As soon as Susan Ferrier answers my call, I find myself already deep in conversation. There are no layers to peek through or warmup needed to open up her ideas and thoughts. She is already there, ahead of me. Behind her is a bookcase full of beautiful things that, even through the computer screen, I can tell are imbued with meaning, uniquely hers. Her hair is perfect, as is her jewelry, and her clothing reflects beauty and confidence and a no-nonsense style. She calls herself the real deal, and she means it in “I am who I am” terms. Every word she says feels honest. Character, integrity, principles—these are the words we came back to again and again.
One of the most enchanting things about Susan is that she seems to know herself. She knows herself well enough to be generous. She knows herself well enough to be bold. She knows herself well enough to search for and to bring out the best in others. Her curiosity and sense of adventure lead you to assume she’s never had an unsatisfied client. She brings herself into her work, expects excellence, and inspires you to as well. Without further ado, let’s dive in with Susan Ferrier, owner of Susan Ferrier Interiors in Atlanta, Georgia.
Susan Ferrier: I’m a part of something new, Design Retreat, which are intimate conferences with industry professionals, where the homeowner is included. You know, in design, we have so many vendor-driven conferences, and they never include the most important member of the team. Because it takes a village, as you well know. And one of the most important members of the team is the client. For some reason, our industry has lacked generosity in sharing some of the subtleties and ways to navigate huge design projects with their clients.
Cassie Condrey: Give clients some power, some understanding. I think a lot of people just don’t know. That is indeed generous of you. I am interested in the way you work with your clients. I think a lot of people undertaking a home building project are curious about where they fit in. They look at your work, they love your work, but they don’t know where they belong in the process. SF: If you look at my projects, at least on my website, I think that there is a common feeling, or a thread, through all of them, and that just has to do with my layering and attention to scale, and combining color and texture. But every one of them aesthetically is very different. Because, ultimately, the client has to be your muse. And it has to be a partnership in conversation between what they love and very skilled editing and guidance. So that when it’s completed, it looks like it was one gesture, rather than a lot of different attempts to show something. The client for me has always been key in determining what selections I would bring to them and what direction I would push them in. And it’s not just the client, but it is who the client is going to be in five years, in ten years. You have to notice something in the client that they’re working toward. And in an effort to keep their interior relevant to them, you have to plan for the person they’re going to be, not just the person they are in this moment in time. Or it’s going to be dated, nonfunctional, and not feed their spirit when it’s done. Because most of the projects I work on take a few years.
CC: So this interview is over. I think you just answered every question I could ask. [SF laughs.] Within three minutes you have distilled what you try to do, which is beautiful.
SF: We need to recognize and acknowledge that there is intelligence in design, and, like any field of study, there are certain practices that work and there are certain practices that are not as successful. The clients who come to me are always really intelligent—princes of industry, queens. You have to be able to tell them why you are leading them in a certain direction. So I have to be really introspective and thoughtful, which is what helps with distilling down all the million ideas.
CC: I love that.
SF: For Design Retreat, it’s more process driven. I know who you want to be, possibly you know who you want to be. But you need the tools in order to achieve it. This brings together professionals and homeowners, and we even had real estate agents attending so that the curtain can be drawn back. It’s also in part a little bit selfish of me, because I want a better educated client. And since the pandemic, prices have doubled, costs have doubled, while timelines have shrunk back down into something more reasonable. But I want to see a finished product, and I want my homeowners to get as much bang for their buck as possible. So I’m trying to avoid costly mistakes. Another reason I’m advocating for a client who knows more is because I just would like the world to be a beautiful place.
CC: I’m on my third restoration project, and I’m amazed at the mistakes I still make! At the same time, I realize how the knowledge I have acquired through experience has helped me to avoid mistakes.
SF: For every project I do, there’s always something that I could never have anticipated. For instance, for the first time ever recently, the contractor did not clean out the HVAC ducts before we installed drapery and they turned the system on for the first time and it covered everything in dust.
CC: I’m about to make a note. Okay, clean out HVAC before drapery! Done. So, tell me about where you grew up? Was there anything in your childhood—early interests or travels with your family or your parents’ jobs that hinted that you might have this kind of future in design?
