(Excerpted from a Carolina Home and Garden profile Article by
DESIGN KINSHIP
SEASONED DESIGNERS APRIL GAHAGAN-FORE AND LESLIE HUNTLEY MERGE THEIR TALENTS TO CREATE PERSONALIZED, FUNCTIONAL SPACES.
Interior design demands a range of skills and instincts. So, when interior designers April Gahagan-Fore and Leslie Huntley first met, they saw a golden opportunity to merge talents. “We bring ideas to the table that make us a stronger unit,” says Huntley, owner of Roost Interior Design.
“It was a real kinship,” adds Gahagan-Fore, vice president and principal designer at Furniture Specialties, Inc. “My weak points are her strong points, and vice versa.”
Coming from a family of general contractors, Gahagan-Fore considers interior design from a construction and budgetary standpoint, while Huntley’s background in English and theater inspires a love of color and big-picture ideas. They now collaborate as FS Design Group.
The team’s sweet spot is “resi-mercial” projects—commercial spaces warmed by the comforts of home. Huntley’s panache for designing intimate residences, paired with Gahagan-Fore’s contractor instincts, yield functional commercial spaces imbued with a soft, homey elegance.
They’re also skilled at guiding clients from Pinterest-led thinking to more personalized aesthetics. On a recent collaboration in Asheville, the team incorporated treasures from the clients’ personal histories along with one-of-a-kind fixtures sourced from boutique vendors. They also built a custom kitchen island from old milled wood found on the property, bringing a sense of history to the new construction home. “
We want people to walk into a space and get that warm, fuzzy feeling of times gone by,” Gahagan-Fore says. Huntley agrees. “Whether working locally or regionally, bringing color, comfort, unique items, and personality into spaces is what we do best,” she says.(Read the whole interview here)
