Designing with All the Senses Partner Website

Designing with All the Senses

by Sarah Ericson

WHERE INTERIOR DESIGN & SONGWRITING MEET: ON THE PAGE AND ON STAGE

The art of interior design involves a study of every layer. What path does light take through the room? How does sound interact with the materials? What is the tactile sensation of the furniture and art? And what mood overtakes you when you inhabit the space?

On the surface, these sensory considerations might seem singular to interior design. But at a recent meeting in Whitefish, Montana, Hunter Dominick found out that she has more in common with award-winning singer-songwriter Shelley Bates than she might have imagined, and the two discovered that interior design and songwriting overlap in surprising ways.

Dominick grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, and was raised by a librarian/painter mother and a singer-songwriter/interior designer father. She was born into a family where music and design were omnipresent. Shelley Bates was raised about 300 miles west in Stanton, Kentucky, where her parents owned the local hardware store and were real estate and design hobbyists and builders. While Dominick’s path led her out West to Colorado and then Montana, Bates was drawn to Nashville and country music fame.

“I started looking for a job, but there weren’t any openings for my ‘job.’ That’s how it started — I knew I
had to open my own shop.”

–Hunter Dominick, Hunter & Co Interior Design

After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in interior design, Dominick continued to gather experience and inspiration from various disciplines. At first on the sunny slopes of Vail and Aspen and then farther north in the then-undiscovered paradise of northwestern Montana, she continued to look for her professional niche. Upon settling in Whitefish, she found that stereotypical western decor was the only design option. Taxidermy and railroad memorabilia were everywhere and she didn’t know where she fit in. “I started looking for a job, but there weren’t any openings for my ‘job.’ That’s how it started — I knew I had to open my own shop,” remembers Dominick. And Hunter & Co Interior Design was born.

The path that Bates took wasn’t quite as straight as the one traveled by Dominick. Bates, then Shelley Skidmore, packed up her instruments and headed south from Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee. She earned a degree in music business administration from Belmont University and her career shot skyward for over a decade. Then, she fell in love. Greg Bates was a star in his own right, and soon the Nashville power couple promoted Shelley to a new job: Mom. “When our first son turned two, I walked away from my music career and devoted myself to motherhood full-time. I thought I would miss it terribly, but to my surprise, I never did,” says Bates. When she talks about motherhood, it’s no wonder, because her style of parenting is clearly a new outlet for that creativity. A friend encouraged her to showcase her DIY home decor projects on social media, and a new kind of stardom soon followed.

Today, these two women sit at the pinnacle of their interior design careers though their paths to success were quite different. Both inspired by the talents and passions of their parents, their Appalachian upbringings, and do-it-yourself spirits, Dominick and Bates have achieved notoriety in the interior design space with the underlying love and shared familiarity of music.

Both in the music studio and on the drafting board, design emerges from a spark of creativity. Both women recognize that the art of creation flows freely from designers and songwriters straight to the client and back again in a continuous loop. Dominick begins every project with an on-site visit. Even in cases where the house is not yet built, the land will inspire what shape the space will eventually take. And each client has a unique style that will inform the colors, materials, and themes to be included. Bates notes a similar starting point with songwriting. A song often begins with a particular artist in mind and their style and voice will direct whether the composition will be about love or adventure. The clients — both the singer and the homeowner — don’t always know what their final product will be, but they know the feeling they’re looking for. And a design professional will lead them right to it.

“One of the great things about Montana design is that everyone is drawn here by the same love of the wild. Whether people are fifth-generation Montanans or they’ve just arrived to build an additional home, there’s a shared love of nature and my projects reflect that.”

–Hunter Dominick, Hunter & Co Interior Design

“One of the great things about Montana design is that everyone is drawn here by the same love of the wild. Whether people are fifth-generation Montanans or they’ve just arrived to build an additional home, there’s a shared love of nature and my projects reflect that,” says Dominick. Her portfolio showcases a wide variety of styles, tones, and themes, but a common thread weaves throughout where each client’s unique tastes are honored.

Likewise, Bates has written songs that were recorded by notable artists such as Reba McEntire, Chase Rice, and Joanna Smith, and her songs have been performed on Grammy and Grand Ole Opry stages. Her seemingly drastic shift to DIY content creation shares the same inspired roots of the Nashville music scene with an undeniable through-line from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. “My style is influenced by the farmhouse styles of my youth. Singing in church, gathering in the homes of my Kentucky family and friends, it has created the style that I specialize in and I’m now proud to offer this to my clients by way of inspiration or custom e-design services,” says Bates.

