 Welcome to Create Every One of Us Has a Purpose, a Dharma, something we were created to do, a reason why we're here. My guest today, Andrea Farr, has followed her purpose, her passion, and turned it into a viable career that she probably can't imagine herself doing anything other than this. From interior to exterior, and every step along the way of design, Andrea Farr is probably your person. Hi Andrea. Hi Tommy. Welcome to today's show. Thanks for having me. Absolutely my pleasure, absolutely. So Andrea, you have had this passion for art since childhood? Yes, since childhood. Every young started drawing and painting in school, appreciating the response from my teachers and striving to continue to do what I love to do as a very young child. Awesome. Now when did you know, like you probably always knew you wanted art to be part of your career. When did you know you wanted design? I always wanted to pursue the arts. My older sister Susie very talented pursued arts herself, and at this time it was hard to define a career. She ended up having a double education and went into nursing. So my father was not thrilled. I wanted to do the arts, so I needed to find a way to convince him that I could make a living. And design at that time, graphic design, advertising was sort of a good avenue in school that I could pursue. So what then you did decide, you said, okay, I'm going to kind of, I'm going to make this work for me. So you did go to school for design. Where did you go? I did. I went to Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. At this time it was a top ten art college. I had to try out to get in, finish at the top of my class. And my life took me in several different directions and I ended up in North Carolina on the outer banks for parts of the year in New York City for the other parts of the year. And I was pushed into the opportunity of building and designing my own properties. That must have been very exciting. It was very exciting. And it also brought me into this 3D world of design that sprouted from my design education already. The experience of standing on a lot and designing a home and deciding which side of the lot is good for the kitchen, which side of the lot I found myself acting as the initial architect on the project. Very cool. So then you designed this home from lot to completely finished inside and out. Inside and out. The interior first, positioning the rooms properly on the lot, sprouted the exterior shape which was assigned a specific style in mind after researching many styles and trying to decide what is best for the lot, what is best for the home, arriving at all the exterior finishes along with designing the pool, the functionality on the inside. I happened to be my own client for myself working with the best architects in the area on producing this wonderful project. And in that process realizing what it takes to bring something like that together and how others might not be able to do that themselves. Right. And doing the project and being your own client must have given you a really good perspective of what a client's expectation would be. Exactly. Yes. Put me in the position of understanding what needs to be decided when, how to arrive at these decisions and really realizing that if I didn't have the talents that I had and possessed and I was out there as a client lost in this process, never doing it before, I realized the need, the important need of an interior designer. Right. Absolutely. Now that designing your first home, designing your own home from beginning to end, that helped you to connect with a lot of architects and led you to... Yes. Well, that was over 20 years ago. That first project of my own really became my launching pad. The architects that I had worked with on that project decided to hire me as their interior designer to provide these services to their clients that they weren't doing that service yet. So I did do that and then I came back to Milwaukee and I started doing some renovation projects in the Third Ward that were really exciting. The Third Ward now has become such a beautiful place. I had an initial vision on what was going to be happening in that area and then started up with Bruce Jackson Architects. They found me for one of their special projects. Very nice. So out of the projects that you've done, let's talk a little bit like when you first came back and you were looking at the Third Ward, what are some of your favorite projects that you did in that area? Oh, wow. One of my favorite projects, again, was a project that... It was an investment project I had made for myself. I purchased one of the initial Broadway building apartments and renovated the entire thing. We did have painted brick walls. I sandblasted the brick and put in concrete counters and did a lot of things that weren't even happening here yet, contracting it myself and really making the interior happen. I found if I don't get involved in every aspect of the design and build, I can't ensure that it's going to look the way I intended. So my involvement throughout the project is really important. I did start a very nice custom home design build project with Bruce Jackson Architects and it was a very modern home, a home designed for a bachelor to grow into a family situation. How exciting. That must have taken you in a new direction because you're designing for this today, but this tomorrow. Yes, and listening to somebody's needs and how they want this home to function for their life and their plan for their