We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Karen Starr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Karen, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our company, Hazel Tree Design Studio, was sprouted from a passion for local sourcing and treading lightly on the planet. While coming up in an industry that was predominantly about excess and big budgets, where some designers would change things out quickly—and sometimes unnecessarily—to turn a profit, I saw how much waste was created and how unsustainable interior design could be.

When it was time for me to begin my own interior design journey, I started at the polar opposite of that mindset. Hazel Tree wanted to honor our environment and our local community. We specialize in environmentally responsible, locally-made design, and we source reclaimed and eco-smart materials whenever possible, first making use of what already exists and what is meaningful to the client. We choose custom designs or alterations to get it exactly perfect.

Designing through a local lens is the most environmentally sustainable option, and one that allows us to make jobs for our creative friends in the community as well. When we have something locally designed or made, it’s created by local hands close to home, providing economic opportunities in our communities while avoiding heavy use of fossil fuels during shipping and transport.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My first career was in musical theatre production, where I worked alongside my mentor for about 10 years. A few years after he sold the theatre, I had a young child and I was figuring out what industry to move into. I knew it wasn’t going to be theatre, and I had always loved event planning, so I decided to start an event planning company. Naturally, I asked my mentor for help with a business plan. He invited me to dinner with him and his partner at the time, who owned a successful interior design firm. Instead of leaving with a new business plan, I left that night with a new position as a Design Assistant at said firm. My mentor instilled confidence in me that I would be a great fit for the interior design industry and for this new role. Life is funny that way – you think you’re headed in one direction, but someone who sees something else for you can steer you down an entirely different career path. I’m so grateful he did.

Years later, after training under some of the best talent in the industry, growing my talents, and learning everything I could about interior design, my entrepreneurial spirit and the longing for a different way of design led me to opening my own firm. Since 2010, Hazel Tree has become known in the local community as an innovative and client-centered firm with a focus on environmentally sustainable and locally made/sourced design. We find that custom projects are almost always the best option for meeting these standards, so we do a lot of work with custom furniture and commissioned artwork. This takes more time and is often more painstaking because it’s easy to order out of a catalog, but the way we design honors our mission and creates designs unlike any others in our area.

More recently, our work in the public space sector has involved reimagining what public parks can look like and how we can bring neighborhood groups together to involve them in the planning process from the start. I’m a lover of my city, so I want our public spaces to bring delight and comfort to our community. We are currently working on two city park projects using recycled plastic lumber and frames created by a local welder. We’ve known for a long time that we can easily do locally-made in interior spaces, but the question has always been, “How do we make this a reality in exterior spaces, and how do we make exterior spaces feel like interior spaces?”

Our next evolution is taking the custom work that we have been doing for the past 13 years and making it more accessible to the public. So our gallery/showroom is going to make the transition to a design center in 2024! We are working with our network of most trusted Northeast Ohio artisans to make this a space where any person can come in and order something locally-made, custom-made. This is really good for our artisans because they don’t currently have their own showrooms, so they will be able to bring their clients into our design center to see examples of their work and options for selection. It’s great for the public, because people can come in off the street to order these locally-made products to their own specifications and not have to engage us as interior designers to have access to this. And it’s great for us because we will continue to bring our design clients in, but instead of only being able to see examples of completed pieces, they will be able to clearly see all the different options available from each artisan in one place.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We started out as a residential design firm, but after a couple years in, we really wanted to dive deeper into public space and commercial design.

In the public space sector, my decades of involvement in the local community helped us thrive. A few years ago, a local foundation that invests in the community was working on reimagining a public park. Because I had previously worked with them as a member of the community in a variety of ways, they knew of Hazel Tree as a firm that brings creative solutions to the conversation. When the foundation had money to invest in public space, they came to us and asked, “What do you see?” Even though we had only worked on residential projects up to that point, they trusted us to bring innovative, custom solutions to this community space. Our public space work has only grown from there.

In the commercial sector, one of the most significant projects for developing our reputation was Bounce Innovation Hub. This project was for the City of Akron, Ohio’s business incubator, which was in the process of renovation, to include a co-working space, conference rooms, event space, and a cafe. We were brought into the project because the client wanted a firm that could create a custom-focused, Akron-centric design, incorporating artifacts from the building’s history, local artwork, and innovative ideas. Our reputation for having those abilities landed us that project. And that project really solidified our spot on the map as a commercial design firm that could create custom solutions with a local focus. From there, our commercial clientele has continued to expand.

In the residential sector, word-of-mouth has been the biggest reputation builder for us. We’ve never done any serious advertising—it’s always been word-of mouth. Do a good job; get referred. We also have a very unique style. We’re not your typical interior design studio. We aren’t stuffy. We are down-to-earth and we listen to what our clients want. We aren’t pushy with a particular trend or style, and our clients seem to really appreciate that and carry that with them as they refer us.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

We get to solve problems and make things beautiful and interesting at the same time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hazeltreedesignstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hazeltreedesignstudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HazelTreeInteriors

Image Credits
Shane Wynn Photography