MANTRA Designers in the Spotlight
Can you tell us a little about yourself? Where are you from, family, hobbies, anything you’d like to share?
I come from a very large family based in Colorado, filled with a wide variety of big personalities and a surprising amount of creative professionals. Being raised to be extremely independent, we all have different interests and live all over the US as well as internationally. My design work has been partly influenced by my family, with careers including photography, furniture design, wood working, metal work, glass work, and the business-side of the home décor and furniture industry.
I received my Bachelor of Arts in Missouri, where I had the great opportunity to play around with varying mediums like oil painting, pottery, jewelry design, photography, graphic design, print-making, and some very fun scuba adventures that fed my love for the ocean. My path led me to San Diego, where I have lived for nine years and started my career and life with my husband and our two dogs.
In my free time, we love taking boat rides, relaxing with family, traveling when we can, having fun experimenting with my art, and I’m a major sucker for a vineyard. We have a love/hate relationship with remodeling the home we bought two years ago, and as any homeowners know, it is an endless stream of projects. Getting to put our personal style into the home is so rewarding, and gives me an opportunity to test out design elements that I don’t always have the opportunity to do with my clients.
How long have you been a designer? How long have you been designing with MANTRA®?
I have been a kitchen and bath designer for almost five years, and have been designing with MANTRA since 2020.
What are some of your favorite features of MANTRA?
By sticking to the basics and keeping low lead times, Mantra has allowed us to fulfill the needs of many different clients whose projects required more of their budget to be allocated to construction. I also really appreciate that the brand takes current trends into consideration when expanding the color palette.
Omni Door Style with Mineral Finish
Tell me about this design. What was the customer looking for? Were there any obstacles you had to overcome?
This client wanted to open the kitchen to the living and dining rooms to make sure they can keep their toddler within eyesight while working in the kitchen. Adding in as much countertop space as possible so that she can bake, and have seating at the island were must-haves as well. They were extremely easy clients to work with and like most, just wanted a better use of the space overall.
The previous kitchen was completely walled in and cut off from the main living areas. They now have three access points to the kitchen and easy walkways from the front bedrooms to the back bedrooms.
Taking out a structural wall left us with a necessary post. Integrating it into the island and building the cabinets around it allowed for the island to stretch to the edges of the space and eliminate the need for extra flooring transitions.
Do you have any design tips or tricks that you’d like to share?
Seeing a layout from a bird’s eye view in our design program is where most of my layout problems are solved. Don’t be afraid to close a window or doorway and open one in another spot if the current layout is prohibiting the design from making sense. The beauty of using an online program is that it allows me to play around with my ideas and see what feels right before presenting my ideas to clients. Having a program that integrates with our cabinet lines is such a time saver as well as a peace of mind that what we are designing, is actually available to order.
What are some of the biggest design challenges you have faced?
My biggest design challenges are also my favorite – reconfiguring a space when the flow doesn’t work for my clients is a fun puzzle to work out. I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to move entire kitchens to other rooms in clients’ homes, reverse the master-suite layout in a 1920s home that opened into the middle of a kitchen, build pantries into unused bay window corners, and in most projects the need to maximize storage and function within the existing space is a high priority.
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