future and that the home actually has to adapt along with the lifestyle of the person living in it. Because as a bachelor, what he wants and what he's looking at to entertain other bachelor friends or coworkers, but then once you bring children in, the functionality is completely different. Exactly. So making sure you can accommodate both of those, was that tricky for you or was it just like, this is what we're going to do? It was a really nice, the home is just really nice and spacious. It reminded me of some of the projects I had done on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It just meant kind of allowing areas to still grow into a little later, finishing off certain areas, creating a lot of dynamic and excitement and organization for what was to come forward. Very, very nice. Now you believe in continuing education. So after my ed, you did continue your education to really hone in your craft and make sure you had every tool available. Yes, definitely. I attended a program at Harvard University Business School of Design, the business of design to understand the aspects of the real business behind the craft and the talents. I went further on with MATC and studied lighting and now lighting has become very cutting edge with LED and so drafting, lighting, communicating with architects. Some of the background education, continuing education, going to markets, exposing myself to new stuff all the time. And you also do interior design as well as exterior design and you can bring that flow from the outside in and the inside out. Yes. One of my first names for my company was called Inside Out and I really thought that aspect of Inside Out was so important and outside in. I just completed a beautiful restaurant in town called Sanders on the Park and she's actually located on the park and she had no intentions of bringing the park theme into the restaurant. So I made the interior feel like the inside of a park and it really turned out charming. We had a full digital wall covering. We produced, I took park images, photo, blew it up and we got it on the wall and exterior lanterns and some of the elements that just make you feel like you're actually sitting in the park. How simply, just how divine is that? Yes. So divine, yeah. It really made a nice. When you're working with somebody who, let's say, has a home and you're working on the exterior of their home, what are the key elements that you're looking at to make sure that the exterior of their home is just as, you know, kind of flowing with the interior and, you know, color schemes and. Architecturally, if I'm able to, I can manipulate exterior details to visually create a more appealing, appealing architecture, bring in a sense of a style, say it were arts and crafts, maybe they'll be a column design or something that can charm up the exterior into all the finished selections of stone, brick, what do you put on the roof, all those, the marriage of all those materials and how they flow into the interior style of the home. You know, it used to be all about the inside of the home and entertaining inside, but recently the outdoor entertaining has become kind of all the rage and people want their outdoors to be just as comfortable, stylish. Almost an extension of the inside. Exactly. Like an outside room. Like even outdoor furniture has completely changed. That's a very big trend and it extends the size of your home. It's so enjoyable to enjoy the weather while we have it, wherever you may live, but here, as we know, it's a shorter time frame for that, but the outdoor cooking and the outdoor kitchens and that kind of experience is definitely a sprouting area. Yes, and so important that in these, you know, being in the Midwest, the three and a half months that we have are absolutely gorgeous weather. We want to be able to be in it just as much as we can. And when you're doing interior design, bringing that flow into the home. Now I know personally, and I want you to share with me, you can write down to the very last detail of helping somebody get a custom couch. Yes, yes. My ideal projects I find to be my sweet spot for projects is someone that might need the full scope of design from start to finish. And I've believed in the aspect of the furniture as being such a huge part of the final product in the space planning and where you position a door, where you swing a door, the idea of the furniture. And I so believe in our American made furniture companies and I've made my own relationships with the manufacturers and they make, I have a company in California that actually makes my own furniture line to my spec, to my fabrics, to the foot I want on the couch. We can play with these elements together and really set up your interior environment. And I think that having like a very custom furniture design, especially now great rooms are bigger and everything, there's no longer a typical size home. Right. Some of the homes are just over scale or under scale. And you need to be able to have your furniture comfortably accommodate that. You don't want a couch in a room to look like a love seat. Exactly. Right. Yes. And that really does help. I mean to be able to even create a bigger depth or if you want the seat height higher, if you have pain in your joints and you can't sit low on furniture, you know, we can raise up the seat if we need to. It's just wonderful to have that opportunity to really make things correct. And the longevity of that is forever with the home. Right. And I think another important