Victoria Sass: Our Homes Reflect the Stories of Our Lives

"People move into their homes and grow and change and learn from their homes. That's my favorite thing is when your home challenges you back and you can learn something new about yourself."

On the Being Home With Hunker podcast we have interior designer Victoria Sass.

Victoria is the founder of Prospect Refuge Studio. She was named one of Architectural Digest's 2022 New American Voices, highlighting rising designers who are "shaking up American interiors."

Based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Victoria and her design studio focus on transforming old homes for young families.

Her aesthetic is a mix of California, Scandinavia, and midwestern soul.

Through her work, Victoria likes to amplify the stories that our homes tell. Part of her talent lies in world-building, in using these stories to encourage people tap into an emotional mindset and get out of the literal when designing their homes.

What I love is that Victoria likes to leave room for the unexpected in the homes she designs — leaving room for something to be changed over time, to add layers, to move things around throughout the years.

As she says in this conversation, interior designers are the conductor bringing all the pieces of a home together into one cohesive piece. And she does this so beautifully.

You'll love what Victoria has to say, including her tips on client and interior designer relationships, her favorite materials to mix when designing a room, and which items she likes to start planning a room around.

If you want to learn more about Victoria, find her here:

• Website: ProspectRefugeStudio.com
• Instagram: @prospectrefuge

‌(Edited slightly for clarity.)‌

Laurie Gunning Grossman:

So you were named one of Architectural Digest's 2022 List of New American Voices. How exciting is that?

Victoria Sass:

Oh, so exciting. It was kind of unexpected and kind of unbelievable, is a little bit of a pinch me moment. And yeah, it's just been really fun. And the other designers that they selected were just so darn talented. We all have imposter syndrome a little bit and so it's so rewarding to look around you and say, God, these people are so talented, maybe it's not an imposter after all.

Laurie:

You're definitely not an imposter. So you're based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota and what is that like there? I've never been there.

Victoria:

Oh, you should come. You definitely come. Open invitation. Let me know if you're ever in this part of the country.

Laurie:

I love it.

Victoria:

I mean, I love Minneapolis. I have lived around a little bit and kind of came back, which is very much a common tale here in the Midwest, to sort of go spread your wings. A lot of our clients have done the same thing where they've gone around the world or around the country and now they're coming back and putting down roots. But it's great. There's a lot of modesty, there's a lot of balance. There's all four seasons. It's a really well rounded kind of place to be. A little bit outside the rat race of the coasts, but there's so much creativity, the depth of creativity is really inspiring to me. I think there's people who go really deep in their craft, which I get a lot of energy out of.

Laurie:

Yeah, I read that you said somewhere that Midwestern design is something to celebrate and are you meaning like the craftsmanship? Is that what you're talking about?

Victoria:

Yeah, I also think that there's an aesthetic that, I'll be totally honest, I'm trying to define right now at this point in my career, so I don't have the definition on lock yet, but I'm really interested in exploring what the Midwest means to so many different people. And we were just down in Kansas, we started a project down there last week. And what it means to a person from Kansas is different from what it means to a person in Minneapolis or Chicago or anywhere. So the different Midwestern voices are really what's engaging me and interesting to me right now. I think there's a lot of stories being told on the coasts and the Pacific Northwest and a lot of other places throughout the US and I think I'm really interested in the stories that have yet to be told in the Midwest, so that's interesting to me.

Laurie:

I love that. So you spent some time in Santa Cruz and then you said that you had an architectural education in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is two very different places. So how has living in those places, in addition to the Midwest, shaped your style and how you see the world of design?

Victoria:

I think whether we like it or not, that our stories are part of who we are. Some days people will tell me I have a very Scandinavian aesthetic and I like to think I don't have an accent. I like to think I maybe don't have too much of a boundaried style, but I'm sure that's not true in those. I do think that that time growing up in California and the time spent studying in Copenhagen and throughout Scandinavia inevitably creeps into my work. And so I think now I'm really interested in infusing that Midwestern soul into it on top of everything else. And just the continued accumulation and sort layer cake of aesthetics, that amalgamation, I think it's a good recipe. So far it feels like a very natural flavor, those three flavors together. I use a lot of cooking analogies.

