Winter 2021

40 Aug21786 Making Houses Into Homes! Transforming the most intimate areas of the house involves an enormous amount of trust. This trust must be earned through care and attention to detail. We take a look at SweetLake Interior Design, named Houston's Most Outstanding Interior Designer – 2021 in the LUXlife’s rolling series of 2021’s Leaders in Luxury, to see how they have ensured their efforts are as close to perfection as possible. The luxury industry is constantly changing, which makes perfection incredibly difficult to achieve. Despite this moving target, the team behind SweetLake, led by Lori Toups Fenton, have continuously exceeded their clients’ lofty expectations through a hands-on, proactive approach to the business. SweetLake serves an incredible range of different clients, but what unites them all is their expectation of seeing the best that the industry has to offer. From the beginning of the development process, Lori takes the time to get to know each client individually, hearing more about what they do and trying to understand how and why they want to change their home. This understanding guides the whole process from beginning to end. Often, SweetLake will be performing sweeping changes to a property in some of its most intimate areas, while the client remains in the home. To redesign a bathroom or bedroom under these conditions depends on an enormous degree of trust – to see a room torn down to the studs can be hard, but clients know that like a phoenix, it will rise again to new heights of greatness. Part of the key to this process is the ability of the SweetLake team to offer incredible color 3D renderings of their proposals. This means that customers can see the team’s vision for their property in awesome detail. The combination of Ciera Perkins and Payal Prabhu in this department have set astonishing standards for the industry, using both exceptional artistic insight as well as technical understanding to bring beautiful concepts to life. Over the years, SweetLake has worked with some of the best subcontractors in the business. All of them have now worked with Lori for over a decade and understand the stringent standards that she sets for all. Her style and expectations set the pace for everyone who works at the company. Needless to say, she trusts them to deliver, and they trust her to bring them meaningful and satisfying work. While perfection is no easy ask, the involvement of a solid team can get SweetLake incredibly close. It’s why people continue to turn to them for their interior design needs. While the team has managed to deliver exceptional results, the impact on the supply chain of COVID-19 has caused some challenges. Many big projects have had to have their costs recalculated thanks to the rising price of wood, and orders from overseas are often both delayed and damaged in transit. This has seen Lori and her team pivot to more custom-built furniture such as beds, couches and chairs. Working locally has seen her able to engage even more effectively with talented craftsmen who can receive instant feedback on their products. Excellence and perfection lie at the heart of what SweetLake offers to its clients, but these values are nothing without a talented team who share a passion for what the business has to offer. The team has earned its standing in the industry, proven by the impressive amount of client referrals they receive. What better advert is there for an interior designer than a host of satisfied customers? Company: SweetLake Interior Design Name: Lori Toups Fenton Email: [email protected] Web Address: www.sweetlakeinteriordesign.com