Design That Heals: A Conversation with Lisa Staprans

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Boulevard Vat, a podcast for life and style intersect.
I'm designer Megan Bloom along with my co hosts, editor
Chrisa Rossbund and gallery owner Liz Legit. This podcast focuses
on the daily highlights instead of the hustle, interviews with
taste makers, and personal conversations on how to highlight achievable
style you constrol one street at a time, Boulevard Beat

(00:29):
proves the one you should take. On today's episode of
Boulevard Vat, Chrisa and I are joined by the incredibly
talented Lisa Stabrands, a designer whose work truly embodies soulful
and transformative living. Lisa shares her journey of infusing art, wellness,
and storytelling into the homes she designs, creating sanctuaries that

(00:50):
reflect her client's most authentic selves. Whether you're passionate about design,
seeking inspiration for your own home, or simply love hearing
from creative visionaries, you won't want to miss this conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well welcome, Lisa. We are very excited to have this
conversation with you today.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Thank you. I'm really honored to be here. It's really
really wonderful.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
We always like to start our podcast with the same question,
tell us about the street that you grew up on.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
I grew up in northern California, which now the area
is considered Silicon Valley. I would call it the hills
above Silicon Valley, in a what I considered a town,
and it used to be surrounded by apricot orchards. Now
they call it the village of Los Alto's. But I
grew up in Los Altos Hills, which is about forty
five minutes south of San Francisco, and the street was

(01:37):
your quintessential house. We had a pool, we had a
white pickup fence, and I started thinking, wow, that's very
It just felt very quintinessential as I thought back on it,
because it's been a long time since I thought about
the street I grew up on.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
It's fun to think of the word quintessential in California,
just because you know, you think of California as being
very modern and on the cusp of especially in Silicon Valley.
So it's funny that, you know, like the white picket
fence in California is a little bit of a different
thought exactly.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
I mean, it was a long time ago. This is
in the you know, sixties to the mid early seventies.
But I remember when I later in life, when I
went back to see that house. And that's another story
because my husband's the boy next door. So when I
go back to his parents' house, who still have their house,
the picket fence is gone, and I'm like, where's my
picket fence? So it is interesting, right, I think I

(02:28):
think my parents had a sense of East Coast. My
father grew up in the East Coast. Maybe they thought
the picket fence meant you kind of made it.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, Lisa, you are a very creative person, so we'd
love to hear about what sparked your creativity, gene and
how you got to where you are well.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
That I think that's a wonderful question. I really think
it started with my grandmother Adele, when I started thinking
back on my early life. She was a developer and
she designed homes and I didn't really think much of it.
She always talked about, oh, the ice House in San Francisco,
which was back then the design Center, so that means
it is in my DNA, which is kind of exciting.

(03:03):
She bought proper pieces of land and built houses on it,
so I think what sparked it is it was in me.
But then fast forward, when I was seventeen, I went
to your backpacking. I did a backpacking trip around Europe,
and I had saved for years. I was waiting tables.
I graduated from high school early. I went to junior college,
and I had gotten accepted to UC Berkeley, but I

(03:26):
wanted to travel and study the art history and art
and architecture I'd been studying in high school. And I
had to go into the Sistine Chapel. I have to
say it was a quest, and I wasn't quite sure
what I was looking for, but I had to go
to these certain places that I mapped out with my
year l past. So I got to Rome, went to
the Sistine Chapel, and I had it all to myself.

(03:48):
I'm not exaggerating. No guards, no one kicking me out,
no one's saying you can't be in here, and I
just laid down the middle of the floor and looked up.
Even now as I'm telling you the story, it was
such a markable experience. My family had broken up a
number of years earlier, and I was pretty much on
my own for many years up to this point, and

(04:08):
I was really longing for something. I mean, I have
to say my grandmother was always my rock, but my
rest of my family had pretty much split up. And
I laid down on the floor and looked up and
I felt for the first time in my life that
this was my home. This is where I felt embraced, enveloped, inspired.