Laurie:

Yeah. Why not?

Victoria:

But those three flavors, that West Coast, California, Scandinavian, and Midwestern are kind of fun to explore together.

Laurie:

Yes. You said two things that I want to touch upon. So you did mention stories and I want to get to stories because I know that that is a part of you and your work and working with your clients. You just brought up the words a boundaried style, which I don't think that you have. I think, this is my own impression, what I love about seeing the images of your work, it's just so lovely. It's colorful, it's warm, it doesn't all look the same from house to house, yet there's still something that you can say, oh this is Victoria's work. You know what I mean? There's the touches of it, but they seem so individual and unique to the homes that I just love.

I mean the images of your spaces, everyone needs to go look at because I just want to step into them. They're really, really beautiful. And I wrote down something that you had said, which kind of gets to stories you wrote, the intention is to build the history of your home no matter its age while celebrating its present and anticipating its future. Which I love, because it seems like you and your work to focus on narratives and stories, which is huge for us at Hunker and for this podcast, we love the stories that our homes tell. So can you talk a little bit about that importance of helping people tell their stories through their home, and through design in their home?

Victoria:

Yeah. The best stories are complicated, really.

Laurie:

Okay, go. Tell me more.

Victoria:

I think that's why a lot of times we get clients who have a complex home, a challenging home. These are words that they come to with us and we see opportunity usually. But I think the more, quote, unquote, challenging a home is, the more potential. It has a strong story and I think people are trying to find a way, how do they fit into its story. And that's really rewarding to carve out and carve away an existence within a home that has strong... My home has a strong personality.

Laurie:

Yes.

Victoria:

And much like beloved family members or friends, sometimes they're the ones that challenge you the most, but they're also the most rewarding relationships. And so I think we're trying to tell multiple stories at the same time. The story that the home comes to us with, if it's an older home, or if it's not, if it's a new build, which we're doing a lot of, trying to think about if this were a preexisting home, what would it be telling? What story does it want to tell? Maybe it's the property, maybe it's the piece of land it sits on, or... There's got to be some sense of history.

And then you've got the present day. What do you need in this moment, today? Not looking forward, not looking back, but just as you exist in this world, in this moment. And then we are trying to leave a door open. I try not to project too much into what your life will be because nobody knows for sure, but to just leave things not a hundred percent done and finished and final. Because that's where the magic happens. People move into their homes and grow and change and learn from their homes. That's my favorite thing, is when your home challenges you back and you can discover something new about yourself.

Laurie:

Love that.

Victoria:

Trying to tell all the stories at the same time, which we don't make our work easy for ourselves.

Laurie:

So when you're working with someone who has a historic home, do you also dig into then the history of the home? Are you looking at old papers? Are you guys going to the reference section of the library to learn more about that space? Do you dig in that deep?

Victoria:

Sometimes, if it's there, if we can find it. I do think that it's more of an emotional understanding. We're not historic preservationists or restorationists.

Laurie:

Okay.

Victoria:

It's more of like, we're respectful of history.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Victoria:

There's also nothing like time. Time changes space in such a unique way, it's irreplicable. We can't really artificially create that, so we want to save as much of that as we can. It's hard to value something, sometimes people come in, they're a little maybe dismissive of a remodel that happened in the seventies, let's say, but they love their turn of the century architecture. And I want to say that seventies remodel has just as much value, and maybe we don't preserve everything in amber, but we need to understand that that's part of your home's story and respect that too. And so sometimes that leads to an interesting equation.

So yes and no. We want to get the story, we want to understand where the home's been, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a shrine. It's more of just making an emotional connection with it.

Laurie:

I love it so much. So it sounds like the home is the other family member of whomever's living there.

Victoria:

Yes.

