rē•envision Your Home as a Living Canvas

Husband and wife Thomas and Keren Richter take partnership to the next level. As the duo behind White Arrow, an interior design firm specializing in artful interiors for clients, they began their professional joint venture six years ago after their home renovations. Using their artistic backgrounds to find a creative balance between contemporary and vintage pieces, each home interior they design is entirely bespoke.

The ethos behind the firm’s creative direction is that every home is different, and each new space is filled with unique sources of inspiration. As they put it, “We aren’t interested in repeating ourselves. We love the collaborative process and how a project can come alive through creative constraints, new materials, and our client’s imagination.” The Richters share their pro-tips for rē-inventing and rē-fining the place you call home below.

Their combined vision stems from a place of curiosity, both in seeking new techniques and vendors, but especially in restoration. Their design methods thus combine architectural and cultural references from film, fashion, and their travels when breathing new life into a space. 

It can feel like intense pressure to keep up with what is new — with the current trends and items impart temporary, externally wrought joy… but this endless consumption of the “new” is unsustainable. On the flip side, finding vintage pieces and rē-furbishing them rē-surrects the piece, your space, and extends its life cycle. Of course, not every item you find will be perfect (and really, what is?), but the freedom and opportunity to rē-store these pieces into new iterations is an art form.

“Never underestimate the power of transformation,” they tell rē•spin. “It’s incredibly satisfying to apply quality paint in a bold hue, to change the upholstery fabric or material, to add trim and piping, or to alter the legs or tabletop. The main questions [to ask] are [whether] the piece [is] constructed from quality materials worth saving and whether it has a strong silhouette. If the answer is yes, then go crazy! You’ll have a good story to tell.” It becomes easy to spice things up at home with a few simple switches that bring forth new versions of your space. It could be as simple as a new piece of art, swapping out your pillowcases, or popping some seasonal flowers into a vase.

White Arrow also encourages investing only in unique pieces that speak to you rather than filling your home with items that don’t make you feel an inner spark. But finding out when and where to add a new investment piece to keep long-term stems from good planning — whether you’re drafting up a mood board, collaging, or even creating a 3D visualization — before you click “add to cart.” Through planning, Keren and Thomas explain, “We hope everyone sees how all the small pieces form a cohesive whole.”

To start the process, consider your home, its location, the finishes, and the textures. These will help drive what you decide to invite into your home, whether it’s a throw pillow, kitchenware, a piece of decor, or something as simple as a candle or diffuser. “We try to think through all the scenes, uses of a room, and how we can layer in the elements to move the eye around a room and make it feel well appointed and visually stimulating,” they say.

Whether looking at our lives in general or rē-vamping our spaces, it’s essential first to assess what you have. Take in your surroundings and the items that take up space to decide what stays and what goes, always thinking through the holistic lens of the greater whole. Next, consider an item, and ask yourself: Does it fit? Does it add another dimension to the room? And, most importantly of all, does it feel like you? From there, you can begin designing the space that reflects your inner world faithfully, transforming it into your home.