(04:29):
I really did go inside those beautiful fresco colors and
I knew how they were made, and the pigments and
all the beautiful natural products they used to make frescoes,
and I have to say it changed my life. It
was truly a spark. And there is in the Sistine
Chapel that's the iconic two fingers touching almost touching, and
that gives you the implied spark, but it is interesting

(04:52):
to me. It's such an iconic place. I really felt
like I was protected and taken care of and loved,
and I realized this is really something thing. I wasn't
sure what the path was going to be, but I
knew it had to be something to do with that
experience and feeling of having beauty envelop you and protect
you and hold you.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Well, Lisa, that's sort of a perfect segue into the
next question, and I think, you know, you talk about
the Sistine Chapel, to be there underneath that, and wow,
how lucky are you to experience it just all on
your own without this.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
They were picking me out. I mean it was like
I really felt like somebody, like I was being guided.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
It was so bul Yes, without the bevy of tourists
and people trying to take the pictures and things. I mean,
it's such an emotional experience anyway, to be under that
and the wonderment that comes around it. So I can, Wow,
that's very fortunate that you had that specific experience because
most people get the tourist trap one right exactly. You know,

(05:53):
when we think about design, we automatically go to those beautiful,
pretty components of it, the patterns, the wallpapers and the colors,
and ultimately, I think when you know, the Jones family
or the Smith family hires a designer, that's what they're
seeking ultimately, is they want that beautiful, polish space. But
we know now that design encompasses and addresses so many

(06:17):
other things beyond that.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
So can you talk about.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Why you wanted to tap into design at sort of
a deeper level beyond the literal and figural fluff.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
I have thought a lot about that, and it goes
back I think to my early beginnings. Like I said,
in high school and even in middle school, I was
always attracted to art. I did a lot of acting.
I was always attracted to painting and photography. In high
school I did all the advanced placement art and art history.

(06:48):
And then traveling through Europe, I've always been really influenced
by the elements that have been in the human evolution
since ancient times. And I spent time on that backpacking trip,
like I said, on a quest of what is beautiful,
what is something you should go visit, and all of
these places. And I went to Greece, and I went

(07:10):
to Rome, I went to Paris, I went to kind
of the classic because my first trip, everything was rooted
in there was a lot of stories involved. It was
rooted in how we evolved as humans, what makes us human?
And it is beautiful things because we've always expressed ourselves
as a species on our planet. We expressed through art, beauty,

(07:33):
creating things. I realized then that when I looked at
something on the surface, I wanted to understand what was
behind the surface, and so that was in me innately
perhaps it goes back to the creative gene that perhaps
my grandmother Adele gave me. But I was attracted to
that and the stories, and so as I began to
practice and interior design came to me. I was in

(07:55):
New York, I went to school. What was going to
be in art history or a fine artist? And I
went to New York and started my career and it
evolved where I was going to night school and studied
interior design and interior architecture, and clients found me and
they trusted me, and I cared. I always cared deeply
about the story behind something, and I naturally would seek

(08:16):
that out so absolutely when you walk in a room,
and as an interior designer and decorator, I wanted to
be balanced and beautiful in the composition to make you
feel comfortable. I want the colors to complement. I want
the views to nature and the windows to capture the light.
I want the patterns and the textiles, And I always

(08:36):
have wanted the story of who made those pieces and
those objects, how did they get there, what kind of
artisan or manufacturer, whatever it is. I've wanted to compose
it and curate it so it had the layers of
the stories, and really it's all about the balancing. It's
all about how the room balances and what you bring in.