SF: I was always curious, always really hungry to entertain what I could see. I grew up in upstate New York in a small town called Vestal. There was a university there that became part of the State University of New York system. There were a lot of intelligent people around, but I always felt starved visually for things that I was curious about. I haven’t talked about this in so long, it’s really weird. I can remember as soon as I got wheels, like at 16, I started exploring really old bookstores. I discovered turn-of-the-century illustrators, which opened a whole new world for me. Then I got sucked into any kind of bookstore I could find. It became my art museum. When I could, I’d take my babysitting money and buy books that were illustrated. Usually it was like nursery rhyme books, children’s books. Those illustrations took me to really exotic places in my mind. 1001 Nights, you know, all those things that the old children’s books used to open up to the world. That became really active in my psyche, and prompted me when I got older to travel a lot. Not necessarily fancy travel.
CC: Tell me more about un-fancy travel.
SF: I won’t do it now, but when I was younger I would go to places where I would be uncomfortable, because that was the only way you could really see the real people and how they live. That was the spark and the magic. I went to some places that maybe were not as safe as they could have been. I was so naive, idealistic, foolish. I could just see what was in front of me and soak it in. I wasn’t frightened. Glamour travel happened later.
CC: That’s a gift of youth.
SF: It was those children’s illustrated books that I wanted to live in. Morocco and Turkey and Egypt—all these places that had a different aesthetic than European. That was when I felt, “I’m finally here.” Sometimes when you grow up in a desert, you are always in search of an oasis. And I’m still drinking from that water.
CC: You trusted yourself enough to seek it out. Tell me how that curiosity turned into a career.
SF: I was first generation on one side of my family. My father didn’t speak English until he was five. There were career paths in the creative arts that were closed down to me. Just because—you should be an engineer, you should be a doctor, you should be a lawyer. You need to be able to take care of yourself. I did so many things, and did not succeed in them. I have a string of failures and false starts. I finally said, I have got nothing to lose now by following my heart. I went back to school, and I got a fine arts degree. People now are aware of my career, but I tried everything. I tried computer science. I tried being a chiropractor. I ran an infertility clinic. I’m a rule follower, in a really strange way. I’m a people pleaser, and I wanted to do the right thing. I wish I didn’t want to try so hard, and maybe I could have gotten here sooner. But there’s so many rich experiences that I’ve had along the way.
CC: Those feed what you’re doing now. How old were you when this path started to unfold?
SF: I graduated at 32 with an art degree. For a long time, I had the benefit of working with architects who were highly talented, like Bobby McAlpine, very Southern architects. It was like going to a different country.
CC: How did you end up in the South originally?
SF: I came to the South when I was 21 in pursuit of some other things. I’ve done a lot of growing up in Atlanta. The vibe of Atlanta has changed since I’ve come here. A lot of other people have come here from all over. It wasn’t as culturally diverse as it is now. I grew up in a part of upstate New York that had the Russian neighborhood, the Italian neighborhood, the Polish neighborhood. On Sunday, when you were going to church, you would drive through all these neighborhoods and smell their foods cooking. That was when the family dinners would happen. I’ve been in the South for a long time. And it has informed me a great deal in design because Southerners love to live graciously. They really prioritize beauty and beautiful environments in the home. That has been something that I have embraced.
CC: Tell me about getting to know your client. So, your client calls you. I loved what you said about not just meeting them where they are now, but maybe where they will be in five years, where they will be in ten years. I want to know how you get to know them. Is there a questionnaire, is there coffee or wine? What happens?
SF: Conversations, where I do a lot of listening, are key. That’s basic. I get to know them visually. I like to see what they’re attracted to, through Pinterest for example.
I don’t necessarily like to “stalk” people, but I do want to know: what do you want me to see about you? Because that is what you want the world to see. What do you value? What are you idealistically moving toward? So no internet stalking. I’m not a know-it-all when it comes to the people in front of me. I want to take what you’re giving to me. And I’m an intuitive person, so I will also try to subtly read between the lines. What do you aspire to in your perfect world, inside your spirit? Visually is the only way to really capture that. Words are tricky. It’s like a knife fight—they can be twisted. But an image that sits in front of you can look different one day than it does the next day in how you perceive it and gather the information.
