A long while back I discovered the instagram account of Kyle Hatfield and his Oklahoma home goods shop, American Hatfield, and it rang all the bells for me in the way of great home design—collected, not decorated, durable, Americana-inspired, a bit masculine, not precious, warm, inviting, all the things that a home should be in my estimation. We connected via our instagram friendship and I can’t get enough of his all-American style that I know you’ll love too if you haven’t already found out about him. I’m excited he’s sitting down with us to discuss his life by design today. Welcome, Kyle!

Our senior designer, Sauce, says that when you’re an artist or designer professionally, “every choice is a design choice.” Do you see that in your personal life outside of your work?
I definitely feel  as an artist that my mind doesn’t shut off. I’m always thinking about stuff related to my passion. It annoys my other half because I’m always changing something or moving something around the house. I like change and creating new things. It’s good for the mind and keeps me growing as an artist, plus it’s a good way to express all the craziness in my head. 

What would your best day be like?
My best day would probably be waking up early, drinking some coffee on the front porch, checking out some yard sales or flea markets that morning then heading to the lake spending the rest of the day in the great outdoors with my family and friends, maybe watching a movie on the side of the old barn and building a bonfire that night. Of course, the absolute best day would be being able to enjoy those things with my mom again.

Do you make an effort to design your routine and your life around the things and moments that give you joy?
For sure , I built school buses for 10 years, 10 hours a day in a plant without AC and heat and hated every day of it. I walked out at lunch one day and decided to do what I loved doing in my free time. It’s been 4 years, I’m my own boss and I’ve got total creative freedom. I feel fortunate even when money gets tight at times that I’m able to enjoy and do what I love and make money doing it. Life is short, so why not do what comes natural to you. Why not do what you love?

How does your home reflect your life, your history, and your design choices?
As much as I love design, I love the outdoors just as much. I’ve grown up on a farm spending weekends near the lake, camping and exploring. My place is a reflection of that, vintage barn wood for a headboard, stumps for end tables. Wool camping blanket, antlers, and mounts throughout. I’ve got a few pieces in the house that belonged to my grandparents like the old fridge they bought brand new in the early ’40s and a hardware cabinet that came out of the old cotton gin in town. I like pieces of furniture that have history. Anyone can go out and buy something new, but what I enjoy is buying something old that has a story that goes with it. Imperfections. It’s what gives these great pieces character.

Every person is a little weird in some way or another, and those weird things are important parts of what give us our personalities. For instance, I collect books with white spines and sleep with my baby blanket, and those objects feel significant to me and to my story. Tell me about a weird thing that’s essential to you.
Well one thing that’s a little weird I guess is I really enjoy driving old beat up vehicles. I have driven old Bugs and Ford trucks and now I’ve got an old VW van. I’ve been told I’m an old soul and the vehicles fit my soul. Something about driving an old truck on back roads with the windows down feels like home for me. I’ve never wanted to buy a new car—just old ones. A good vehicle is one that’s paid for!

Thank you so much, Kyle!

Keep up with Kyle Hatfield on instagram

If you haven’t found Holly Mathis and the gorgeous Chappell Hill, Texas home goods shop, True Blue Home, where she is creative director on instagram yet, you’ve been missing out. Her design style is perfectly ecclectic, layered, colorful, and classic all at once. Even photos of her rooms make you feel at home right away, and I feel fortunate that our paths crossed thanks to her brother who connected us, Jimmy Don Holmes, whom you might recognize from the hit HGTV show, Fixer Upper. Holly’s warmth and generous spirit put her high on my list of “people I MUST interview and learn things from,” and I’m so grateful that she took the time to talk to us about her life by design. Welcome, Holly!

Our senior designer, Sauce, says that when you’re an artist or designer professionally, “every choice is a design choice.” Do you see that in your personal life outside of your work?
Absolutely, but as my kids get older I am trying to let them have freedom in how they style their rooms and clothes. Not easy for a style control freak but there are so many little ways to make every day pretty and well designed. For me, I am not a gourmet cook (food and gardening are such a way to live a beautiful life… My long term goals include those areas!) but I don’t use paper plates. They may have chicken nuggets, but it’s going to be on a blue and white plate by golly!

What would your best day be like?
My kids would sleep in and wake up happy and I would have strong coffee, time with Jesus and creative time putting together rooms for my clients, then it would start to rain and we would make chocolate chip cookies and nap guilt-free because of my productive morning.  

Do you make an effort to design your routine and your life around the things and moments that give you joy?
Balance as a working mama is not easy, but it’s worth the rub. This is something I have been trying to grow into for years and continue to struggle with, but I do believe there is a sweet spot between work and routine and everyday joy.  When you do something you love it sure is easier and boy, am I grateful to get to do something I love that brings me joy and joy to others. What a privilege. My best advice to myself and others is to be intentional but give grace to yourself too. We creative entrepreneurs work hard and need to be present more in life—not just our work.

How does your home reflect your life, your history, and your design choices?
The best homes are well collected and evolve over time and they are just that,  homes, backdrops for stories—not magazine layouts.  Sure, you can be well-intentioned and create a beautiful life but what happens inside with your people is what matters.  For us, we love books and history.  We love the South and anything with a sense of history whether it’s a rug, old flag or stack of books. I am also not one of those designers that says “no photos.” I believe the opposite: photos, art by friends, framed letters, items from childhood and college, and books you love make a home special and more beautiful.

True Blue Home, a home goods store where Holly is creative director in Chappell Hill, Texas.