(08:58):
And as a designer, it's innate sensibility that we know
when it's right and balanced. And some people say, how
do you explain that? I say, well, I will try
to explain, like when you know the room is finished,
and also when you know that the client comes into
the room or they're you're sharing the journey with them
and you begin to realize what's going to bring them

(09:19):
the most joy and how they're going to feel comfortable.
So it is more than just fabrics, colors, wallpaper, patterns, light.
It's what's behind it, who created it to bring it there.
And I think I cared so deeply about that early
on because perhaps my family had we had everything, We
had a beautiful life and beautiful homes everywhere, But when

(09:42):
they weren't able to hold on to that, I think
I realized what's important. What's important is things really do
nurture you and take care of you, and objects do
this for you. It's beautiful and all of us as humans,
you know, what makes us human is our memories. And
an odd will evoke a memory for you. It could

(10:02):
be a beautiful color. You might think of that experience
to be transported in time if you particular color you
love is blue or green or a beautiful yellow. And
as a designer, I really want to hear the stories
of my clients, so I create a space that helps
them feel like they get to have a story and

(10:22):
a remembrance of something that really made them feel joyful
and happy. So it's a bit of a long response
because there's so many layers. And from the beginning, from
as far back as I can remember, I've always cared
about what's behind the deeper story to it.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Well, we can tell, and you cared so deeply about
it that you put pen to paper.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yes, we look.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
So why was it so important for you to sort
of formalize all of these ideas?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, you know, it dawned on me, or didn't dawn
on me, it struck me. Maybe that was another moment
of purpose with the spark I had been carrying. I've
been working on a book since maybe not high school,
but between high school and going to college, I would
always take a lot of notes and write write journals.
But I got serious about writing a book when I

(11:08):
gave a TED talk in India and writing that talk
called the Soul of Design. When I wrote the talk,
I had just recovered from my first cancer and breast cancer.
And I've always been a working mother. I've always traveled
the world. I'm just that brings me great joy and
that's just part of my ethos and my foundation. And

(11:30):
I had to have nanny's and my boys were seven
and nine. Now that really shakes you to your core
when you're a young mother, you have young children. And
I really started saying and I was working on really
big projects around the United States, I mean really large.
My biggest was sixty thousand square feet twenty three thousand.
I was doing a lot of really big special projects

(11:51):
where everything was made for the project. It was really
absolutely amazing. But I also realized there was one particular
project that I thought it was big, but I felt
it was it was empty. I was searching for how
to bring the soul into it. And it made me
realize what is my purpose? And when I wrote that talk,
I wanted to really talk about what is all of

(12:13):
us as humans and myself in particular, because I felt
very lucky to be alive. I recovered, I did a
very aggressive cure and I came through all that. So
the book grew from me searching for my purpose and
I had been, so did the talk. And I worked
on that with a wonderful writing and presentation group that
does a lot of TED talks. And then I started

(12:35):
writing the book and I wanted to take it even
deeper from what the talk was about about purpose and
legacy and soul of design and how objects and spaces
really impact us. I was working on it for twenty
five twenty seven years, and then I gave another talk
in Monaco about four years ago. And I had been
talking to publishers and talking about the idea for a

(12:57):
long time, but I was a little scared, like how
do you do that? And where do you start? And
can I do this? And then I gave a talk
in Monaco when I was at a design conference and
an amazing publisher came up to me who heard the
talk I gave it to my colleagues about how beauty
saved my life. She goes, you really do have a
book here, and I want to be your publisher, but
you have to promise to tell your story. And that

(13:19):
particular talk different than my first big talk in Jaipur
was about how beauty literally saved my life, like I
explained to you when I was in the Sistine Chapel
and felt beauty literally saved me and embraced me. And
then when you do get a publisher, then you have
a creative director and then you have a writer help you.
And I thought, well, you can have a writer help

(13:41):
you and go yes, because as a person who was
carrying pen to paper for all these years in a
big box, I would start to write and I would
get hung up on a run on sentence for a
year or two, then it would go back in the box.
When you have a writer, they helped keep you focused
and it's your voice. So it was a beautiful journey
of having that publisher hear me speak and then the

(14:02):
birth of now the book's going to become It's going
to be published by a beautiful publisher and an amazing team.
So the book evolved from that first talk, which went
really well and people really responded. I had people all
those years ago, and it was about twenty years ago
in India come to me and say, I didn't know
I could think about my space this way. I didn't

(14:25):
know I have a choice and how it makes me feel.
People sometimes would just go out and buy furniture and
just put it in there because you need a sofa. Now,
not everybody can hire an interior designer, so was I
want to make it accessible to people that you really
should think about how your space makes you feel and
what you love and what your stories are. And if

