Maine Interior Design Meets the Optimism of Brady-Anne Winn at Nineteen Skies

Lisa Belisle: Hello, I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to or watching Radio Maine. Today I have with me Brady-Anne Winn, who is the founder and principal at Nineteen Skies. Thanks for coming in today.

Brady-Anne Winn: Sure, absolutely. Good morning.

Lisa Belisle: Good morning. So tell me about Nineteen Skies.

Brady-Anne Winn: Nineteen Skies is a design firm. We started during the pandemic in 2020 in Bath, Maine. We started in a small, renovated part of the barn attached to our property and started it as a one person business and have been growing ever since.

Lisa Belisle: Why Nineteen Skies?

Brady-Anne Winn: So that's a little bit of an homage to Covid 19, a reminder that out of every situation, whether it's the worst situation we could possibly imagine, good things always come. And the skies are blue skies, new horizons. The world is open to you. So that's where it comes from.

Lisa Belisle: I love that you've embraced the nineteen aspects of things.

Brady-Anne Winn: Well, why not?

Lisa Belisle: Did you always want to be an interior designer?

Brady-Anne Winn: Yeah, I was very lucky. When I was in sixth grade we had a school project, in a science class actually, where everyone drew a job out of a hat and as a class we had to build a house on a beach and pay attention to a whole bunch of environmental aspects. And I drew an architect. So that was my job for the project. When I started working on it, I realized very quickly that we really could only build a square house. So the outside became very boring to me, and I spent all of my time working on the inside of the house. That was when I had my aha moment of, this is what I want to do. I was extremely lucky that I kept on pushing for it and got there. And once I got there, I actually liked it. So I've been doing this since I was 21 years old.

Lisa Belisle: So I guess what I take away from this is that teachers who are creating lesson plans never know how they might be influencing their students for the future.

Brady-Anne Winn: Absolutely. Especially since it was a science class that had nothing to do with design at all. But that particular teacher was very innovative, and she was very inspirational and very encouraging. So yeah.

Lisa Belisle: What is the typical educational path of someone who chooses to do interior design?

Brady-Anne Winn: I think your typical path is you go to college for interior design, and then you go out in the field. But I find in Maine, often the path is more unconventional. We don't have a school in the state of Maine that has interior design as a major. So I think a lot of Mainers who grow up here will go to a school for another discipline, get their core classes, and then finish somewhere else, which is what I did. Or now there are a lot of, especially after 2020, there are a lot of online options that are reputable schools. So I think a lot of people are doing that now. But I've also seen people do a bachelor's in business and then go and get their masters in interior design. So there are a lot of different ways of going about it. I do think that being in the field is instrumental. I have mentored a number of young students who want to become interior designers and have always encouraged them. Get a job, go out in the field, get a job in the industry. It doesn't matter what it is, if it's in the furniture industry or in flooring or a paint store, just to get in the thick of it, it's going to take you miles past education.

Lisa Belisle: You had your own version of that because before you founded your own firm, you had a lot of different experiences in the field. What were some of the ones that you found most valuable?

Brady-Anne Winn: Well, when I was in college, I worked for a company called The Foreside Company, which specialized in home decor products. So that was kind of my first immersion in the industry. Understanding what happens on the wholesale side of things was something that I took away from that. Then I worked for a design firm in Northern Maine where I got to work alongside an architect. We also sold home furnishings and did renovations. So that was a really great way of getting in the door. And then I worked for a company called Port Specialty Tile for a long time, and that was instrumental in really understanding some very technical details in our trade.

Lisa Belisle: I think that that's an interesting thing for me to think about because I know that a lot of times when I walk into a place that has excellent design, all I see is just the beauty of it. But then it makes sense that you'd have to have things that have the right dimensions and things that fit together. All these other perspectives that I would never even have thought of.

Brady-Anne Winn: Oh yeah. Not just the elements of color and form and shape, but then the technical details of behind your wall, what are the elements that go into it to make it structurally sound? That is a part of architecture, but it also is a part of how a sofa is built. You can pick a beautiful fabric, but is that fabric strong enough? Does it have the right backing? Is it going to hold up in the type of environment you're putting it in? How much light is going to hit it on a day to day basis? So those sorts of details are such an important part of what we do that's kind of hidden behind this glossy surface. But is what really holds a design together long term for clients.

