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The Design Questionnaire With Rachel Usher
In this edition of Love Happens’ Proust-style Design Questionnaire, join us for a peek inside the creative and inspiring mind of Rachel Usher. As founder and creative director of her eponymous design firm, Rachel Usher is an established and trusted voice in the interiors industry. Alongside her team, Rachel creates emotionally charged luxurious interiors across the UK and from her second home in Los Angeles.
Meet Rachel Usher in the Lh Design Questionnaire
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I have a home in Southern California that has the most amazing sunsets; my idea of perfection would be sitting on my patio in the late evening sun and allowing myself to absorb the night sky.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I would like to think that my life is littered with many professional micro-achievements, however, nothing really compares to the happy home that I share with my calm and loving husband and our two teenage children. My family is all very well acquainted with the energy of my thinking and brings calm to my otherwise franetic life. They show me what it really means to be loved and they give me a reason to slow down.
What profession does your alter ego have?
I have always felt that I should be working towards the greater good, so it would be to help empower and advocate for women in the developing world, to help them achieve a life free from the fear of violence, repression, and rape. I would love to see more women in senior positions of leadership both within business and politics. Women are important to world peace and their voices need to be heard.
The project you will never forget.
I think all of the projects which I delivered during the earlier part of the pandemic will stay with me forever. This period of time shaped me significantly as a business owner and as a designer, my company has most definitely grown stronger and more robust as a result of the experiences of this time. However, my favourite project has to be the joy I found in designing my own mid-century modern home just outside of Palm Springs.
Your favourite business tool or resource.
We use Basecamp; it’s a great tool for keeping all of your team in one place and creates the ideal single porthole for sharing everything on a project. This helps us keep track of tasks, decisions, scheduling, and my teams’ individual workloads. The programme can be used on a desktop or a mobile phone app, this is really useful when decisions are made on-site, which can often be quite dynamic, and can be captured there and then on the app. I ensure that contractors use it, and encourage our clients to join us there too.
The most timeless design.
Mid-century modern, this is a design classic for me that has enduring appeal.
The biggest design faux pas.
Allowing a client to push you on a budget and to achieve this you are pressed to compromise upon the quality of craftsmanship to reduce their costs, in the end, the saving is never worth it.
Your design motto.
Good design should be measured by how a space makes you feel.
Our publisher KOKET makes statement décor, if you were to design a room around one KOKET piece, which would it be, and why?
The Lisboa sofa, this piece represents the perfect balance between ultimate luxury and comfort, its relaxed style immediately calls you to kick back and sink into it.
Love happens when…
you allow yourself to be present in the moment.