(14:49):
it doesn't bring you a sense of calm and part
of your story and makes you feel recharged to go
back into the world, perhaps that object, that thing shouldn't
be in your space. So that's a bit of a
long winded answer too, But the book really did come
from that first talk, and I carried that around in
the box for all those additional twenty years and then

(15:13):
found the team to help me bring it to life
and they believed in me.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
Okay, Lisa, you've raised the question about what defines a
home in your book, and we want you to tell
us what defines a home to you. And we do
spend a little bit of time on this podcast just
defining vocabulary sometimes because this isn't a two plus two
equals for sort of industry, and words mean different things

(15:39):
to different people. So what defines a home to you?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
So for me personally, a home is where you walk
in the door and you feel it's like this xcel.
You feel like, oh, I'm in a place that it's
my space, and I've made choices to create and bring
into this space what will help me feel more centered

(16:04):
and calmer. And also, a home to me is a
safe place. It's a nurturing place. It nourishes you, it
recharges you. It is A home is an object, but
a home has a whole energy to it. Because when
I walk into my home, and I have a home

(16:24):
in Portola Valley with my whole backyard is an open park,
it's called Foothills Park, and I don't have to have
window treatments. I walk in my front door and I
look out over this beautiful trees and my house is
cannot leave. It over a creek, and I can hear
the water almost year round, so I can open a
door or a window. And when I saw it thirty

(16:46):
plus years ago, I saw all the potential of it.
It wasn't definitely didn't look like it does now, but
I saw the potential the home walking on to the
site and the place. A home to me is a
place where you something you can't explain why it speaks
to you, but it also finds you you come. When
I was looking for my home to raise a family,

(17:08):
the space spoke to me, and the nature around it
spoke to me, and I knew it would nurture me.
So a home to me is a place where I
can be calmer and more centered and recharged.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
I love that, and I think just a home in
general should be that nurturing and calming place. And it's
it makes everybody feel so much better too. So you've
kind of referenced it, but we're going to get a
little scientific now. I think it's a really exciting time
in the field of interior design because the science has
kind of backed some of what we do and how
people feel in their environments. Lisa, can you explain the

(17:43):
neuroscience of beauty in simple terms?

Speaker 4 (17:45):
For us?

Speaker 3 (17:46):
The neuroscience of beauty, and the simplified term I use
is called neuro beauty, is that as humans, when we
see something beautiful, our neurotransmitters, which all of us have
in our brains. We all have neurotransmitters that we're all
human together, you will see something that will release neurotransmitters

(18:07):
that bring you joy, calm like oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins. And
what's beautiful about neuro beauty and the neuroscience of beauty
is when you're aware of, oh, I'm looking at something
and I just feel calmer. It's actually a beautiful language

(18:30):
between your brain and your body, and it's instantaneous, and
I write about it, and I research it and I
study it, and when people realize, oh my gosh, this
beauty is impacting me on every level, every cellul level,
because your brain in your body, it impacts your cells,
it impacts your immune system. So in simplified terms, it

(18:52):
literally means that beauty makes you healthier and happier and
gives you a stronger immune system through the reaction of
your brain, your neurotransmitters response to the beauty in your body.
It's extraordinary. So it's now we're realizing that there's a

(19:13):
lot of research and I and my book this says
in my book as well, beauty can heal you. And
like I brought up from me E from a very
young age, I didn't quite know what it meant, but
I felt so much better and I had less you know,
because there are good neurotransmitters and cortisol sometimes gets the
bad rap, but you need cortisol too. It's how we
survive as humans. You need enough in there to keep

(19:36):
you on your toes and energized and ready for anything.
But in simple terms, it just means that your brain
and body are it's extraordinary. We're extraordinary and these things
really impact you. And it's extraordinary that as designers we
can hold that in our hands and in our minds
to bring that to other people. I just it's such

(19:56):
a beautiful call to action.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
To me, it really is extraordinary. And you know, I'm
sure through your research also helped with some of your
medical challenges that you faced and chatted about earlier with
breast cancer and surviving that as well. How has your
personal experience with cancer influenced your research and understanding of
neuroscience and beauty.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Well, that's a really wonderful question, and so it really
that also was kind of born from an experience I
had when all those years ago, I think as twenty
two years ago, maybe when I had my first breast cancer,
I walked into I didn't know what an infusion ward was.
I didn't know about any of these things. What's that?