CC: Perhaps also for you, being both a visual person and an intuitive person, you can see with a collection of images, as you said, what someone’s trying to say about themselves, what they’re aspiring to. If you see more than one, you’re able to kind of string a story together. How do you get past people giving you what they think they’re supposed to be giving you?
SF: That is like detective work. A lot of it happens in the process. A lot of it is sharing the decisions with people and seeing where they go when it’s really personal. For instance, this is simplistic, but if a client comes to me with a lot of blue, and they love blue, and this is just the color they want to use, and they see me use blues so maybe they think they’re supposed to show me that, but in every single decision they make they always lean toward green. Then I look back and I think they came to me with a blue Pinterest page and it’s turning into a green project. And then I pick up the phone, and I say, “Guess what? You know, your house is turning into shades of green and it has consistently been everything that you’ve chosen.” And then they say, “Oh, I love green.” There has to be intelligence in design. So, hopefully the process reveals things about them that they didn’t know.
CC: That was my next question. Have you surprised them? You want to know what they are going to be like in five years. And then you have these ideas, and then they say, “Oh, wait, I actually do want to be that in five years.”
SF: Surprising people comes sometimes from art that they’re attracted to. Sometimes you come into the house, and you bring something that they tell you that they really didn’t want, but you know it’s the right answer. And you bring it in on approval and you set it up. And then they look at it, they look at you, and they say, “Well, you’ve ruined that spot for me now, because nothing else is gonna go there.” It’s kind of my job to push them into those things. I can specifically recall a couple of art placements where they thought it was not necessarily risqué, but vulnerable. And once it was up, they wouldn’t let me take it down, and years later, when I tried to buy it back, it was a no-go. It’s got to be part of your personal journey, your home. That’s really the journey.
CC: That’s a wonderful role to play, and they’re lucky to have someone who can see that. I like how when I asked that question, you didn’t philosophize about their human lives, you talked about something real.
SF: It’s a question of character. I know what my responsibility is, and I know this field is riddled with sales-y, smooth talkers. I can be as smooth as the next person, but hopefully everything that I say is rooted in some kind of character.
CC: You have integrity. Let’s talk about the design process. I imagine you like to get in early, to be involved with architect, builder, everyone. What is the ideal relationship or mix there?
SF: I think everybody needs to be invited to the table at the same time. Some people dip in and dip out because they have to do their work. The architect has to do his or her work first, and the builder has their moments.
I like working with schedules so I know when to step back in or pick up the phone. I don’t like this ambiguous, “Oh, we’ll let you know.” I really like for people to commit to something and stick to it. Do what you say you’re going to do. I do need to get in there early. I find that on a project I’m the person that advocates for the human beings living inside the space.
CC: Do you have a favorite project? A favorite client? Or rather, who is your ideal client? Does that exist?
SF: No, it doesn’t. It’s always the last project I’ve worked on. My favorite client is somebody who trusts me, it’s not a specific person, but somebody who trusts me, and has really good taste, and realizes that you get what you pay for. You have to understand the price point that you are comfortable with, and not expect diamonds when you’re paying for CZs. I just like an educated client. I love a client who has done this before, because then they really recognize what I bring to the table, and I love a client who’s a little OCD. Because that’s wasted on people who aren’t as detailed as their designer might be. I’m fighting battles that some people don’t even know need to be fought. I guess my best clients are the ones who really expect excellence and can’t live otherwise.
CC: If you could sum up your approach to design, your feeling about design, how would you do it?
SF: I have a hard time with this. I think most of my interiors are atmospheric. I think they all feel. Whenever you express yourself artistically, the most important thing to know is that art is feeling. You have to evoke a feeling. You’re creating an atmosphere. I hold beauty in high regard. It is a priority. It makes you feel good; it sets you up for the day; it relaxes you. When things have been rough, I think that it is the ultimate medicine. Elegance is very soothing. It’s my religion, you know, and I want somebody to see themselves reflected in their environment. I am selfish in that I want to do something I have not done before. And I want it to look like you. I want to leave it in really good hands, and know that we have a hand-in-glove approach with the client. I think that is my philosophy. And there’s a way to do it with character, and your character comes out in the process and in the budget. There are many ways to express character. But I want to find the most interesting parts of you and celebrate that. I hope people see that in my work.