In addition to the work, the spotlight is a shared experience for both of these women. Whether it’s the real-burning lamp pointed on stage or the discerning eyes of builders, architects and, ultimately, the buyers, design is a performance act. Both Dominick and Bates are fearless when all eyes are on them. They demonstrate confidence and mastery in their crafts, and they’re rewarded with recognition in their fields.

“My style is influenced by the farmhouse styles of my youth. Singing in church, gathering in the homes of my Kentucky family and friends, it has created the style that I specialize in and I’m now proud to offer this to my clients by way of inspiration or custom e-design services.”

–Shelley Bates, Shelley Bates Home, & Singer-Songwriter

Dominick has been operating Hunter & Co for over 20 years and has been honored countless times with “Best of” recognition by city-, valley-, state-, and region-wide agencies. Premier builders, contractors, and architects repeatedly contract her services, and Hunter & Co’s stellar reputation continues to grow.

Bates, no stranger to stardom, took to her new social media spotlight like a natural. Shortly after launching Shelley Bates Home on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, her combined following reached 50,000 and continues to grow today.

And even when there is a single spotlight on stage, no creation is a one-woman show. Hunter has a team of trusted designers at Hunter & Co, and Bates works with several brands for affiliations and product placements. Delivery of their projects and services is clearly a collaborative effort. In fact, it was an ensemble event that brought Dominick and Bates together on this crisp spring day.

Bates and her husband were in Whitefish as guests of Jo Smith and Cari Klepper, co-founders of the Whitefish production company Big Sky Troubadours. This dynamic group hosts interdisciplinary performance experiences, each an invitation for songwriters to retreat from the sometimes frantic recording industry and reconnect with their inspiration and art in front of an audience.

Nashville superstar Jo Smith, perched on stage at Whitefish’s revamped Second Story, crafts each show as a songwriter round, the format of creative collaboration common in hotbeds of musical fame. Billed as “Jo + Friends,” this show was a playful back-and-forth between Smith and Greg Bates as they traded songs inspired by artists writing and bouncing ideas off each other. Questions of lyrical inspiration, sound choices, instrument layering, and vocal timing were all answered as a free-flowing part of the process.

Dominick and Bates, sitting in the dimly-lit audience, nodded along, both exceedingly familiar with the exercise of conscious and collaborative creation. Bates had a nostalgic twinkle in her eye, remembering when it was her with guitar pick in hand; Dominick was happily pensive, reflecting on sacred memories when her father was penning lyrics to last a lifetime.

Dominick and Bates, sitting in the dimly-lit audience, nodded along, both exceedingly familiar with the exercise of conscious and collaborative creation.

While their inspiration and artistry overlap in many ways, Dominick and Bates harness aspects of this industry that are unique to their individual niches. Since the beginning of Hunter & Co, Dominick has considered operating online but her showroom continues to be essential. “My clients want to be able to sit in the chair, they want to pull that chair up to a table. The showroom is necessary for the full experience,” she says. In fact, the showroom has established them as a turnkey solution. “It happens all the time that people walk in and say ‘I’ll take that dining room’ or ‘I’ll take the whole house.’ We take great pride in selling intentionally assembled complete themes,” she says.

“My clients want to be able to sit in the chair, they want to pull that chair up to a table. The showroom is necessary for the full experience. It happens all the time that people walk in and say ‘I’ll take that dining room’ or ‘I’ll take the whole house.’ We take great pride in selling intentionally assembled complete themes.”

–Hunter Dominick, Hunter & Co Interior Design

Bates, on the other hand, has entered the most virtual place possible. Showcasing a single item, a layered presentation, or a whole room assembly happens in a single post or reel, and it immediately reaches an audience of unlimited size. Clients don’t have to be physically present to get inspired or click the link to the product website. While Dominick is involved in a project from start to finish, Bates more often plays a role in people’s inspiration, and she doesn’t always get to see the completed projects. While discussing the differences, both women marvel at the benefits of what the other enjoys. Bates admires the showroom full of purposefully staged luxe items; Dominick applauds the flexible virtual schedule.

And as their morning meeting meanders into discussions of weekend plans, these two designers discover that they are at bookends of yet another shared experience. Dominick is preparing to send her youngest off to college, while Bates is celebrating having just left her youngest at home for the first time. Their shared love of music, motherhood, and a keen designer’s eye have propelled these women into separate niches while maintaining mastery of the spaces where they overlap. They’re designing spaces, designing sound, and designing lives layered with creation.