Laurie:

That's so sweet.

Victoria:

It should be. If you can get to that kind of a place with your home, I think it's really rewarding.

Laurie:

Yeah. How beautiful that thought is. I love it.

Victoria:

And family members can be challenging, we all know.

Laurie:

Of course, of course.

Victoria:

And you have to be, I think if you're open to that, you get a lot richer experience from your home. So often I think people look at homes, oh, Corbusier and I have so much beef together, homes as machines, the living machine, and I just think that there's a sterility, there's an absence of magic to a machine, this sense that a home should serve us in every way, anticipate our every need.

Laurie:

Whoa.

Victoria:

Where's the beauty in the mystery and the unexpected romantic moment? Leaving room for the unexpected is important.

Laurie:

Tell me more about that.

Victoria:

Oh goodness. I mean, it's a dance, we want to try to make sure everything is thoughtful as we can, but trying to leave room for a wall to be filled down the road or something to be changed over time, furniture to be moved around, just to continue to add layers to a space is really important.

Laurie:

Yes. Are you the type of person who likes to, as you just mentioned, move things around? Do you like to move things around in your space a lot? Do you feel that need every few months or maybe every year, you like to freshen things up, change that energy?

Victoria:

Yeah, I mean, I know I do that. I don't know if I always do it intentionally. It sort of goes in waves. Something will inevitably spur a big movement of my furniture, like a migration throughout my home. Whether it's one new piece gets introduced and then therefore there's a butterfly effect and entire rooms change from there.

Laurie:

Right.

Victoria:

Then there'll be great still periods where nothing happens. But then there's these great abrupt overhauls where everything moves throughout my home. Some of it's photoshoot related, we kind of use my home as a secondary staging and styling space as well.

So some of it's based around that. I don't know. Other times maybe I'll just sell something from my life and get a new piece and then a whole room changes with that.

Laurie:

Oh, it's so fun.

Now getting back to the story and telling your client's stories. So on your site, on your different tours of the homes, you have something called pairings and you have words, these beautiful words that go together. Can you talk a little bit about this and then how it helps you envision the palette and the design of each project that you work on with your clients?

Victoria:

So that came out of... Okay, I already mentioned I use a lot of cooking analogies, I think I'm always trying to get people out of their literal minds and tap into more of an emotional mindset. I can worry about the literal, how are we literally going to fill your home with furniture and how many inches long does the sofa have to be? I can worry about that.

And so I kind of want to encourage homeowners or our clients to think about things and their needs more abstractly. How do they want to feel? What season is it? I often try to help them walk through a almost meditational exercise of, picture yourself in your finished space and then really drill down into, what are you wearing, what season is it, what time of day is it? What is in your hands, are you eating something, are you drinking something? What is the smell in the room? As many of those emotional, evocative sensations as we can get a hold of, that is so rich for inspiration for us.

I might not be able to recreate that exact moment, put a cup of tea in your hand and make it seven o'clock on a Friday in the fall. But I can help build that environment based on those sort of emotional triggers. And so sometimes I'm trying to break that down and build that up constantly and help people separate. It's not just chairs and tables and sofas, it's emotions and adventures and things that you're eating and consuming. It's a whole world that you're trying to craft. World building.

Laurie:

I love it so much. It makes me think of a lot of people who work with intentions, and there are some people who work with, like the new moon. You write your new intentions around the new moon or future casting and thinking about how you want to show up in your future. And so many people talk about the feelings. So it's not just about saying, oh, I want X, Y, and Z. How do you want to feel, as you just said. What are you envisioning? I think when we put those pictures in our head, it helps us get clarity. So I love that you do that with your clients.

Victoria:

I was just talking to my design team today and we were talking about, I think we, all of us as humans, have a lot of scripts in our heads of what we think we need, and so a lot of times we'll get clients or people come in the door, and I do this to myself. I think I need a sofa and two chairs and a rug and this is what I need, but what I need is a home. What kind of a home? Do I need to have a high energy home? Do I need to have a secluded home? Maybe I don't need a home at all. Maybe I need a landing pad. Maybe I need a party pad. Once you start to get into what you need in an abstract way, it's so much more telling than the checklist or the to-do list.

