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Design Ideas
Cicada Co. + Christine Marvin On Design
Attention to detail, intentionality, and, simply put, how spaces make us feel. For Christine Marvin, Chief Marketing + Experience Officer at Marvin, it’s these intangible design considerations that sparked interest in this project.
Christine sought out Tara Davis, Chief Executive + Creative Officer at Cicada Co., to discuss residential design and her team’s uniquely personal approach. They dug in on a recent project full of beautiful midcentury sensibility, featuring warm, heavily grained woods contrasted by unexpected bold pops of metallic glam. This Q&A tells the story behind this unique home and the design principles that helped bring it to life, from personalization to functionality.
Christine: I was introduced to your design build firm, Cicada Co., through an Architectural Digest story about an extensive renovation your team completed in Kansas City, which also featured several large Marvin doors. What was the design ethos for this home and how did the principles of emotional design contribute to such a memorable outcome?
Tara: Our business is really focused on intentional design, so we work to quickly narrow in on design choices that will speak to a homeowner in their own unique way. But that requires a client that is willing to be vulnerable and willing to put in the work to create something personal. Because we’re not designing for ourselves—so the homeowners we work with must be willing to share a lot with us.
From the start, we want our clients to feel comfortable sharing their big dreams or craziest ideas for a space with us. I always say, “Tell me your craziest ideas, because I guarantee I have crazier ones.” If we’re working with a couple, we need to hear what they each love and acknowledge what their differences are. We want to know what inspires them, and not just in home design. Do you have a piece of artwork you relate to? A favorite fashion designer? Out of that we often discover something unexpected that can’t be found from a stack of home inspiration photos.
Before we discuss the number of bedrooms or bathrooms, we’re asking how our clients want to live in their home. It matters if they host regularly, spend most of their time outside, have a large extended family visit every holiday season—everything that impacts the way the homeowners engage with their space.
With this project, the homeowner approached us about an extensive renovation on a midcentury modern residence with exceptional bones. With a true period home, we often see homeowners feel beholden to the architecture. Our goal here was to understand her priorities: is it most important to you to honor the existing midcentury modern architecture, or do you want to break the rules, so to speak, and dream up something new? We landed somewhere in the middle with a design that felt funky and personal but stayed authentic to the architectural style of the home. Then, we built elements for with her lifestyle. She loves to host epic parties, so we created a space that would feel comfortable and intuitive every day and when 50 people come by. Working all of these considerations into the floorplan was the foundation to realizing something special.
You get better results when you’re willing to be vulnerable and overlook future resale, and you’re willing to make an emotional investment into the property for you and how you want to live right now.”
Tara Davis
Co-Founder and Creative Director
Christine: From your perspective, what is the experience someone has in a home that has been designed for the senses?
Tara: When I think of designing for the senses, I think of designing for how a space is experienced rather than how it is seen. That’s where architectural details come into play. There can be a misconception in design that the final touches are what bring personality into a space—but in reality, good design is so much more than material selections and finishes. When you remove the idea that design equals selections, you can accomplish something exceptionally personal and unique. When a project is freshly done and you can walk into the home and it truly feels lived in and personalized, or when you deliver beyond what was asked for and the reaction is “it feels like it was always meant to be this way,” you know you nailed it. That is only possible when the client is open, and then you took the time and learned the why and figured out how to connect everything together.
With this home, that philosophy really came to life in the kitchen, which is an open space with multiple entry points. We considered how the space would be experienced from every angle, down to the look of the end caps and connection points between the walls and cabinetry. We used these stunning waterfall countertops that peek out from behind the lower cabinets throughout the space. During the design process, the walls were furred out until perfectly flush for a seamless transition across all surfaces. These are the details we hear the homeowner is still noticing and appreciating the impact of, even a year after completion.
When I think of designing for the senses, I think of designing for how a space is experienced rather than how it is seen. That’s where architectural details come into play.”
Tara Davis
Co-Founder and Creative Director
When a homeowner first contacts you with a project inquiry, when do you discuss and begin to plan for how they want to feel in their home? Do clients come to you with thoughts around their emotive goals, or is that something you work at extracting throughout the design process?
Tara: We often find that our services align best with homeowners who view this undertaking as an emotional investment just as much as a material one, and setting those expectations on both sides early on allows us to create the best outcomes.
We encourage clients to tell us what they want and then we try to extract from that an understanding of what they truly need. We’ll take their inspiration photos and work together to dissect what stands out to them—the layout, finishes, color scheme—and why it’s something they feel drawn to. Even the small details can uncover important insights. When you understand the why behind a client’s design preferences, you can offer solutions they didn’t even realize are possible.
Recently, we worked with a client who bought a home and wanted to renovate the existing kitchen, particularly because it was too small for their family. When we started looking around at the home and saw they had two living rooms, the solution became obvious. The project was no longer a kitchen renovation—rather we revised their existing floorplan and completely relocated the kitchen. We added windows and doors and ultimately delivered the kitchen they needed with more space, light, and function. It takes a special kind of partnership to be able accomplish that.
Christine: Rather than chasing trends, I prefer to keep tabs on emerging ways of living. What shifts have you seen in how your clients are living in their homes, and how is that impacting how they are approaching residential design projects with you and your team?
Tara: We’re starting to see a shift in how people think about the square footage of their homes. I’ve always been a proponent of function over footprint and I’m seeing clients open up to that idea. They’re seeing increased value in investing in architectural design that makes use of every square foot. Think of it as quality over quantity—homeowners are seeing that their budget stretches farther in terms of quality and customization while not sacrificing on function with a smaller footprint.
We often see that finishes are where people get caught in a “trendy vs. timeless” mindset. It’s easy to see your options as either going with what’s popular in the moment or holding back and choosing a simpler or more classic option. With either choice, we lose the homeowner’s true personality. Trends change quickly, and even things that might be considered timeless will lose appeal eventually. What will truly feel timeless to a client in the long term is a home with design that is personalized to their tastes and the way their family functions.
Building something personalized to you that matches how your family functions is how you achieve timeless design.”
Tara Davis
Co-Founder and Creative Director
Christine: Looking ahead, how do you see residential design evolving in, say, the next 3 to 5 years?
Tara: People have had enough of generic flips. Our clients are starting to take a deeper look at what design means to them. They’re more willing to say, “I want this house to work for me” rather than putting future resale front and center in the design process. I think we’ll see a continuous shift toward homeowners prioritizing space that brings them joy, personalization, function, and that evolves with them over time. And a little more of a lean toward maximalism. That’s where I get really excited.
Explore Tara’s work with Cicada Co. at cicadaco.com.
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