It’s no surprise that Marcelle Guilbeau‘s calming interiors are reflections of her own calm demeanor. Her passion for spirituality and place, coupled with her appreciation for clients’ individual aesthetics, are the driving forces behind her work. Marcelle is known for creating “Soulful Homes” by discovering each client’s “Soul Style,” or what elements resonate most with them — modern or traditional, practical or sensual. The results are homey interiors that invite you to reconnect with yourself. Today, Marcelle walks us through how she determines a client’s Soul Style, her favorite room in her own home, and more!
What led you to interior design as a profession?
I have two loves in life: spirituality and place. Spirituality is about connecting to the heart — all the good things in life that we cherish. Place is the embodiment of everything we love — the earth, our hometown, our home. It’s that which gives us roots and meaning. I studied philosophy and religion in college with the goal of becoming a professor, but I didn’t love academia. So I asked myself, What else do I love? And that was the concept of “place.”
So, I come at interior design through a deep and abiding love for place. For me, the two elements are interconnected. For some reason, I “took” better as a designer. I love working with people and creating things.
What is your design philosophy, and how does it set you apart?
I am good at dialing into what’s in my clients’ hearts and helping them translate it into their aesthetic and lifestyle. I call that their “Soul Style.” Then, in collaboration with my clients, my team and I turn that into a beautiful home interior over time, one layer at a time. That is what I call a “Soulful Home.”
In general, though, I lean a bit sensual; I am Cajun French, after all! To me, the home is all about hospitality — comfort, making good memories, and feeling good.
What are the key principles in curating a Soulful Home?
First, discover your Soul Style. You are either modern or traditional. Modernists value openness and innovation. Traditionalists value roots. And, you are either practical or sensual. Practicalists value purpose. Sensualists value nurturing. You are a combination of either modern or traditional and practical or sensual.
Second, build a timeless, classic base. Establish what the building blocks are for your project. If you’re furnishing a living room, your building blocks could be the sofa and two chairs. This is where you need to spend a good amount of time and money to get it right.
Third, finish it with layers. Layers are the aesthetic components that can be added on (or changed out) over time. In, say, the living room, this can be the rug, wall color or wallpaper, or even side tables, lighting, and artwork. That way, you can react to the space as it is coming along and finish it well.
How do you help clients discover their Soul Style?
I use what I call the “Fabric Exercise” to help people discover their color palette as a starting point. I bring out these big bins of fabric and say, “Take 10 minutes and start pulling things.” Almost immediately, you find out if someone likes gold colors, geometrics, curving organic shapes, or soft colors. From there, you’re able to storyboard the client’s home palette by just looking at fabrics.
I love seeing the way that unleashes their creativity. Suddenly, they’re able to answer their own questions and say things like, “I really love this pattern. It reminds me of this wallpaper that I found in a magazine.” They’re able to play with colors and move them around. It’s amazing the places we go, and it takes us lightyears ahead in the design process. To do that early on is incredible because clients get to sink in, explore, and discover what they love.
What piece of design advice can you offer to elevate our own spaces?
When you need to make a move with your home that will be impactful and be an investment, be sure and choose it well. For example, when I was younger, my mom would pick me out a Burberry trench coat or pearl earrings and say, “This is going to be an investment, so I want to make sure you really like it and are going to wear it.” I use that same philosophy with interior design and helping my clients choose what they love. If they don’t love it, we don’t move forward and continue searching.
What is your favorite room in your home, and why?
We added this little keeping room off the back of our house that has 12-foot ceilings, and it’s this beautiful pristine box. It has 10-foot-tall soaring windows, and it’s right off the dining room.
My husband is a talented architect who designed this very clean, minimalist limestone plaster fireplace. It has a nice deep hearth you can sit on because I am a firebug. It has a cream wool rug in front of it with two shell chairs on either side. Then we have an Italian leather loveseat that’s a pale taupe color.
We are constantly in that keeping room. I’m a very nature-oriented person, so I love to sit at the fireplace whenever there is cooler weather. Then, in the summer, I can also look out the window to the long, lush backyard.
Where do you like to take chances in design?
I don’t try to force any bold ideas on the front end, but let the project unfold. Sparks of “wow factor” emerge over the course of the project. It is more authentic and organic to capture them this way.
For instance, I worked with a client who lived in a beautiful historic home in East Nashville. We jumped into renovating and adding on to the home while at the same time inventorying her existing furniture, repurposing some, and identifying what new furniture to get. While my client was anxious to figure out “where the color should go,” I assured her there was plenty of time to figure that out along the way.
We found some rich teal velvet chairs and colorful velvet pillows while shopping for furniture — that color palette would guide the whole project. After we built our timeless base with the furniture selections, we layered in a teal overdyed vintage Oushak rug in the dining room, and the wow factor culminated in the drapes. Towards the end of the project, we selected a robin’s egg blue linen for the drapes, which takes the decor to a whole new level — and is totally unique to my client.
The result looks elegantly casual and lived in; there is no way that would have happened if we hadn’t approached it collaboratively as a “layering” process.
A little birdy told us you have written a book. Can you tell us more about this?
It’s called The Soulful Home: A Guide for Authentic Living. It is currently in the hands of the development editor, but it hopefully will be out soon. It will be a photo-illustrated guide showing, step-by-step, how to understand and connect with our personal Soul Style and bring that sensibility into the rooms and spaces in which we live.
By introducing the “Soul Style Compass,” my book will help the reader discover their Major and Minor Soul Styles (all are a combination of traditional, modern, sensual, and practical). It will guide the reader to acquire their “classic and timeless base” and build from there with individual layering pieces over time. Thus, my book will give people the tools to design their homes in a manner that genuinely reflects their own individual humanity.
Who or what is currently inspiring you?
Anything vintage from our awesome local sources: Eneby Home, Patina + Co, Canterbury Cottage, and, of course, the Nashville Flea Market!
I also love the Kravet showroom at Nashville Design Collection, Lenos Limited, and Good Wood.
If you could choose one designer to redo your home right now, who would it be?
StudioIlse. Ilse Crawford was doing Hygge before that word ever came into being in America, and I am quite partial to her upscale, bohemian, eclectic European aesthetic.
On the flip side, if you could design one person’s home, who would it be?
Lauren Hutton – she’s got such a natural, effortless style. Plus, she lives in Taos in a prefab steel home designed by Bill Katz (industrial chic art gallery designer). I would love to get to see that!
What are three household items you couldn’t live without?
A wine opener, Tide (to keep up with my husband’s and son’s clothes), and my fuzzy robe.
This article is sponsored by Marcelle Guilbeau Interior Design.Â