(20:39):
And when you go through the treatments I went through,
which should be I should be cured. You walk in
a room with two hundred chairs lined up and they
give you chemotherapy. And I've been in a designer at
this point for ten years, maybe fifteen, and I was like,
I can't sit in that chair. I can't be in
this room. I had a complete which most normal people
would have an anxiety attack. As a designer, it affected

(21:02):
me on every level, Like the color was wrong, there
was no natural light. Where's some beauty, Where's some nature,
Where's some biophilia, Where's the quiet music, where's the little
t station? I mean, inherently, I'm like, how am I
going to feel safe here? And I want to heal.
I want to be cured, of course. And I realized then, well,

(21:24):
I can't walk in here and sign up for this
in this room. There's other infusion rooms, which I interviewed
all of them. I went and interviewed the room to
see where I was going to go, and it made
me realize, Wow, our environments really impact how receptive we
are to things. And when you go through a health scare,

(21:45):
you want to make sure you're in an environment that
will help you heal. And nurture you. So really where
it started was realizing I couldn't be in a room
with two hundred other people going through that kind of
an aggressive chemotherapy treatment, and I ended up finding beautiful
place that had the views to nature and the plants
and the t station and eight chairs. So it's very personal,

(22:08):
of course, but it made me realize even more that
your environment will help to heal you and your mental state.
Those neurotransmitters communicating with your body will help you be
more receptive to healing, and it will happen at a
very cellular level, and there is really good science behind this.

(22:30):
So that's where it really was started, and now it
has grown to be really my foundational work that this
is real in every aspect, and I believe as a
species in our world right now in twenty twenty five,
all of us humans who are out in the world
doing our best, we have a lot coming at us.

(22:53):
There is a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of
I mean, everyone's always had stress, but I feel like
we're at a bit of a pivotal moment with technology
and AI. It's all very very exciting, but even now,
perhaps more than in our past because we need to
filter what comes at us our environments. I believe their

(23:13):
ability to heal is even more important now. So that's
why I feel that the time has come for this
to become the foundation of how all design is thought
of in beauty, the impact it has on us to
be healthier and happier.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Lisa, I totally agree with you and can see how
that happens with the environment that you were in. I
had a similar experience, not breast cancer, thankfully, but I
broke my ankle and I was supposed to go do
physical therapy and I had the same thing happen. I
left that clinic without getting any help, and my husband
thought it was crazy. He's like why, and I was
just like, I can't spend an hour in this place.
I just similar anxiety. Everything came over me, and I

(23:53):
knew all the weeks that I needed to do to recover,
and that wasn't the space to help my body do that.
So I listened to my as well and recover differently.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
And I think all of us need to listen to
our gut more and we do have a say. And
you don't need to be in an environment that doesn't
nurture you and The more we speak up for the
most extraordinary impact our environments have on us, the more
we can implement that all environments can be more healing
and healthy because everyone has a choice when they make
an environment. Whoever those people are, right, I want them

(24:23):
to realize, whatever you're selecting for somebody, it's an extraordinary
responsibility to have humans feel better in that space, even
if it's a physical therapy space. Right, it could be anything. Right,
and get out of there if you don't like it,
because that will also have impact. Right, will spread the word.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Yeah, well, medical environments are the worst. Right, it can
be great age and I mean so clinical. I feel
like every doctor's office needs a little tall.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Well, they're getting better. I do research those around the world.
I study what I consider to be the most beautiful
places in the world. And I also love to study
health care facilities. And I walk and they go, what
are you doing? I go, I'm just can out your
ambiance and your mirror beauty. They're like, what, I go, Actually,
on a book, I can show you that this really matters.
And I want to study how because really we're in

