Working With Your Existing Furniture or Art Collection

Summary: We specialize in blending meaningful existing furniture, artwork, collections, and heirlooms with new and custom pieces. Your home shouldn’t erase what you already love. It should give those pieces a new context and make the entire space feel unmistakably yours.

The chair you bought years ago. The painting you found on a trip. The sculpture collection you’ve curated over time. The high-end shoes and purses you’ve assembled over the years. 

Those things are part of your story. And your story is what makes your home yours.

At Rob Bowen Design, blending meaningful existing pieces with new furnishings, custom designs, and architectural details is one of our specialties. 

We believe luxury means knowing how to incorporate what’s important to you into something entirely new, unique, and expressive.

Your Collections Are Integral to the Design Of Your Home

A great art collection is the heart, and the influence of the design.

The scale of a painting can determine the proportions of a room. A sculpture can become the focal point of an entire space. A collection can influence the color palette, materials, lighting, and even the architecture around it.

That’s exactly what happened with Art House.

The homeowners had an extensive art collection, and rather than designing the interiors first and figuring out where the artwork would go later, the collection became a major source of inspiration for the home. 

We didn’t just create empty walls to fill with hung art.

We designed the home to give the art a place to live. To breathe. To shine. To be showcased. 

But Art House doesn’t feel like a stark gallery with white walls and minimalist spaces where the art is the sole focus. The art is a reflection of life and living and it’s an expression of the welcome, comfort, and function of the home. 

That is a very different approach.

A passion for fashion becomes part of the architecture in Bayshore Jewel, where an extensive shoe collection was thoughtfully integrated into the design.

When the Collection Is Very Personal

One of our favorite examples is Bayshore Jewel, where the client’s extensive shoe collection became part of the design. 

These shoes were important to the homeowner and she was proud of them. So we treated this as an opportunity to showcase and celebrate this personal and wonderful treasure.

The collection became part of the visual experience of the space, turning something intensely personal into something architectural, functional, and unexpected.

We designed custom shelving with specialized sizes in deep rich wood tones, and showcase lighting. Nothing was hidden in a dark corner of a closet. These shoes, heels, and boots are on fine display so the homeowner can select her footwear for the day and view her artistic collection every day.

That’s what personalized design should do.

It should take the things that matter to you and make them feel like they belong exactly where they are.

Existing Pieces Don’t Have to Match

This is where a lot of homeowners get stuck.

Mismatched collections of art, furniture, momentos or memorabilia, etc. are good. We don’t want everything to match.

A room where every piece was purchased at the same time, from the same source, in the same style can feel more like a showroom than a home.

The interesting part is the juxtaposition between the old and the new. A vintage piece next to something completely contemporary brings interest. A traditional chair against a modern architectural backdrop evokes emotion. An heirloom surrounded by custom furnishings turns a room into something livable, rather than feeling like a museum. 

The goal is to make your important items, disparate as they may be, feel like they belong to the same story.

When the art is central to the design, it’s an integral part of the home, rather than an afterthought

Turning Art Into an Experience

Black Pearl is another example of how a collection can influence an entire project.

Rather than finding walls for the owners’ artwork, the design created dedicated spaces where the pieces could have the presence they deserved.

This is key.

There is a difference between hanging art and designing around art.

When a collection is important to a client, we consider the artwork from the beginning. We factor in scale, sightlines, lighting, wall proportions, circulation, natural light, and the relationship between one piece and the next.

Even the experience of discovering the collection as you move through the home. 

The art becomes part of the architecture. It suggests the color scheme. Furniture placement. Even what rooms need to be designed. Black Pearl’s owners had striking black and white art pieces, and provocative silver sculptures. 

Our design ensured that the art felt part of the design, not just decorative wall hangings. The architecture of the home feels like it flows out of the art, as if the art was there first and the home emerged to become a piece of sculpture itself.

Vintage architecture, personal collections, custom furniture, and plenty of personality come together in this highly individualized Rob Bowen Design interior.

The Best Design Starts With What You Already Have

Château des Chiens is another great example of this philosophy. 

The project brought together several very different ingredients:

• The owner’s personality
• Existing vintage architecture
• Art and collected objects
• Custom furniture
• New design elements
• A healthy dose of imagination

The answer wasn’t to make everything conform to one aesthetic. It was to find the thread connecting all of those seemingly different elements.

A home becomes interesting when there are layers to discover. Classicism meets whimsy. Bright colors meet modern sleekness. Vegetative wallpaper combined with animal print textiles evoke adventure. Each room of Château des Chiens feels like its own separate story, but with a throughline that draws you in as you move through the spaces.

When Should You Keep Something and When Should You Let It Go?

This is where an experienced designer can be particularly valuable.

Sometimes a client loves a piece because it has sentimental value, but it doesn’t work in its current form.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it has to go. Could it be reupholstered? Refinished? Moved to another room? Repurposed? Placed against a different backdrop? Integrated into a custom piece? 

We’ve done it all at Rob Bowen Design. We can help you with these important decisions and we’ll tell you honestly that something isn’t working.

We’re not here to preserve every possession simply because you already own it. We’re here to help you identify the pieces that make the home better, and create everything around them accordingly.

The Best Homes Feel Collected, Not Catalogued

There is a difference between a house filled with expensive things and a home filled with meaningful things.

Our goal is to help your important collections and pieces feel impressive AND personal. 

If you’re considering a renovation, remodel, or completely new home, don’t assume hiring an interior designer means getting rid of everything you already own.

Bring us the things you love, the things you’ve collected over decades. We’ll figure out what belongs, what can be transformed, and what the home needs around them.

Let’s innovate something amazing around your beloved collections. Get in touch today.