Every person is a little weird in some way or another, and those weird things are important parts of what give us our personalities. For instance, I collect books with white spines and sleep with my baby blanket, and those objects feel significant to me and to my story. Tell me about a weird thing that’s essential to you.
I just can not handle a Sonic cup or any styrofoam cup in my house. I am obsessive about throwing them away. White bowls and clear glasses can litter my living room, I don’t mind if my kids eat in the living room—that is why I have slipcovers! But if you bring in a Sonic cup, you better watch out.

Thank you so much, friend!

Keep up with Holly here: instagram, website, True Blue home instagram, facebook, website

While wedding invitations are our bread and butter, that’s not the only work our hearts are married to. As our careers keep evolving, Ben and I find ourselves doing more home and furniture design, which inevitably makes me think of the way we live and how design inspires every aspect of that, too. We wake up every morning with the (oftentimes harrowing) flexibility of self-employment, which affords us the opportunity to design our days and moments together. Every single day I am thankful for that. For me and Ben, having breakfast together, having dinners each night with our friends and family on our porches and then taking a long walk around our neighborhood are the things that give our days structure and joy and we don’t sacrifice them if possible. So, for our newest interview series, Life by Design, I’ve been sitting down with other creatives like us to learn more about how to live a gracious life filled to the brim with the people and moments and things that we love, even if we can never know what each day will bring.

We’re starting this series with Kate Wyman and Anna Boyer, first cousins who own and operate Grove Street Press, their charming letterpress shop on a cobblestoned street in the Warehouse District in New Orleans. Their instagram account is filled with magical vignettes of New Orleans, their pup, Mildred, their beautiful letterpress work and studio, and their preppy-chic style that makes your heart long for a trip down south. As my southern sisters in paper world, I’m excited to make them our first Life by Design guests. Welcome, ladies!

Our senior designer, Sauce, says that when you’re an artist or designer professionally, “every choice is a design choice.” Do you see that in your personal life outside of your work?

Absolutely!  The cultivation of an artful life is very intentional, but it shouldn’t be forced. It’s hard to trust the authenticity of someone’s taste if it’s not also reflected in a curated home, a purposeful wardrobe, or even thoughtful vocabulary in manners.  It’s all organic, or part of a piece.  Our card designs and choices therein give a glimpse into the people we are. What is often forgotten, though, is that editing is a huge part of design, as it is in writing.  An author wouldn’t send an article for publication without careful editing; so too with other creative endeavors.  Editing helps refine and define choices both in and outside of work.  The choice one makes to edit out elements (e.g. only choosing the single best photograph of your vacation day to post to Instagram, not all 30) often matter more in keeping tastes pure than what is kept.  We edit the decor of our shop and the posts to our Instagram feed, with the hope that people will be drawn into our world and want to participate in our joy by sending one of our cards.  We’re hoping to design and share joie de vivre with our choices!

What would your best day be like?

We believe that every single day should, on a micro scale, have some part of all the things that we want from life— family, friends, prayer, work, study and leisure. Some days are more balanced than others, and some days not all of these things happen, but it’s a goal.  We also regularly talk about how the best days are simple, leisurely, beverage-based days, with small pleasures.  The ideal day would combine all of this:  Coffee on the porch in the morning with home magazines; a walk in Audubon Park with Mildred; heading to the shop to run a new print we’ve been working on for a long time (the first crisp letterpress print of a design we’ve only seen digitally never gets old!);   a light lunch out with iced tea and family that, on some lucky days, might extend into an afternoon coffee while strolling the boutiques on Magazine Street;  a return to the shop to package orders with an Old Fashioned to-go (thats a thing in nola!) ; and finally, an al fresco dinner at home with friends with wine and good chats.  Come to think of it, our best day may need to be longer than 24 hours…

Do you make an effort to design your routine and your life around the things and moments that give you joy? 

Our effort is less focused on seeking out the joy, and more focused on realizing that joy is a choice, and opting to choose / infuse joy even into small things:  errands or tasks around the shop.  Of course, we try to surround ourselves with joyful things — our collections, friends, etc (all of those varied design choices!) —  and intersperse levity into the day — teaching Mildred tricks, taking a break to arrange an Instagram, etc — but we also believe that true joy comes from within, and consciously try ourselves to be moments of joy for the people that come into our shop.

Who was one of the first pop or movie celebrities that you admired?

Princess Diana — both in her personality and her style! 

Every person is a little weird in some way or another, and those weird things are important parts of what give us our personalities. For instance, I collect books with white spines and sleep with my baby blanket, and those objects feel significant to me and to my story. Tell me about a weird thing that’s essential to you.

Both of us never leave the house without a stack of bangles on, no matter if we’re wearing shorts or going to a cocktail party.

We rarely wear necklaces, and rarely wear just a single bracelet — always a stack!  We even briefly considered running a blog called ‘Wrist Watch,’  where we’d take street fashion – type photos of people’s arm parties.  We often spend as much time deciding which bracelets we’ll wear for a photograph as we do an outfit! We also have a nickname for everyone.  It may be a Southern thing, but our family was a nicknaming family, and we’ve continued the tradition.  I can’t remember the last time our mothers called either of us by our given names.  After a few meetings with new folks, we also have a hard time calling someone by their proper name.  

Thank you so much, Kate and Anna! We’ll see you sweet readers here next week for another Life by Design interview!

You can keep up with Grove Street Press here: Website, Facebook, and Pinterest