THE CLIENTS WERE A YOUNG couple with young kids moving from California. They had purchased a new build house, which was in the process of being built when they hired Mimi, who they tasked with furnishing the house and adding some character to the project.
“I wanted to go to town with some really cool custom built-ins to add personality immediately upon move-in, but we had a tight deadline, and this was in the middle of COVID, so it was a challenge to get the product, but we pulled it off,” recalled Mimi.
Mimi, who had lived in New York for a time, just clicked with this family, who had also lived in New York previously. “I think, aesthetically, coming from similar places, this was one of those projects that just really flowed naturally. They love color and patterns, and they weren’t afraid to take risks in certain places,” said Mimi, who’s lived and worked in Austin approximately nine years and was raised in Florida before attending the Rhode Island School of Design.
Upon their first meeting, the clients suggested many different styles, from New York, of course, to coastal California, modern Austin, Midcentury and even British, but somehow Mimi took these seemingly disparate influences and brought them together in synergistic harmony.
“Making it cohesive — that’s the magic of it,” she laughed. “My design process always includes that inspiration meeting where I get to know the client. That meeting is so critical. I pay so much attention, take notes and visualize, and then go to the drawing board. This one flowed so fast; I did the presentation for the whole house within two weeks.”
Mimi calls the end result she created for the family a “transitional eclectic” style, which she described as not super modern or traditional. It’s transitional with a very homey feeling. According to Mimi, the wife’s office space is the crown jewel of the house. “The goal in this room was to create a very special office space. She wanted something really different.
She likes to read so we did these custom built-ins, and she loves peacocks, so we took the colors of a peacock to make the room,” explained Mimi.
Mimi went above and beyond by cleverly using an animal print fabric behind the seating nook to really accentuate the space. “I used to work at a fabric company when I lived in Brooklyn, so I just always gravitate towards fabric, and that Soukii in Pine fabric pattern by Fabricut was perfect for the room, and just looked great with the paint color,” she shared.
Another favorite component of the home is the staircase, right off the entrance. “We kept it really simple. Always, the grand vision was to have a round table for a floral arrangement next to the staircase, something really elegant,” noted Mimi. “In school, I already knew I wanted to be an interior designer. I’ve always known. I just love spaces and creating them. My parents have such incredible taste and don’t need any help. I even designed my own room as a kid. We moved around a lot, and because my mom is in real estate, we had the opportunity to live in several different styles of houses,” she recalled.
Taking a lifetime of experience and education, Mimi opened her own practice… a week before COVID lockdown. “We had a launch party a week before the pandemic. It was kind of weird opening that week, but I had a couple of projects to keep me going and then it exploded from there,” she said.
Mimi Wittstruck Design is all about color and patterns, a fresh take on a classic look, and textiles being her starting point. Some do rugs or wallpaper, but for her, “just one fabric can inspire an entire room design.” One gander at the Dripping Springs project and you can certainly see the writing on the wall, so to speak!
MIMI WITTSTRUCK DESIGN
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