We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Kuchar-Parkinson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

One of the biggest trends I’m continuing to see in our industry is a blend of residential and hospitality aspects coming into all areas of design. We see this coming into office design, education and medical spaces for example. This has been a trend we’ve been slowly watching for years, however I believe the pandemic has accelerated it. There is a level of comfort we like in our homes and in hospitality spaces and now, after spending so much time at home during the pandemic, people are looking for that type of experience in other spaces they visit.

I think this is a great opportunity for designers as it means the public are demanding better designed spaces in unexpected spaces. Typically, we have expected this in hotels and restaurants, but now we’re seeing it everything from dentist offices to education spaces. People are recognizing the power of good design and that is very exciting to us!

Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I moved to Chicago to study Interior Design as it’s a city known for it’s love of architecture. Upon graduating, I was hired at an interior design studio that focused on office design nationwide. After 11 years at that firm, I left to start Kuchar. The goals in starting this business were to create a studio that pushed creativity, worked in several markets of design and gave better work-life balance for the team. Eight years later, Kuchar is known for it’s highly creative interiors and works in many markets, including workplace, retail, restaurant, residential and educational design.

What sets Kuchar apart from others is that we approach every project with a fresh look. Whether we are working with a business or with a residence, we want to find out what their unique goals or personality are that we can bring out in the interior. It is less about the Kuchar style and more about us being experts in designing your style or brand. We want every interior we design to be unique from the others, unique for that business or for that home. In the early stages of our design timeline, we have several processes to obtain information and dig into our client’s brand or personality. This helps build a concept or basis of design language that we use throughout the project. We work with our clients throughout the design process so that they are constantly part of the decision making and understand the look of the project long before it is built.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In April of 2020, when the pandemic shut down most businesses, I found myself taking call after call of clients cancelling their commercial projects. Knowing that this wasn’t going to subside anytime soon, I quickly went into business saving mode by cutting all costs possible and reducing my staff’s hours. By summer, the business had lost almost all of it’s work, save a few projects. I started to see early on that while all commercial work has come to a halt, residential work was starting to boom. With a few residential projects under our belt, I started to focus my marketing efforts on this market. We picked up a few projects and, little by little, built the residential practice in the studio while also keeping the business afloat. Now, four years later, we have taken on bigger and better projects, slowly making a name for our residential work. My business still focuses 75% or more on commercial clients, however the resilience of my team and marketing efforts to get residential work helped the business survive the pandemic and grow stronger as a result.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I started my business with the goal to create very creative interiors, ones that push the boundaries of design and create unforgettable experiences for visitors. I love pushing trends and using color in a bold way. Early on in the business, we got a lot of very small projects with low budgets. Despite the circumstances, we always pushed ourselves and our clients to think big and push creativity. This dedication to trend setting, colorful interiors has, one-by-one, helped my studio be known for unique design. Every project we designed in the early days has built towards bigger and better opportunities and built the studio to where it is today. We are now known for creating interesting spaces in the Chicago market, and known for our unwavering love of color!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kucharstudio.com
• Instagram: kuchar_studio
• Linkedin: Kuchar

Image Credits
Wittefini Photography, Christopher Barrett Photography, Mike Schwartz (depending on the photo)