aspect of some custom made furniture, I have a lot of friends that are in the NFL and they're really big boys. A normal couch is like a little child's chair to them. That's right. So some of those guys would really benefit. Really appreciate it. They would so appreciate a couch that actually fits their bodies. Definitely, definitely. Now the amazing thing about far interiors is yes, you do interior and exterior for homes, but you also do commercial. I do. I do. I get such interesting calls. I have about a 10 year span of my work history that I spent time with a company designing commercial banks and credit unions all over the country. Sounds a little dry, but it really wasn't because they would fly me to Arizona and I'd have to deal with all these colors in Arizona and really mentally go to another place and the challenge of being comfortable with that, which I definitely did a great job at. So I have this commercial background. I know what materials are at commercial levels and how that whole industry communicates. And I've been able to build a pretty strong portfolio outside of that work experience on my own. I am just finished at Culver's in Franklin and the owner called me and said, Andrew, I need my place to feel more homey. I want people to have more of a hospitality experience when they come in here. And I really charmed it up. We really changed some things in there. I worked with what he had and put it on a new level and he's getting a lot of positive feedback. That is so wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful. I just want to mention, you still, if somebody has a design for your company, you will travel to wherever they are and do that design, whether it's residential or commercial. That's correct. I have a project in Boca Raton, Florida. I'm starting soon. So it has been a lot of word of mouth, a lot of special projects. And I'm very excited about what's to come with everything I can offer for everyone. Absolutely. I love that. I just love that. So now let me ask you, what is your favorite type of design project to do? I love a project where a person comes to me with a really nice investment, wanting something very special and something to be proud of. And they need my full guidance. If it's even just a pink color, that's a form of guidance. The full project is really what I love to do. So I can really manipulate the interior to suit the needs of the client and the functionality and then the furnishings and that whole process all the way through window treatments, lighting design, all sorts of things that I can put into one project, which I happen to be working on a rather large one right now where we took three apartments and made one apartment. And so it was the full gut and we're probably into our second year and we're almost finished in the end of the month. How much fun is that? Yes. So it's been a wonderful project. One of the things I know about you is you can do the traditional, like this is the way it's supposed to be, but you really thrive in making a very unique custom look for your clients and for the people that you work with. You want to give them exactly what they want as well as just bringing in all these unique touches. Exactly. I really listen to people. I encourage photographs. I encourage, I work with people that have an immense amount of style that could possibly even do their own projects. That's how talented they can be, but they still need the guidance through the project and knowing what needs to be selected at what times and keeping up the pace with the builder. Those aspects of bringing a design together is not only the design, it's bringing it forward. Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's so important for people to know because I don't want a cookie cutter looking home. I want my unique styles and flares to be put in there, but I want also the advice of somebody who really knows. I don't want somebody to walk into my home and say, oh, I saw that at So-and-So's house. Right. I don't want it to be seen in anybody else's house. Like, I'm that unique. Even if it's a little cookie, I want it to be my cookie. I love cookie. And I love something unpredictable and I love to bring something extra special, unexpected to a project and make it unique for the client, for that person and bring in their styles and their loves and things that they love. And how do you coordinate that and bring that in altogether? That's so essential. That's so essential. So I really want to ask you, and I know some of these, but I want you to share what are your unique talents that help you bring something special to your projects? I believe I'm a very good listener. That's important. Patient listening. I am definitely very talented. I have a very vast vision. And not only have one idea, I have probably a million ideas. I can, you know, I have problem-solving skills in that manner that make it, it just kind of evolves. And I find that to be so helpful to the client that they can gain their trust with me, that I'm there to take care of them. My customer service is so important to me. I believe everybody needs to be absolutely beyond thrilled when they're walking into their new home. I've gone to lengths of setting the interiors where people absolutely do nothing. They come home and the lights are set and everything's perfect. And there's a bottleless champagne to celebrate their new interior. Oh, I love that. And I know that you're very, very open to suggestion. You're very open to new concepts and