Lisa Belisle: When you're working with a client, is there ever a conflict between what they're hoping to achieve and what you know is technically possible?

Brady-Anne Winn: Absolutely. That's always going to happen. However, that's why they hire us, to help find the solution to get them to their end goal that actually works. So yeah, absolutely.

Lisa Belisle: Now, I know that art is probably not related to the technical side of things, but certainly more related to the form, the color, the feel. How do you work with art and artists and clients and your own overarching sense of what may or may not fit?

Brady-Anne Winn: A lot of times if we're asked to help with selecting art for a home, we usually go to galleries, select different pieces that work with the colors, the shapes, and the style that we're working with. Then we'll present the client with a few options. A lot of times we will enlist the help of galleries to help with suggestions. Honestly, a lot of times we like to do commissions. It's more often that we find a style that we like from a particular artist, and then we say, okay, we need it to be this size by this size to fit our space. What can you create for us? And that's really exciting because then it becomes a little bit of a collaboration.

Lisa Belisle: So I know that commissions, having spoken to artists, some artists are very open to commissions and other artists it's not their preference. So how do you negotiate with the artists and the art galleries to make that happen?

Brady-Anne Winn: Well, obviously if the artist doesn't want to do commissions, you don't want to force them into a situation where they're not comfortable and they have reasons for that. But we've been really lucky that a lot of artists here in Maine are open to it. That's another thing that's very important to me in design. I usually try to look locally and then regionally before I go globally with sourcing for everything. So local art is something I really enjoy working with. I do go to a lot of craft fairs because I find that's a really great way of discovering new, emerging artists. Both paintings or photography, your traditional arts, but also furniture making. I was just at one last weekend where I found this fantastic lamp company, so that's always a really fun thing, that discovery.

Lisa Belisle: It seems like there's more out there now in the maker space than there once was.

Brady-Anne Winn: I don't know if there's more or it's just more accessible. The internet has really played a big part in people getting their work out there now. There's so many online makers platforms. Etsy was a big jump in that direction. I think it gives people much more of a platform to be able to get their work to a wider audience, and more exposure than just going to five craft shows a year or friends and family type networking.

Lisa Belisle: So it's always been there.

Brady-Anne Winn: I think it's always been there. But we know more about it now. I think also we are now looking at crafts in a different way than we may be used to. It used to be that everybody had a homestead and you quilted or knitted or did a needle point and it was just what you did. Or you built furniture because you needed a chair in your house. And now it's become much more appreciated because I think less people have those skills.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah. I mean, you're raising an interesting idea and that is actually the value of craft. I think there's been some sensitivity in the past to people who are artists who are engaged in what many people would call craft. Because craft sometimes has been a derogatory term.

Brady-Anne Winn: Yes. Absolutely. I personally look at them all as art forms. You have to have creativity to do any of those things, you have to have imagination, you have to have curiosity. That's art. You're looking at color and form and shape and function. That's art.

Lisa Belisle: Well, and to be clear, I agree. I've never seen craft as any lesser or more than what we call art. And I was actually surprised to learn that this was actually a thing that caused some people some great frustration at times.

Brady-Anne Winn: Well, design in general didn't used to be considered an art form. You had your classic arts, painting, sculpture, and anything that was kind of attached to the design word was not art. So graphic design, architecture, interior design, those were professions, not artistry, which is kind of interesting.

Lisa Belisle: Why do you think that was?

Brady-Anne Winn: I don't know. That's a good question. It's definitely something to ponder. I think it maybe is similar to the whole crafts thing that it just wasn't thought of the same way.

Lisa Belisle: Well, the reason that I ask this is I know that making things more approachable and more attainable and more livable is very important to actually getting things like art into the home. And art is broadly defined. Whether it's a plant hanger or whether it's an Eric Hopkins watercolor, for example.

Brady-Anne Winn: Well, from an interior design perspective, I always think of a room similar to say a painting. You have to have balance. You have to have a place where your eye enters the piece and exits the piece. You need a spot for your eye to move, a spot for your eye to pause. You have to have form and interest. All of the same elements that go into any painting should theoretically be in any good piece of design or good piece of crafts. It's all the same.

