As we (and our homes) continue to evolve our lifestyles that accommodate the need for in-person interaction with health safety precautions and concerns for the environment, interior designers are forecasting 2023 to feature nature-inspired color palettes, attention to detailed symmetry, lighting made from non-traditional materials, and more.
Clay-colored interior walls, furniture, and decor in shades of dusty rose, mauve, caramel, peach, and taupe are aglow in 2023. Designer Danielle Colding predicted that people would turn to earthtones after the gray days of 2020 and 2021 in 2022, and extended the prediction through the end of 2023.
Let there be (interesting) light throughout the room with lamps and other light fixtures that create soft and ambient glows to complement a home-cooked meal, hard-earned bubble bath, or night full of Netflix.
From floors and backsplashes, to showers and fireplaces, textured tile creates interesting aesthetic variations to any room. Whether aligned symmetrically or arranged in abstract shapes, textured tiles will give you and your guests something to talk about.
According to Timothy Corrigan, lauded interior designer, years of pandemic-era practicality and precautions have whet the appetite for indulgence. “The comeback of neoclassicism, with its focus on highly detailed and symmetrical lines, is a natural progression after the popularity of mid-century modernism. The decor blends easily with other periods and styles, and focuses on elegance and sophistication, without being a conspicuous display of wealth,” says Corrigan.
Aperson’s living space is often a reflection of their identity and lifestyle, and one local business is elevating lifestyles one project at a time. Tiffany McKee is the founder of High Life Design, a design house completely focused on ensuring that clients live inspired and enjoyable lives that include home, food, and day-to-day living.
“Every aspect of life can be elevated and lived accordingly. With this mindset, we build a higher life,” says McKee.
McKee and her husband began their own personal design projects in 2016 and decided to expand in 2020.
“I was like, I want to extend this to clients as well as something that I ended up loving and not realizing I would love it. From there, it kind of just took off in its own way where, you know, it can be a renovation or a new build,” McKee recalls.
She cut her teeth with residential renovations, which she said she absolutely loved, before becoming involved in commercial and new build projects.
“You learn so much on each project and each one is its own kind of adventure, and it’s really hard to just pick one. I really love them all,” she explains.
McKee says, for her, inspiration is a multifaceted experience.
“Highlife is about living an inspired life in general,” she says. “That doesn’t just mean the space that surrounds you, like house design, but rather, the friends, the family, the food,and the way that you style yourself, your work, or your life in general.”
Much of McKee’s design inspiration is drawn from the local desert landscape, with earthy decor accents, rich wood, and lots of light.
As we continue to navigate pandemic living, it’s easy to fall into an uninspiring rut. But that’s where home design can help transform and elevate one’s mood.
“That’s really what our brand and the company is all about,” says McKee. “It’s about elevating your surroundings and that’s why we named it ‘High Life.’ It’s all about the inspiration that you can find from the way a picture is hung, or the way you arranged your flowers that day -- it’s really finite. It’s not just on the grand scheme of things, like how tall your ceilings are, how grand your kitchen. It’s all the tiny details.”
We work in harmony to make your home as you envision
Canvas paintings and fine decorative finishes
Customizing your existing furniture
Personalized design for walls and more
We match any wallpaper, longer lasting at a smaller price
Old world and contemporary textures
McKee says that, ultimately, her work is about the ways her clients live their lives, which is what she hopes is reflected in her projects.
“It really is important to take pride in how you present yourself but it’s not just your clothes, it’s not just your house. It’s about how you live your life, too. And that creates a giant domino effect into every single other aspect,” says McKee.
McKee is looking forward to continuing to expand and enhance the foundation and framework of local lifestyles in 2023.
“I really hope to always spread positivity and spread inspiration because I think it’s just so much more fulfilling to live an elevated life, a positive life, than a negative one,” says McKee. “I believe that when every aspect of your life is full of positivity, it really does make a higher life, and I think it’s just so much better to live that way.”
By: ANDY MARTINEZ
Photography by: BERNIE MAESE JR.
Styled by: LADONNA APODACA
Aplace to find comfort, a place to entertain loved ones, a place to raise a family—all of these are goals that Susan and John Hjalmquist bore in mind when creating the home of their dreams. Goals that while unquantifiable, were of immense value.
The home, inspired by an unmistakably Tuscan design, exudes comfort at first sight. With the refined color palette of creams and browns that travel throughout the home, this home rejects the make every room different mentality that many people have when attempting to put together a home. The familiarity of each room, when compared to the last, is a testament to the vision that the homeowners had when piecing together their home—an unrestricted space with the ability of being traveled through with ease. With help from Lori McCuaig from LMC Design Group, the homeowners made this vision a reality. “We wanted an open house, it was important to have it open, with tall ceilings and to have a lot of windows … we just wanted light,” said Susan.
“We wanted an open house, it was important to have it open, with tall ceilings and to have a lot of windows … we just wanted light.”
An exceptional feat of the home’s design is its ability to reflect luminescence throughout, maintaining the aura of lightness that the homeowners intend to showcase. The interior’s pillars direct light to the walls, which in turn illuminate the exquisite furnishings, most of which consist of a cohesive yet tastefully eclectic mix. Along with the furniture, the homeowners have managed to gather a collection of art from their travels to display in their home. “As my boys grew up, we started traveling more and we were able to get more things for our home. Collecting art was something we had to grow,” said Susan. In a very apparent manner, the art gathered functions as an abstract travelogue that the homeowners can reminisce over. “We’ve lived in this home for fifteen years and put our heart and soul into it.”
The kitchen is Susan’s favorite room in the house and it serves a very specific purpose. The space contains unique features such as a functional fireplace directly behind the stove. The kitchen is also home to a massive iron pot rack, one of the very first pieces that the homeowners included in their home. It was important that the kitchen be a central point with visual access to the rest of the home. “It is my favorite because it’s open to the family room and when raising three boys, it was important that I could always be in contact with the family.”
The home boasts an outdoor loggia—a preferred place to lounge and enjoy a book pulled directly from their home library. The back yard of the home provides the spectacular ambience felt through the valley, one of which can also be enjoyed through a dip in the pool.
When it comes down to the overarching purpose of their home, it is ultimately a place where comfort and entertainment meet. “Our house is about family, hospitality, friends,” said Susan. Through years of refined taste and the joy of having had a family raised in it, this home’s story is one that can only be remembered through comforting and loving memories.
“We’ve lived in this home for fifteen years and put our heart and soul into it.”
