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Creating a Personal Environment
When it comes to residential projects, there may be a shorter turnaround, but Vanderslice and her designers take time getting to know individual clients and their personalities and lifestyles before they get to work.
“We want to represent their personality, their experiences, their travels,” says Vanderslice.
“We feel it’s important to incorporate that into that home,” whether it’s a family heirloom or a rug they bought during a vacation in Turkey.
One of the hallmarks of a J. Banks design is recognizing and highlighting a key focal point in each room, such as a fireplace, a sofa, a piece of artwork, or even the view out a window. The colors, textures, and other pieces throughout the room all tie into and underscore the focal point, such as the choice of a soft blue in a living room that suggests the ocean view out the window.
Connecting Residential and Commercial Worlds
With their work balanced equally between residential and commercial projects, the designers at J. Banks have a unique perspective on trends and how they originate. “There is not a layperson in the world
who can see the amount of products we see, since we’re seeing both commercial and residential,” says Vanderslice. “A lot of them cross over, and they both inform each other.”
It makes sense, then, that one of J. Banks’ taglines is, “Home is resort, and resort is home.”
Over her career, Vanderslice has seen just how
fluid the trend progression is between commercial and residential. Duvets, for instance, first started appearing to Americans in Westin hotels, but now are commonplace not only in hotels but also in many high-end homes. Meanwhile, home living room design has had a huge effect on the design and ambiance
of hotel lobbies: once sterile and anonymous spaces, hotel chains like the W Hotel and Ace Hotel have transformed their public spaces into inviting gathering places where guests want to linger.
“We all want to stay in well-designed hotels now,” says Vanderslice. “We want those home-like amenities.”
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