CC: I loved looking through your work. It’s very evocative, and there’s romance. There’s mystery, and there’s also comfort. I really liked the play of the harder and softer materials. You’re not afraid to use the harder materials.
SF: I’m not afraid at all. I want to take risks. I want to challenge myself and my client. I feel like there’s a very sensual side to what I do. I want people to feel it with their eyes and then feel it with their hands. I want you to get in there. I want it to be an experience. I also want it to challenge you and I think I want it to challenge your intellect. I want you to look at it and wonder why, and see how things relate. I know that I practice at a level that is almost nerdy.
CC: I love that. You should. You should take what you do that seriously.
SF: If I don’t take myself seriously and what I’m doing, that is disrespectful to my client. I respect them enough to give them the best I can find within myself in multiple layers.
CC: Admirable.
SF: Thank you.
CC: Do you have any thoughts on designing at Alys Beach?
SF: I love Alys Beach. The way it’s set up seems to say: what I hold true and dear is on the inside of me. The outside is so considerate of its neighbors, and I really appreciate that. But when you get inside, it gives you the strength, or permission, to break all the rules.
CC: You should write a book. Tell me, in your day-to-day life, what gives you energy or inspires you? How do you feed your soul?
SF: The most mundane thing that feeds me is to look at things that I’ve collected from places I’ve been and from experiences I’ve shared with other people. Because your memory, and what you hold inside your head and your heart, is really who you truly are. On a daily basis, the most boring thing that I can say is that every time I look at something, it’s a touchstone to a time and a place. It’s almost like time travel because you go back to that point, and sometimes you learn or see something different in your memory that you weren’t ready to see or hear at the time. I couldn’t be more honest than to tell you that what I brought to me continues to feed me.
On a different note, I love set design and artistic direction in movies and even on some television. There are some British television programs that are coming out and you know that they spent money and paid attention to the person who was the art director. Great color combinations, a great lens—I really am enthralled by seeing that layered aesthetic moving in front me on the screen. I definitely love movies. And it’s a great way to travel. I try to spend time with people I wouldn’t normally think that I have enough in common with to do so. Human beings always have something to share, whether they intend to or not. I mean, everybody says travel, and of course there’s travel. But when you can’t travel, you have to travel on the inside.
CC: How do you start your day? Do you have any type of ritual?
SF: I start my day in my closet—getting ready, catching up on emails, putting on my makeup, putting on my game face. I sit down, have everything laid out, among my jewelry that I have displayed. My closet is where I start my day and where I end my day. There’s a lot to look at in there [laughs].
CC: I believe you. Even just this Wednesday morning, you look stunning. Let’s say that you have a day off and you’re going to go do something or eat something or drink something … give me a sense of what that would look like for you.
SF: An ideal day is you wake up and you feel good. And then you put yourself together, and you look good. You have to feel good and you have to look good. Sharing a meal with people that you love, trying different things on the menu. Experimenting, laughing, always a cocktail. That means a lot now, shared experiences. Being in a beautiful place—all those things happening in the same day is ideal for me. And there’s always going to be a search; you know, I’m kind of a huntress. So an ideal day for me is searching for something that is beautiful, that went unnoticed, that can be utilized or shared with other people. There isn’t a single day that I am not curious about what it is that I have not seen. And what on this globe I have not captured. And this is coming from a person who is really well-traveled and has gone repeatedly to certain places and countries. I still think there’s more to be turned over and discovered. I love exotic places. Ideally, this beautiful place would be a glass-sided house on a cliff overseeing the ocean.
CC: Ideal, indeed. It was wonderful to meet you and to hear about you and learn from you. You have both sparked and satisfied my curiosity for the day.
SF: I love talking about what I do. I adore it.
