I’m using an old French provincial headboard. I cut off the legs and had someone build a new frame for it. I’m using this hand-dyed velvet Hermes fabric, and it feels very modern.

You don’t have to give up all of your secrets, but where do you shop?

Oh, I find things everywhere, from trash dumpsters to Lula B’s to Antiques Moderne to Give and Take. Scout is a really good place to shop for eclectic funky things. Dulce is a great store.

What inspires you?

I drive across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge a lot. That bridge just inspires me. I see something different every time. You can see it from any point. I just love it.

—Rachel Stone

You’re

Ewok lives in Winnetka Heights with his family, Lisa, Brandon and Ava Mohon. He weighs a little under 3 pounds, is about as tall as a beer bottle, likes short walks on the patio and insists on being held all the time.