(25:11):
a bit of a healthcare I don't want to call
it an epidemic, but we have a lot of people
with dis ease. Disease is dissease, and I know what
that's like. I've had cancer, I know what anxiety's like.
I know how environments can rattle us and unnerve us.
So hospitals and health care facilities are learning. It's extraordinary, right,

(25:35):
but it's still a ways to go. And also in
our own homes. I always believe that you can have
your own version of your own health care environment. I
believe that kind of ties into what defines a home.
We all have pantries, we have, well not all of us,
but I design a lot of these things. Or we
have a pantry, a muddy room, a beautiful exercise room
with doors that open to the garden. Well, I think

(25:57):
we need a room when I'm going to call the
meditation room, the room that you don't have technology, you
can breathe, you can reset, just as important as exercise.
So really, a home is also that place that brings
us to that deepest part of ourselves, what I call
the soul. So it does tie in to how places

(26:18):
impact you. And I hope I didn't go off topic
of the question too much. But all these questions are
so beautifully interrelated, and in the world of design and
in the world of our home, imagine that you can
also have that worked out and you can have the
mind body connection.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
I think everybody would like a meditation room. I think
a lot of people, though maybe don't want to tell
their family members where that space.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Is right and actually yeah. And I did a designer
decorator showcase house in San Francisco last year, and I
created a meditation room. People came in and they were
intimidated by the word. And I also had these plants
that had beautiful sound vibrations through them in the leaves,
and I had people put headphones on. And my story

(27:03):
was that sitting and listening or sitting and breathing, it
absolutely calms your nervous system. But people did walk in
and go, I can't meditate. I go, yes, you can.
You just breathe, look at a plant, maybe a flower,
listen to some calming vibrations of sound. I had soundbaths too,
because I don't want people to be afraid of it.

(27:25):
I want them to realize you don't have to be
doing it two hours a day. It could be for
even two minutes. It's a way of connecting back, especially
when I had children coming into the room and parents,
they said, what did you just do? Can you please
email me what you just did? I said, well you
can bring it into your home because you're right. People
were like, well, can I have my corner?

Speaker 2 (27:47):
And how do I.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Share that with the kids? And some people say I
don't have a really big house. I go it can
be a little corner with a chair that you love,
in a fabric that makes you happy, and if you
can't do the custom of polsterry, throw a piece of
fabric over it that you found somewhere that makes you happy,
and then go outside and pick a branch. It could
be so simple. What's most important is it makes you

(28:11):
feel connected to that deeper, quieter part of yourself. So
that's an interesting term. A meditation room. It could be
a meditation moment. It could be a corner, moment of pause,
a place of intention.

Speaker 4 (28:22):
We spent a lot of time talking about I mean,
you're a designer, so you're creating beauty and manufacturing it
as we all do in this play, but we can't
neglect our natural surroundings. And you live in northern California
that has these wonderful redwood trees and the beauty of
the water that's nearby, and mountains and everything, and that's

(28:45):
what's in California. And we think of California anyway as
being this land of opportunity and dreams. And can you
tell us how that has informed your design and your
proh with neuroesthetics, because I mean, it can't help, but
not nature matters. And look, we all, Megan and I

(29:08):
are here in Iowa. We don't have mountains and we
don't have an ocean, but there are beautiful moments here too,
and you know, we all need to appreciate and celebrate
what we have right outside our doors. So tell us
about how that sort of famous environment, if you will,
because it really is, for so many reasons, helped shape
your ideas with this topic.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Well, I'm very thankful that actually my family did move
from Los Angeles to the Bay Area when I was
I think a year old, But the Bay Area definitely
imprinted on me. That I grew up on an idyllic
street with a picket fence, and I had trees around
me in a beautiful garden. And now I live in
a place that's surrounded by oaks and redwoods and Bay Laurels,

(29:53):
and I have a beautiful creek in my backyard in
a beautiful park that it's like fourteen hundred acre that
no one can build anything in. It has absolutely shaped
my sensibility to how I approach design in that I
often will pull from nature, colors from nature, colors, from
certain flowers we have. My husband likes to grow flowers