Laurie:

Yeah. Now do you use other tools as well, or do you just focus on the pairings and the envisioning and the feelings? Do you use mood boards, I know some people do playlists, anything like that?

Victoria:

Yeah, it's a lot of just me peppering our clients with a thousand questions and some of them are very abstract and just getting to know every inch of their lives. And then we create a concept. So we tell a story and it's kind of in line with those pairings, it's a little more built out than just a few words. It's about a paragraph or two and it's narrative and it might be a story about a piece of clothing or it might be a story about a season. They range literally anything, a book, a artist, a moment in time. I mean, there's so many ways that we go about it, an animal.

But something that is totemic, that is symbolic of what they're trying to do. And it's kind of like those pairings where they read it and they hopefully go, yes, that's what I want looking at my wallpaper in my office here, I want to a cozy rabbit napping in the sun. Something like that is the energy I want. And so we tell this story and then we have some imagery to go with it. But yeah. Ooh, playlist. That sounds like a fun one.

Laurie:

Yeah, I heard someone else does that and I was like, that's so cool. That's such a great thing. I think a lot of times it does depend maybe on how the client experiences things, like some people are audio, some people are visual, some people are tactile. So maybe it depends on who you're working with. When you moved into your home and you were designing your home, what were some of the pairings, do you remember? Did you do it for yourself? Do you remember any words or visions?

Victoria:

We're actually going through a constant design of my home.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Victoria:

It's going to be a lifelong project for me and we're doing a second level and there's a lot of Pompeii.

Laurie:

Ooh.

Victoria:

And yeah, dusty. I'm imagining sort of like dusty mosaics and that sort of hot sun, heat of the day, kind of baked feeling.

I don't know. I haven't formally done it, but that is, I think I can feel it just coming off of starting a new project, that project in Kansas, I'm very good at feeling it and the work is breaking it down into a vocabulary and then building it back up as a cohesive space. So I don't know, it's built into me, but then once I kind of do the tangible work of breaking it down and defining it, I don't always do that for myself because I already feel it, so I don't need to explain it to myself.

Laurie:

Yeah, yeah. It's in you.

Victoria:

It's there, it's there. It just hasn't been parsed out quite as much.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Now, what are some tips that you would love for people, or even for your clients to know, about how to work with an interior designer to make the process run smoothly?

Victoria:

Hopefully it's a person you trust. I think having a good feeling, I say this a lot about our partners, if we're helping a homeowner assemble a team, trust your gut. If you feel you're communicating with them and they're understanding what you're saying and understanding your questions and you're understanding their answers, if the communication feels easy, that's probably a really good sign. And that sounds not scientific, but I actually think it is based in, are you speaking the same language? It should just feel real easy. And I think if that's the case, hopefully you can place your trust in these people and then be as transparent as you can be.

I think sometimes people hold their cards a little too close to their chest and don't get the full benefit of an advocate of a, I know, at least at our studio, we're really trying to see the world literally through your eyes. And so the more you can let us into your life and allow us to do that, I think you get a better end result. It's not easy, it's hard. Someone once told me it's very hard work to be a good client and I think that is true. There's an amount of letting go and trust and belief in the end result that you have to sort of have and work on.

Laurie:

Yeah, that makes sense. Do you love being an interior designer? What is it that sparks your interest and keeps you engaged? What do you love about it?

Victoria:

Oh, it's complexity. I think the more I do it, the more I realize the unlimited potential of this art form. I'd love to keep pursuing it until it feels like a fine art. And our medium is space, is volume, is light, it's all of the senses, really, is what we're working with. Crafting almost like an installation in your life to try to make you feel something, connected, disconnected, whatever it is that you want out of this world to try to set that environment up for you, to foster that and then turn you loose in it and hope that it happens for you.

