Today in The Lounge, Nick joins Dallas native Ty Burks of William-Christopher Design, he is one of the co-founders of the design firm, along with his partner Christopher Ridolf. Come listen in as Nick and Ty discuss how he started his career from working in financial corporations in Boston to an antique store on Charles Street to moving back to Dallas, Texas creating his design firm of William-Christopher Design.

Finding his way

Ty was born and raised in Dallas, Texas but felt the need to explore more than just his native state. He moved to Boston and started his career in the financial corporation world and worked as a PR for a while. It was good work, but Ty felt something missing, that this wasn’t the path for him. He wanted a career that made him feel free, so he went into the antiquing business.

The road of antique shows to his own store

Along with his partner Christopher, they began driving around the north-east buying furniture they found and selling it at stands in local antique shows. After a while of the experience of loading furniture into a truck and having to move it to different shows, they knew it was time for a store. The original plan was going to have a store in San Francisco, but they found a store on Charles Street in Boston and set up shop there.

A different experience in the store

Ty and Christopher had a specific design idea they wanted to incorporate in their antique shop. They set it up in a vignette style, which made the store displayed like an actual home. Customers loved the setup of the shop, in fact, they loved it so much they asked Ty to start decorating their homes for them. Ty was not surprised by this, finding furniture to sell and setting it up felt so natural to him. That was the transition into interior design.

Back to the Lone Star State

After a few years of having the antique store, Ty moved back to Dallas, Texas along with his partner and made William-Christopher Design. It was an easy transition and kept the firm small with four employers. They work mostly by word of mouth, but the results of their work help spread their name to other clients. Each experience with a client is very detailed oriented. They want to know who they are, how they live, the look of the house and combine all those elements together to create a cohesive house. Ty wants each client to have the firm’s full attention on them and their needs. Each project has a different look to it, there is no single style for Ty and his team.

Ty focuses more on the creative aspects of interior design, they want their work to speak for itself. Because of their attention to detail and services to each client they were nominated for Luxe Readers’ Choice Award. Get a closer look at their projects at their website.