One of the most important things to me; personally, as an entrepreneur, and interior designer, is honesty and integrity. I will never say that I don't have my slip ups and imperfections. In fact, the ability to take the blame for a poor decision or slip up is an important part of these qualities. 

In design, honesty and integrity may be found in materiality, acknowledgment of the original design intent, construction/the way things are built, and regionalism.

Materials

My favorite example for materiality may be shooting myself in the foot because it IS a popular trend: wood-look tiles. This goes for any material that impersonates another. Now, there's a difference between having a wood grain on a bright red laminate and having a laminate that is directly trying to look like wood. What is the problem with these impersonators? Well, let's look at the wood-look tile. It's beautiful. It's safe for wet environments. It's lying to you. Ouch.

When I walk into a room with wood floors, I expect them to feel a certain way underfoot. I want the warmth of wood, the softness. If I walk into a room with wood floors and feel/hear/sense tile underfoot, I will feel betrayed. I was expecting and wanting something and it did not deliver.

Design Intent

When homeowners purchase a farmhouse and crush on modern design, I think it's perfectly acceptable to have a modern farmhouse. But, we need to acknowledge that it is a farmhouse. We cannot completely disregard this, or it ends up looking like the lipstick on a pig analogy. A merging or melding of styles can be beautiful, but trying to hide the design style will only hurt the space. 

Regionalism

Recognizing our landscape and surroundings is important in all aspects of design, and while it can be okay to play with this…  we need to be careful to do this in a way that complements rather than offends the surroundings.

A great example of this is the Painted Ladies in San Francisco. You can’t miss these homes- they stand out in their bold colors and design style. However, it’s done in a way that complements the landscape, and the existing structures.

An example of this done terribly wrong, there is a home where I used to live, surrounded by a combination of bungalows and ranch style homes, and this home is very tall, terrifyingly close to the road with what appears to be an attempt at southwest/adobe styling. It’s an eyesore because it glares at us, and not in a pleasant way. 

Read our article specifically focused on regional design here.