I think there's so many crafts, trades, technical details to learn about stained glass, wood flooring. I mean, you could spend your whole life knowing nothing but stained glass and to get to spend a tiny bit of your life learning about that, and paint and wall, I mean, all the things, it's unlimited and that's so exciting.

Laurie:

Yeah. Oh, I love thinking it that way, as unlimited, because I do feel to get into people's homes, to get into their heads and figure out what they want, it takes a certain level of patience and a certain level of passion to be able to show up for all your different clients all the time. I love how you think about it though, that it seems like very expansive and then perhaps even talking to, I'm imagining craftsmen who work with stained glass and gleaning some insight. I mean, do you work with those craftsmen in some of your projects?

Victoria:

Oh yeah. Anytime I can get into a workshop and dial into... We're working on a lighting collection and meeting the glass blowers and learning about the craft and the capabilities and the possibilities and the limitations of that material, that medium, what can you do? How do you affect color? How does light transmit through it? I can spend a lifetime learning about it and unfortunately I do have to stop at some point, but to just have that possibility be there, keeps it evergreen. It's so fresh.

Laurie:

Yeah.

I have a couple fill in the blanks I wanted to ask you and get your answer from. Okay, so fill in the blank. I can never go wrong if I design a room with...

Victoria:

Oh, these are so hard because there's always an exception to every rule, right?

Laurie:

Oh yeah.

Victoria:

A good rug, I think. And by good I don't mean expensive.

Laurie:

I was just going to ask about that because I feel like it's hard to find a good rug that is affordable. Tell me that I'm wrong.

Victoria:

I think it's very polar. It's either, it's a good rug and it's surprisingly expensive or it's a good rug and it's surprisingly inexpensive. I find it's very hard to find that middle of the road rug. But once you start digging into it, I think there's a number of resources, there's some really inexpensive ones secondhand or jute, there's some fun new jute designs, so that depending on the material, I think you can get lesser expensive options.

But I really enjoy starting planning a room around a rug. I think it's a good foundational piece for how big your furniture should be. If you need two rugs in a room, you kind of are setting yourself up for two seating arrangements. It's cheesy, but kind of lays the foundation for everything to follow.

Laurie:

That is fascinating because, I'll say for myself, often it's been like the rug is the last thing to come into our homes, and then we're just trying to fit something into the space is often what it feels like. So I love that you start with it.

Victoria:

It fits within. Yeah. It's not always.

Laurie:

Yeah. Yeah.

Victoria:

Life doesn't always give you those opportunities, but you have the choice.

Laurie:

Right, right. Okay. My favorite materials to mix when designing a room are...

Victoria:

Oh, woods. I love mixing all the woods together. I think it's something people got really on board the mixed metal train a few years back, and now that seems people aren't afraid of that anymore. I wish the same thing would happen for woods. I think, just put your oak next to your walnut, next to your maple. Pack them all in there and don't sweat it.

Laurie:

Good tip. I like that. Okay. Well, we kind of touched upon this before. I'm going to ask it again. What I find inspiring about interior design is...

Victoria:

God, I had something I was going to say about that. I lost my train of thought as I was going off about all the trades and things, but I do think it's such a composition. You're really trying to, like I don't make anything, I don't know if this is inspiring or just interesting. I don't make anything with my own hands, but sort of being the conductor of an orchestra or something, like I'm bringing all these things together and keeping my eye on all of the different masters of their craft and learning enough from them that I can compose something that is enjoyable and pleasant or whatever I'm trying to accomplish.

And I think that people think we are the be all end all, or the start and the stop of the conversation, but we're just sort of a vehicle for all of these amazing people. Oh, I know what it was. You were asking me about clients and how you work with... working with clients. I think that people, in addition to craftsmen and trades people being such a source of inspiration, our homeowners, people are so beautiful. I think you have to really believe in the beauty of every human being to do that.

Laurie:

Yes.