Lisa Belisle: So similar to what you're describing when I've spoken with artists, and I'll say visual artists and specifically painters, there's a sense of balance and having all the elements. And when they actually get to the place where they think, okay, now it's done. Do you have that same sense?

Brady-Anne Winn: Absolutely. And also the spot where you stop and pause because you know it's not quite done, but you're not sure what the element is that it needs yet to complete it. That's where for me, and I know you're a runner, so you'll appreciate this, that's my thinking space. So it's not unusual to say, I need to walk away from this for a little bit, and then I'll go out on a run and my mind will just start doing its own thing. Oftentimes that's where I find my piece that finishes whatever it is that's still open.

Lisa Belisle: Yes. I absolutely do the same thing. Although my art currently is more in the medical field and my artistry, I guess is kind of creating and maintaining teams. So I go out for a run and I'm kind of problem solving around, what is the missing element of the team that we need to either bring in or create more potential around? So that's why I love the broader definition of art, because in my mind it's really any creative process.

Brady-Anne Winn: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.

Lisa Belisle: Where did you grow up?

Brady-Anne Winn: I grew up in a tiny little town called Temple, which is next to Farmington. On a farm, very rural. There wasn't even a gas station in the town.

Lisa Belisle: What's the high school in Maine that's associated with Temple?

Brady-Anne Winn: That's Mount Blue. Which, at the time, had a fantastic art department and there was a very talented artist, Roger Balian, who ran the department and was a huge influence on so many kids. Encouraging them to go into the arts. And I can't even tell you how many people I went to high school with who are now practicing artists in one form or another. Whether they're glass blowers or painters or designers like me. He was very influential for a lot of people and I can't say enough about him.

Lisa Belisle: So that's another really wonderful shout out to the educational field. That here you are in rural Maine in a very tiny town, going to what's probably a relatively small high school, and you have that one influential figure who kind of opens a space.

Brady-Anne Winn: I was very lucky to have him as a part of my education. He really encouraged me. I actually ended up skipping my senior year of high school because I was so driven to do what I wanted to do. I had a lot of teachers say, no, you shouldn't do that, you need this experience. And he really encouraged me. In fact, he put me in for an art scholarship without telling me about it. Which was really sweet and quite thoughtful considering I was a junior, not a senior who was graduating.

Lisa Belisle: So is that when you went to the Maine College of Art?

Brady-Anne Winn: Yes.

Lisa Belisle: What was that like? Because that's in Portland, that's probably kind of a big city for someone from Temple, Maine?

Brady-Anne Winn: Well, that was actually a big part of the reason why I went there. And I didn't go out of state. I only turned 17 I think three days after I graduated from high school. So I was very young and I wasn't quite ready to go that far from home. So Portland was kind of good. Maine College of Art at the time was very much a classical arts college. That's changed now. They've gotten a lot more diverse. But I did have a few instances where I was told that what I wanted to do was not art. Which is very interesting. But I had a lot of really wonderful professors there, and it was a great experience, and I'm glad that I went there. It's a wonderful school.

Lisa Belisle: So I'm sensing a theme here that you start with Nineteen Skies and you're thinking, well we have covid, that's not ideal, but we're just going to use that as an opportunity. Then you're in high school and you have people saying, oh no, you should definitely just do this the normal way. And you say, oh, thanks for the information, and you just move to the next. Then you're at Maine College of Art and you're like, oh okay, I appreciate your opinion, but I'm going to do it my way. So what do you think it is about you that enables you to just stay really true to your core?

Brady-Anne Winn: I've always felt like this is what I was supposed to do. I've never really questioned that. My mother is a very independent person and she definitely encouraged me to know that I could do whatever I wanted to do. But I don't know, I guess I'm just stubborn.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I mean, that can actually be a really good thing, especially if you know what you want to do. Because sometimes it is other people's voices that can be really distracting.

Brady-Anne Winn: Absolutely. I think we all have our moments of doubt. Can I do this? Can I make this happen? But ultimately I want to, so that drives me.

Lisa Belisle: The sense that it's a choice that you're making.

Brady-Anne Winn: Yeah, absolutely. We all have a choice every day to wake up and do this or do that. So yeah. That's a good point.

