Winners of this year’s Detroit Home Design Awards march to a self-confident mantra: “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”
The veteran designers, architects, and landscapers we see in this issue are 100 percent passionate about their field, and they have adhered to that slogan. Most have been inspired to set higher and higher goals every year, determined to win more awards as they reach the summit of their careers.
We also know that many new designers recognize, early on, that it’s up to them to push themselves as they launch into their field and set their sights on eventually winning a Detroit Home Design Award.
Take Britney Fedricks, for example. If you happened to be at the Meeting House in Rochester on a Friday night in late December and saw a couple clinking their wine glasses and indulging in handmade ice cream for dessert, it was likely Britney and her husband, Ryan. Britney had just received a letter notifying her that she had won a Detroit Home Design Award in the Home Office category.
“I was shocked and very excited when I read the congratulations letter,” recalls Britney, owner of Decorlift Interiors. “We just had to go out and celebrate. It was an amazing feeling!”
This was Britney’s first time entering the competition.
“I followed the competition in previous years and now that I had a few projects under my belt, I felt it was time to enter,” says the Rochester-based designer, who graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in interior design in 2012 and launched her business in 2014.
You can see her winning entry in the Home Office category, located in the Interiors section. She says her favorite part about the office’s design is the color of the bookcases.
“I knew there’d be a lot of people entering in that category, but I always think it’s good to put your work out there and be excited about projects you’ve completed,” she says. “It’s an important step in this business, being confident in your own style and work.”
It was also the first time entering for designer Kitty Golding, who runs Kitty & Co. Interior Design. When she received a letter from us notifying her of her Detroit Home Design Award, the Chelsea-based interior designer was, naturally, thrilled.
“This was my first time entering, so the news was great. I knew when I entered that the competition was going to be tough,” Golding says.
You can see her award-winning office space in this issue’s Commercial section. Golding was the designer behind the Exchange Capital Management office, found in The Market Place Building in Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown District.
Now that she’s a winner, Golding reports she plans to enter this competition again, and says she’ll also apply to other design competitions.
“It was a painless experience,” she says. When asked whether she has any tips for those who didn’t receive a congratulatory letter, Golding says, “I would encourage anyone who didn’t win or who may be afraid to enter to attend the magazine’s preliminary Design Awards Coffee Chat that’s held at the Michigan Design Center during the summer. That was very helpful.”
To any designers who are thinking about next year’s competition, remind yourself of this: “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”
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