Victoria:

If you're jaded at all, it's not going to end well for you. And so to wake up every day and just really try to see what people are trying to do with their lives and make a connection with them and bring their voice into their home, I love it so much. It's so exciting to get to know a family, or a couple, or an individual and really try to understand who they are beyond a person who needs furniture or a person who needs a house.

But what do they want to be in this world, that is so fun for me.

And unlimited also, because no one's ever really knowable, my limits of really understanding who they are, are finite. But I really try. I think that's really exciting.

Laurie:

That is so cool. I love thinking about interior designers, as you mentioned, as the conductor or as the composer bringing all the pieces together into one cohesive piece, which is the home. It's very cool thinking it that way. And I love music, so I love thinking of it that way also.

Here's one more. Okay. My design philosophy is...

Victoria:

I think as soon as I make one, I try to change it a little bit. But overall design philosophy.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Victoria:

Well, I mean our trademark is old homes, young families. Although we don't just do that, but I think that there's a big need, there's a lot of people who are very passionate about that and we do it very well, and it brings us a lot of joy to work with old homes.

Young families is an interesting one because we also work with a lot of people who are older and have grandkids, but still need that sort of functionality of a full kids, pets, people coming and going, you kind of don't want that preciousness in your life too much. You don't want that to dominate.

So I think we really love that, but I do love a challenge. I mean, anytime there's a really particularly difficult space, that is where I get really excited. Like this Kansas project, just trying to get my head into what people in Kansas, how they see themselves, how the small town operates, how the owners of this building operate. I think it's really exciting to try to be challenged in a new direction.

I don't know, that was a lot of different philosophies.

Laurie:

It's good. Why not, have a few different philosophies. When you're home, do you have a favorite place where you like to be or to hang out?

Victoria:

Oh, my bed. I love it.

Laurie:

Really?

Victoria:

It's so much a joke that if I could just entertain from bed, if I could do everything...

From bed. And it's interesting, I feel like primary bedrooms are the last thing on people's to-do list. We get so many projects that start with public spaces, main areas, kitchens, all of the entertainment spaces, even kids bedrooms. All of that tends to come before people's personal private spaces. And I kind of went off, I think people are coming around now, I had a little bit of a soapbox year where I was like, this is not okay. This is the first thing you see in the morning when you wake up, it's the last thing you see at the end of the day.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Victoria:

It's so critical to our mental health to have a space that feels like it supports you and your day and your life. And to put that at the bottom of the list is just not right. But I think that's been changing. People have been valuing themselves a little bit more in the past few years. That's good to see.

Laurie:

Yeah. I think you're right though, as you say, the primary bedroom does tend to get last on the list. I know that's happened in my own home, because we think about the kitchen or the main area we're all going to gather. But I will say it has been on my mind probably this past year, more of creating that really, what is it, just a very comfortable bedroom that feels like it's just cocooning us and supporting us. Especially with, as we all know, sleep is so important. So I love that your bed is your spot for you.

Victoria:

Do it. Go for it.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Victoria:

I hope next time I talk to you, you've gone after it.

Laurie:

I'm working on it.

Victoria:

Yeah.

Laurie:

I'm working on it.

We do believe that our homes reflect our identities and tell our stories. How does your home tell your story and reflect your identity?

Victoria:

I think it's very experimental in the sense that if there's something I'm toying with and either I'm not confident it's a good idea and I need to play around with it a little bit, maybe it's not quite ready for a client, it's not that strong of an idea.

So my home is very eclectic because there's a lot of different ideas bouncing around in my head and sometimes I just need to work through it or understand the mechanics of, could be something like a drapery installation that I'm playing around with, and I want to know what does that do if you pleat it in that way, or how does it function. Different materials or stones or just kind of playing with proportion. Every now and then it's a misstep and you're like... But it often leads to a good evaluation of what I'm trying to accomplish. Even if I experiment with a color or a detail and I'm like, huh, that kind of didn't really satisfy what I was trying to accomplish, it helps me take a look at, well, what am I trying to accomplish? Why did that miss the mark? What was the psychological need or the emotional need that I was trying to fulfill that this didn't do it, and how do I get there? So, you learn from everything. Sometimes the mistakes being the things you learn the most from.