Lisa Belisle: So when you're doing design here in the state of Maine and you work with people probably who are both from Maine and outside of Maine, who have different senses of style. Maybe they are from South Beach and they have the brighter colors and you're looking at what they are interested in doing. And you're thinking, hmm, I wonder how I can make this work in a house that is in the countryside of rural Maine. How do you negotiate that conversation?

Brady-Anne Winn: Well, one of the things that I always like to impress on potential clients when we are interviewing each other, because that has to be the right fit from a personality perspective. I always say that every client has the right fit for a designer, and every designer has the right fit for a client. But one of the things that I always try to get across is my taste is inconsequential. The whole point of the project, the whole point of my job is to design for their taste, to draw it out of them, even if they don't know what it is. So in that way, my work is very diverse. You won't look through my work and say, well, that's her style. Because it's not my style, it's my client's style. So when clients come to me with a range of ideas, that's actually my inspiration for starting projects. Their thoughts, their ideas for the project. That just sets me off on a wave, that brings everything all together.

Lisa Belisle: Do you think that all designers have that same approach?

Brady-Anne Winn: No, I don't. I think there are two schools of designers and I find this in architecture as well. I don't think either one of them is right or wrong, I think they're just different. There are a lot of benefits to both sides. I think there are designers that have one look and that's their style, and people come to them for that style specifically. It's very smart in a lot of ways. It's a great way to get branded. That's all of the designers that you see ending up with collections and having brands built around them is because they kind of gravitate towards that type of approach. Which is very smart from a business perspective. Then you have the other side that designs individually for each project and each client. And so it's very different. And that's more who I am. I don't get bored that way because I have something new every day, every project, which is really fun.

Lisa Belisle: It also requires you to really pay close attention because you go in and you can't have a preconceived notion of what your style is going to be and how you're going to fit that to a space. You have to pay attention. I'm guessing you probably have to evolve thinking over time.

Brady-Anne Winn: Yes. And you have to listen in between the words and ask way too many questions. I have an extensive questionnaire that I start every project with. Usually each answer leads to 20 more questions. But it really helps us to understand the client's needs, desires and dreams for the future.

Lisa Belisle: I'm always interested in finding out how people who do design or architecture or even real estate work with couples and families, because I know that in my case with my husband, he and I are not lockstep in the way that we approach our taste. So I wonder how you're able to navigate that with people?

Brady-Anne Winn: Carefully. Actually it's kind of funny, in the industry oftentimes we talk about how every design program should require psychology courses as a prerequisite. With sensitivity, listening to people and caring about them and caring about the outcome. Typically when we're doing a project with people, it's because they're invested in a family relationship. They're invested in this space together. So finding creative ways that space will function for everyone who's going to interact with it, is really important. And the same goes for commercial design work. It is in a different way, but making sure that you're hearing all of the parties involved and giving each of them the opportunity to express what they need or want for that environment.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah. I think that's so important because space is so integral to our experience of the world. So if there's something that you're not hearing that ends up not being translated into the space, that actually has an impact on people.

Brady-Anne Winn: It does.

Lisa Belisle: Emotional and psychological wellbeing.

Brady-Anne Winn: Yeah. We spend the most amount of our time in indoor spaces and they have a huge impact on how we feel on a day-to-day basis and how we interact with other people, with our work, it's such an important thing.

Lisa Belisle: And I think one of the things we saw with the Portland Art Gallery during the pandemic was that was why people were buying more art. Many people, not all of us, I was still at the hospital and in the medical practice, but many people were at home with their kids or working or were just hunkering down. And they really needed the solace of having things around them. That really mattered. So I wonder if people with that kind of acknowledgement are a little bit more aware and a little bit more careful now that we're kind of moving through this really big global event.

Brady-Anne Winn: Yeah, I would agree. I think people are more aware of their environments and how they impact them. You have a family that's rushing through life and you've got two people who are working full-time jobs and racing through the house. They may not be interacting with the environment in the same way as people are nesting a little bit more. I also have found that people are being more creative with their home environments for sure. A lot of people are getting involved in how things are created more than they used to.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I really enjoyed my conversation with you today. You gave me a lot to think about. I encourage you to go to Brady-Anne Winn's website to learn more about Nineteen Skies and consider whether she might be a good fit for your interior design needs. I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle. You've been listening to or watching Radio Maine. It's really been wonderful to have you here today.

Brady-Anne Winn: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.