(30:17):
for me, so I can have fresh flowers in the house.
So I tend to pull more from looking at what's
in each local environment. So my environment is very grounded
in the earth, and we have the ocean less than
forty five minutes away. I have the Sierras like three
and a half hours away. I have the cities. I
have San Francisco's forty five minutes north. I think it

(30:40):
just gives me that deep, deep sense of how nature
is such a part of us as humans, feeling grounded
and calm. And it's also the biophilia, which is a
nature around you, which I bring into my work through shapes,
through colors. There's an organic and there's a non organic quality.
There's always that beautiful yng and yang of shapes. So

(31:01):
it has deeply influenced me and I tend to be
probably someone who pulls in even the most brightest beautiful colors.
I'll always look for a reference in nature. If I'm
looking for a certain purple, I'll go search out the
leaf or the tree. If I'm designing a home in
my local environment, because I love to work all around
the world and all around the United States, I will
go look in those areas if I have a project,

(31:23):
and I'll go look for those natural occurring flowers that
are seasonal. For the tree bark, for the leaves. I mean,
you can look at any tree. I'm looking at my
window now, I probably have thirty fifty shades of green,
and it's like, wow, you can say green. So I'm
going to be the kind of designer goes, well, you
love green, Oh, that's awesome, Let's see what kind of green.

(31:44):
So I have a very deep awareness of the nuance
of color. And if I'm designing a color, like a
pink color for a house, I'll look around me and say, oh,
they're like a gray. I'm going to go look at
the tree, bark or something that will have a natural
occurrence of a color. So I think that's how it
influenced me. Even though I do love to work in
cities and all kinds of other places too, But I

(32:04):
think that's always my root, my foundation.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Well, and it goes back to what you said earlier.
Just having a lot of depth in your work and
what you bring to the space and how that emotionally
affects you too. Your research in just all of your
thorough knowledge is very interesting. I imagine that you're not
done sharing this with the world. What's next for you?

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (32:25):
I think what's extraordinary? They Finally it did take courage
to bring the book to the world. I wanted to
tell a story that I could share with everybody, and
I mapped it out so it was you have to
show your work, but it was really about how I
think all of us can have soul in our spaces
and in the objects around us. So what's next is

(32:46):
it's opened a lot of doors. I was in Denver
last week at the University of Architecture, speaking and teaching
and on a panel. I'm flying to New York next week.
I'm really excited that I can be part of something
where healing and beauty and neuro beauty and neurosthetics are
really what everyone's going to learn about. In all the

(33:06):
design schools and programs in the country. And that I
mean my clients always have known. I'm a gatekeeper. I
care deeply about how their spaces will make them feel.
It's very subtle, like I always hear their stories, and
then we create things to celebrate their stories and tell
their stories, either if it's a chair or piece of
wood or a beautiful light fixture or art. So what's

(33:29):
happening next is I feel like it's just the beginning.
Almost feel like I'm starting over in this beautiful way
of I get to take all these thirty years of
experience and then take it now to a place where
more and more people can experience it, and I can
share it with the world. And people really seem to
be receptive, and it's quite beautiful. People get very emotional

(33:53):
and they say, oh, I can have a voice, I
can say how this makes me feel? And I said,
of course you can't. And it does make you feel
a certain way. So I think for my future, I
get to take different paths now, and I do want
to grow everything I'm doing. I've always worked all over
the nationally, and also I want to work more internationally

(34:13):
and continue to study cultures and design and art and
its impact. So in a way, it's just the beginning.
That's I'm a late bloomer. I guess I'm excited. So
that's so exciting. Yes, bloom bloom, and keep sharing all
of your knowledge with everybody. Beginning.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, well, Lisa, we like to end our episodes with
a few final thoughts. What's the beat that keeps you going?

Speaker 3 (34:39):
The beat that keeps me going? Well, I have a
practice that I'm very true to. I have a breathing
practice of meditation practice. Sometimes it's ten minutes and it's
twenty minutes in the morning and ten twenty minutes in
the evening before the deeper part of the evening. I exercise.

