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THE STUDIO

We are hired for the whole room, and we stay until it is finished.

The studio workroom: a long oak table covered in material boards, a pinboard wall of fabric and paper samples, and two designers seen from behind at the far end under tall windows.

Most of what we do is choosing, and choosing takes longer than drawing. A scheme usually begins with one object the client already owns — a painting, a rug, a chair from a grandmother — and the rest of the room is assembled to make that thing look inevitable.

We draw the joinery ourselves because it is where a house is either generous or mean. Door heights, the depth of a window seat, whether a shelf can take a stack of books lying down: these decide how a room feels long before the fabric does.

We like rooms that are slightly wrong. A pattern that fights the rug, a modern light over an old table, one color that nobody asked for. Rooms that agree with themselves completely are the ones people stop seeing.

PROCESS

Survey, scheme, source, install.

01

Survey

We measure, photograph and sit in the rooms at different hours before proposing anything. Most briefs change once we have seen where the light actually falls.

02

Scheme

Plans, elevations and a full material board presented together. Nothing is shown as a mood image — every sample in the presentation is a thing we can actually order.

03

Source

Joinery drawn and tendered, furniture found at auction and from makers, textiles reserved. This is the longest phase and the one that decides whether a room looks collected.

04

Install

Deliveries staged, furniture placed, pictures hung and lighting set in one continuous week. We leave the house working rather than photographed.

The people who do the work.

Nadia

Creative director

Margot

Senior designer

Rafael

Project designer

Tess

Sourcing and FF&E

A studio worktable seen from above: hands arranging fabric swatches, wood samples, stone chips and a paint fan on white paper in warm daylight.
000 ○○ StreetNew York, New York(000) 000-0000hello@studioumber.example

STUDIO UMBER is a fictional design studio built as a portfolio demonstration by Studio Super-Hi. Every project, client and image on this site is invented, and no real firm is depicted.