Philosophy and Bio

Design is a vision made into a reality.

We are surrounded by beauty in Nature, in Architecture, in Fashion. Our personal spaces should reflect what we love, what makes us happy, and what speaks to us. My ability and responsibility as an Interior Designer is to get to know my clients, and create a space for them to live, work, entertain, and relax in.

Building a relationship with my clients is the most important part of the design process.

Everything that follows is built on that foundation. Initially, I studied fashion design and trained at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. I traveled and worked in Europe and the Far East where I was exposed to many cultures. The antique and flea markets of Paris, the architecture of Barcelona, the colors of Tuscany, and the spices and fragrances of Hong Kong all heightened my senses to the beauty and adventure that surround us.

I was fortunate to experience the excitement of the fashion industry, yet still yearned for more. I studied painting as a member at the Art Students League, but was unsatisfied by the two dimensional canvas. The dimensionality of sculpting was more satisfying. I would spend my free time looking at furniture, and antiques and housewares; I even loved browsing hardware stores. My magazines were all about the home. I enrolled in Parsons School of Design to study product design, faux painting and jewelry design and found myself completing the Interior Design program. I had found my passion in the three-dimensional world of Interior Design.

I hold a Certificate in Interior Design from the Parsons School of Design, and a certificate from the Levin Institute and the City of NY for their course FastTracNew Ventures (FTNV) for entrepreneurs. I am an accredited REALTOR®, currently working at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. in Portsmouth, N.H. and an active member of the Seacoast Board of Realtors.

Function must go hand in hand with form. I love what I do and I do what I love. That enthusiasm is what I bring to every project and share with all my clients.

It’s infectious.

~Helen Hanan