(35:01):
I have a trainer. It's a combination of core and yoga,
and then I hike, I swim. I used to do
ultra adventures around the world. Now I'm doing more of
the yoga kind of core work. But I always have
a foundation of something that helps me feel like I'm
getting I'm working my body and also my mind and travel.

(35:24):
Travel is essential to my sense of place and happiness
in the world. I always want to be informed by
the rest of the world and culture and people and
their lives, their colors, their preferences, you know what all
those cultures entail like. It really makes me feel alive
and part of my purpose. So the beat that keeps

(35:44):
me going and my boys, my family. I love my dogs,
you know, they're very close. But really I have to
be out in nature often, even when I've lived in cities.
I love living in cities, but I'll always know where
the park is. So that's kind of the basic beat
that keeps me going. I try to just live healthy,
intentional life. And if I ever find I'm kind of
not following, I'm going off the path a little bit,

(36:06):
I'll bring myself back in by a good hike, a
good workout, bike ride, and I'll always book in some
adventure travel.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
I love that. Just keep on moving on all directions.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, I gotta keep moving. That's really important.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
And finally, what's your perfect boulevard?

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Ooh, I love that question. I'm really into boulevards. Actually,
every city I go to, everywhere New York, you know,
I think of a boulevard. I've been thinking, oh, qui
Voltaire and parrots. It's along the sind you're walking along
the Seine, but you see the louve on one side
and the river, and then you see this long, long boulevard.
But then I'm like, oh, but the root of sin

(36:43):
and the ill sant Luis on ill, and so a
favorite is hard. But I seek out boulevards everywhere in
the world because I when I was in New York City,
It's where I started my career. I was there for
six years, and I love New York. You look up
an urban canyon's that's also, in my mind, kind of
a boulevard. You get a sense of place and direction

(37:04):
anywhere you are. When you're on a boulevard, it pulls
you in. It may be a big boulevard, like the
Boulevard Sandra Mont in Paris is very big. I don't
love that one as much, but it's a direction. It's
like your sense of path and place wherever you are.
So urban canyons in New York, which I adore and
love that. It was foundational to me. And then you

(37:26):
have the small, beautiful boulevards in Paris or in Milan
or in Madrid. Even in India you have some boulevards,
but they're a little more kind of there's a lot
going on in one boulevard. The perfect would be. When
I look down at boulevard, I have a sense of
where I am, and I believe and it's also foundational

(37:47):
to my work. I always want them to be a
sense of path and place, and I want you to
feel like you know where you are, you know where
you're going, You look ahead, you look around. I don't
like it. One in a place and it's all confusing,
and I don't have a sense of direction. And boulevards
center you, and as humans, I believe that makes us
feel more grounded and we can look around and get

(38:09):
a sense of where we're going. It's kind of like
being probably up on a mountaintop and looking over a plane.
And are boulevards amazing? What a great question because they're
human created and if you study just that could be
a whole book, the boulevards of life, right, because they
take you. You will go and look at a boulevard,
or stand at a boulevard, and you'll decide to go straight, right, left,

(38:30):
turn around. Those are moments of decisions. That's a great
question because it relates to everything about design too.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
Well, Megan, maybe you and I will write a book
in our spare time, right, Yeah, Well, Lisa Thank you
so much for being with us today. This has been
so informative and we love hearing just you know again,
this industry, people don't necessarily think of it as being
super scientific, but there is so much so it was

(38:58):
a great way for everybody, all of our listeners, to
sort of dip their toes into the science part of
an industry that is very artful and beautiful all at
the same time.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Thank you, I'm so happy. That's wonderful. Well, thank you
for your time, and thank you for letting me speak
to you, and I just it's made my day.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Boulevard Beat.
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and leave
a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen
so you never miss an episode, and of course, follow
your hosts on Instagram at Megan bloom Interiors, at CHRISA. Rossbund,
and at Liz Legit. We'll be back next week as
we take a stroll down another boulevard

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