Laurie:

That is hardcore truth. Okay. So I just have one more question for you. Our podcast is called Being Home with Hunker. What does being home mean to you?

Victoria:

That is a great question. Now I want to pick your right on what it means to you because, honestly, as a person who makes homes for other people, I'm really interested in what it means to everyone else, all the different meanings that home can have.

I think it's where you feel like you can be yourself, where you feel seen, where you feel heard. There should be a little bit of a challenge in there to you. I think most of us are on the path to something. We're trying to not only be static in this moment and where we're at, but we have a history and we're moving towards hopefully future selves that we're constantly trying to better and improve. And so in order for a good home to support that, it does need to push you outside of your comfort zone a little bit. Just like with any growth, there has to be a little bit of, I say this delicately because people want comfort and they want coziness, but there has to be a little bit of pressure to encourage you to continue to grow.

So whether that's supporting some kind of work that you want to do, or maybe it is supporting you in a way of removing yourself from work and calming down, that might be uncomfortable at first to remove those elements from your immediate existence, but hopefully long term it'll encourage you to become the person you want to be. That was kind of a long way around. I think that's my summary. It'll encourage you to become the person you want to be.

Laurie:

I love it, Victoria. I haven't heard anyone express it that way. We do hear a lot of the things of wanting to feel safe and to feel comfortable, and it's where we feel loved and we're with our family. And I also love your spin on it, that it's to also challenge us or to help us be our best versions and maybe to push us a little bit. Very cool. I love it.

Victoria:

Thanks. It's fun to think about these things. It's embedded in our work, but we don't often sit down and lay it all out quite like this. So it's been fun to talk about all these ideas that we pack into our work with you.

Laurie:

Right on. Well, you're delightful. I'm so glad I got to talk with you, and I'm going to encourage everyone to go to your website and to your Instagram to see your gorgeous photos of your work. And I'm just going to keep my eye on you seeing just how you continue to grow and how you continue to challenge your own self as we're talking here with our homes. So thank you so much.

Victoria:

Oh, thank you, Laurie. I love your take on all of this. Your questions are, I was talking with the other day about the art of the interview and how, much like our work, having a little bit of challenge in there and making people really think about what they're doing and why they're doing it. It's been really fun. So I really appreciate your time.

Laurie:

Ah, thank you so much.

To learn more about Victoria, find her at prospectrefugestudio.com or on Instagram @ProspectRefuge. Also in our show notes, you can discover other episodes we think you might like, such as my chat with interior stylist Hillary Robertson.

Thank you for listening to being Home with Hunker. For more information about this episode or others, visit hunker.com/podcast. And if you don't already, please follow our show. If you like what you hear, be sure to give us a five star rating and review and share it with your friends. It really does help.

Being Home with Hun is produced by me, Laurie Gunning Grossman. Eve Epstein is our Executive Producer. The podcast is recorded and mixed at Night Shift Audio. Theme music by Jonathan Grossman. Special thanks to our team at Hunker, Senior Designer Maureen Meyer, and Director of Audience Development, Gina Goff. Hunker's mission is to inspire and empower you to create a space that expresses who you are, shows off your unique style and makes your life happier and more productive.

Stay on the ship. Sing a long.

‌Being Home With Hunker‌ ‌is a new podcast where we explore the idea of "home" – not just as a place where you live, but as an expression of your identity. Each week we talk with designers, creatives, and artists about who they are, how they create meaningful spaces, and what "being home" means to them.‌

‌If you like what you hear, please rate and review the podcast, hit subscribe/follow, and share with a friend. When it comes to podcasts word of mouth is how most people will find the show. It really does help. Visit‌ ‌Hunker.com/podcast‌ ‌where you can find, follow, and listen to our show.‌