working with whatever your client or your home owners or business owners have a vision of. Exactly. They are the bottom. They are the last answer. They are the one that they have to go ahead and be comfortable. And if they have something they want to see or do, by all means, we make that happen. And another really amazing quality that you have because of your background in drafting is, you can talk to your clients, your home owners, business owners, and draft out what you believe their perception is and make sure everybody's on the same page. I can even, I start even sometimes with a hand illustration of the look of the room. I can actually draw what I want to see by hand and show it to them in a sketch. I can often do that with them sitting right in front of me. So that's something that has been a very unusual thing I find now in the computer world. I do do 3D modeling. It's a nice thing to do so I can scale things in easily. However, that fine art in the initial vision is really a grabber for everyone to get going on something. I think it's a very nice touch and you can make sure you're both on the same page right away. Yes, and being on the same page is so important as well. Absolutely, absolutely. So I want to ask you, if somebody's looking around for design, why should they choose far, far, our interiors? Yes, I'm sorry, far interiors. I said far three times so everybody would remember it. That's far interiors. You know, it's all what I bring to the table. I think because I'm almost a one-stop shop in so many regards that really helps harness the design and keep everything flowing in the same direction, often someone might come in and step in and have a different vision and pull the project in a certain direction. I feel I can keep the project going in the proper direction and all the skills that I offer and really there isn't a missing link in what we can do from start to finish for interiors. Excellent, I love that. That's so wonderful. And are you known for a particular style? You know, that's an interesting question that comes up a lot and I am not known for a particular style and I find that to be extraordinary because my styles come from the client, the person I'm working with, the home that might be renovated or newly designed is going to speak styles and the environment the home sits in also speaks a style. So I believe those elements coming together create the style and we adhere to that whether it be contemporary or traditional or transitional. It's built from the experience of those rooted elements. Absolutely wonderful. So now I want to ask you if somebody's at home and they have a project that they're working on and maybe they're in a do-it-yourself sort of mode, what's the one thing that you feel is the most important thing that brings a little bit of character to a room? Maybe they just want to change something up and give it a whole new look. What would be the one thing that you would recommend for them? I think it's painting, painting the walls. You can do so many dramatic effects with painting and if it's not only a flat color, it can be a finish. Wall finishes painted by someone or even put up in the form of a wallpaper. Wall coverings are really coming a long way and doing a lot for interiors and you can dramatically change your room with wall finishes. Absolutely. I agree. If somebody has a smaller space or a quaint space or a little cottage, a summer cottage, what colors would you recommend so they can expand the look of that room or make it look a little bit more spacious than it is? More spacious would probably be on the lines of maybe a lighter color scheme to open up anytime you might want to make something cozier with deeper tones. Lighter tones tend to open up the space. The scale of furnishings, mirrors, and things like that can really affect the size of the space. That's wonderful. Now, Andrea, one last question. Do you believe that this was your purpose? This is what you were meant to do? Most definitely. Most definitely. Nothing could make me happier. Nothing could make me more fulfilled than the growth of my interior design and the interior design projects to come. I definitely feel very fortunate to be working and knowing what I love to do. Absolutely. And I agree. When I look at some of the work that you've done, I know that there is nothing. I believe this is your dharma, your purpose. Thank you. And it is definitely your passion. And it's something to be proud of. Yes, absolutely. So please tell people your website so they know how to connect with you. Okay. My website is at www.farinteriors.com. I'm also on House H-O-U-Z-Z, which is a really nice place for people to go to figure out how to get design details, create idea books. And if you're in Ozaki County, Milwaukee County, or Waukesha County, and you search for a professional on House, you'll find me where you can message me. My website, you can find my contact information. And I am here for you whenever you're in need of any help. Excellent. Thank you so much, Andrea. And thank you for joining us today for Create a Life You Love. You can connect with me at Tony-T-O-N-I-G.info. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. I am so grateful that you took the time to watch Andrea and I talk about interior design. What's your passion? What's your purpose? What is it that you feel a burning desire to do? Get out there and start doing it one step at a time. And before you know it, it'll be taking off for you also. Thanks and have an amazing day.