Following her win for People’s Pick: Bath at NKBA’s 2023 Design Awards, the Pittsburgh-based designer shares her thoughts on good design, integrated technology and the importance of texture.
By Donna Heiderstadt
Emily Miller’s “Artist’s Retreat” bathroom/bedroom suite earned her the most votes in the first-ever People’s Pick: Bath category at NKBA’s Kitchen & Bath Design + Industry Awards at KBIS 2023 in Las Vegas. As an NKBA Certified Kitchen Designer (CKD) at Kitchen & Bath Concepts of Pittsburgh for the past 10 years, she has twice previously been a winner as lead designer on kitchen and bath projects that earned first-place finishes. Emily’s design was also awarded Pittsburgh magazine’s 2016 Home of the Year in the new-build category.
“Artist’s Retreat” was designed to reflect a “clean and contemporary gallery feeling” for a client who is an attorney by day but whose true passion is creating visually captivating works of art. The design has as its focal point a wet room with a soaking tub and shower positioned behind a floor-to-ceiling Starphire glass panel — offering views of a custom mosaic tile wall of the client’s own artwork.
Emily took time after KBIS to talk to us about her approach to design and what she is looking foward to most in the kitchen-and-bath sector.
NKBA: What are you most excited about in regard to your upcoming projects and/or products for 2023 and beyond?
Emily Miller: There are so many opportunities to incorporate different textures, both tactile and visual, into our spaces. It seems as though clients are really gravitating toward a high level of textural variety these days. An interesting tile backsplash used to be a simple way to bring texture into a space, but now surfaces like metallic leather cabinet fronts, reeded bar facades, and knurling on hardware and fixtures helps to balance out the tactile texture in a design.
NKBA: What trends are you seeing emerge in the Kitchen + Bath spaces and the home as a whole? What are you loving? What are you not so excited about?
EM: I am seeing the integration of technology, whether it be smart appliances, automated window shades, voice-controlled tunable LED lighting or an entire smart home system. Technology is here to stay and is continuously evolving. However, as exciting as it is when a new technology is introduced, it can sometimes be a double-edged sword when it comes to varying installation methods and system requirements. Each manufacturer tends to have slightly different specs, so it can sometimes be a daunting task keeping up with it. This is why many times we rely on our business partners who specialize in these fields to keep us up to date and on the forefront of these evolving technologies.
NKBA: Is your business being impacted by the economy? Any tips for how to navigate the current uncertainty in the market?
EM: Businesses (particularly small ones) are constantly impacted by the present economy — no matter what the current state is. The biggest hurdle we are facing is still inconsistentcies in the supply chain as it relates to lead times and availability.
NKBA: What constitutes good design to you personally and what design strategies have you found to be the most effective?
EM: To me, a space needs to feel proportionately correct and balanced in order to achieve “good design.” However, there are many factors that need to be considered when achieving correct balance and proportion. It’s not just looking at the size or shape of one object, it’s how the value of its color or its visual texture carries its weight in the entire space. For example, a 48-inch-wide floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet in rift white oak with a dark stain would read completely different in a painted white high-gloss finish. As long as scale and proportion are followed as the foundation of the design, any style can then be applied.
NKBA: What has been your biggest design challenge and how did you overcome it?
EM: I’ve thought about an appropriate answer to this question over and over and truly cannot pick one specific design challenge that sticks out in my head. To be honest, each and every day there are multiple challenges that arise on our projects that we are forced to deal with and overcome. Whether it be structural or mechanical issues on the jobsite, finding replacements for discontinued products or brainstorming creative ways to handle specific client requests. I think the daily challenges are what keeps us on our toes. To learn how to handle and overcome difficult situations is something that was never taught to me in design school and can only be gained from real-life experience. Inevitably, there will be issues that spring up on each project, but it’s how you handle the issues and take care of them that make all the difference in the end.