A Fortuitous Corporate Pivot That Produced M. Frederick Design
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A Fortuitous Corporate Pivot That Produced M. Frederick Design
Drool-worthy homes are aplenty on the East End, and most of the time, there is a genius working behind the scenes making mood-boards and demanding textile samples sent to the studio daily. Designers are often trained and knew they were going to be clipping Architectural Digest pages for a lifetime. Lucky for us, Matthew Frederick, founder and designer of M. Frederick Design, tapped into his natural talents as a lifestyle creator after a successful corporate career early enough to have given the world twenty-years of his vision. Frederick owns the kind of calling that you’re born with — it’s impossible to teach this kind of talent.
His aesthetic has a deep and layered classical bent that organically works in both modern and traditional architecture. There is a Regency tinge to his work while still being very approachable — not an easy feat. Frederick’s use of colors has not an ounce of arbitrary color usage, in fact, we can sense his color board upon entering one of his rooms. Every space has a cohesive resonance that invites and engages while remaining stately and elevated.
Frederick is soon launching a shop of his lifestyle brand offerings as well as a major expansion of his digital presence. We wanted to know more about him and his lifestyle brand and thankfully, he agreed to talk with us.
Matthew, let’s start with how long you have been an interior designer?
Officially, I have been an interior designer for almost twenty years. Unofficially, I have been designing and creating spaces since college. I was a Resident Assistant in college, and I remember one year I had an amazing on-campus apartment as part of my package. I went to the lumber yard and purchased lumber to make my own four-poster bed. I had the tools available, so I doweled and milled the pieces to make the bed and had it for the remainder of my college stay. It was a beast to take down when I graduated. Looking back, it was sort of a silly thing to do, but even then I was interested in not only creating spaces that were unique and reflected who I was, but I was also not willing to settle for standard offerings and sought to design and create that which was not available to me at the time. I think this still hold true to my design philosophy today.
Was it your dream? Your work seems so deeply connected to a lifetime of wanting to design.
Becoming a designer was never my dream or intent. I had a very successful corporate career prior to starting my firm. I was exposed to strong architecture and design growing up in a home with a father who was in the design industry and living in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, which has some amazing architecture. I was also exposed and influenced by the luxury and visionary grandeur of Ralph Lauren, not only as a consumer, but during my time working for the company. What an amazing, creative place to start developing my own personal design aesthetic. In my twenties, I started to purchase and renovate homes and noticed that people often commented on the work I had done. When I finally decided to leave my corporate job and do something more fulfilling, the idea of working in architecture and design seemed like a natural thing to do.
Matthew, M. Frederick Design is a multi-disciplinary interior design firm. What exactly does that mean?
While our primary focus is interior architecture and interior design residential clients, we also dabble in landscape design, home design, and we do a lot of custom product design for both client projects as well as our licensing partners. We have a line of furniture, case goods and occasional pieces we designed called Browne & Moore that we have licensed through EJ Victor and a line of lighting with Wildwood Home.
For client projects, we often engineer and design bespoke furniture, kitchen and closet cabinetry, architectural hardware and lighting to complete the project and incorporate something truly special and unique to the project. For projects where we get involved with landscape design, we have enough knowledge and experience to layout pool houses and other ancillary structures on a property and to develop the planting layouts and schedules. As licensed contractors who understand architecture and construction, we are also able to help clients evaluate design and construction options in a way that most design firms cannot. That we are capable of being a single-source design resource for the right clients is a valuable set of skills and resources to leverage for a large project.
What is your design philosophy that we can see interpreted in your interiors? Or how would you describe your interior design style?
I would describe our design style as Modern Classic with the single thread that ties all of our projects together being reflected in our “Elegant Living for Everyday Life” ethos. I never liked the term “Transitional” and I think that Modern Classic is so much more than what people ascribe to the Transitional moniker.
For us, Modern Classic is the subtle interplay between traditional décor elements with a nod and ready acceptance of new and evolving styling. We love vintage antiques and patina as much as we love clean track arms and Lucite, and many things in between. In the end, Modern Classic spaces we create have a vibrance and longevity that outlast any passing trend. Part of the longevity of our design is the incorporation of my personal desire to have elegant, sophisticated spaces built for the demands of daily life. I do not feel the two requirements are incompatible. Thoughtful use of materials and design allows for spaces that can be amazing, chic and sophisticated but at the same time, approachable for families, friends, and pets with equal aplomb.
We also bring a fiduciary awareness to client projects as part of our design philosophy. Most of our projects involve a large investment of time and money on the part of our clients. Not only being good stewards of the client budget, our fiduciary role often extends to ensuring we do our part to help clients manage and reduce the various forms of risk that may exist on a project as well as ensuring the decisions that are made are filtered into the context of the overall project lifecycle, including the potential impact design decisions may have on the resale value or multi-generational use of a particular project.
You’ve designed gorgeous homes all over the nation. Can you give us a run-down of where you serve clients and where are you based?
Our studio is located about 30 minutes outside Manhattan in the New Jersey countryside, but we work on client engagements all around the world. We recently finished work on a project in France, and are working on projects in California, Florida, Manhattan, South Carolina, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The farthest afield we have ever worked in in St. Petersburg, Russia. Our firm is structured to be able to support client projects anywhere in the world.
Have you designed homes in the Hamptons?
We have designed several projects in the Hamptons. We have done several projects on Shelter Island and in Southampton. My wife and I often spend time in the summer and fall out east with our kids and I love working there with clients.
Do you have a favorite project that you designed?
I think my favorite project to date is the home I recently designed and built for us. We razed an existing, non-descript 1950’s rambler and had the amazing opportunity to completely re-envision what the property and home would be in a way that perfectly suits our lifestyle. The project allowed me to utilize all of the multi-disciplinary resources of the firm to their fullest. Building our home also let me view the project with the eyes of a client and allowed me to refine and expand certain elements of our offering. It was a great undertaking and I’m glad I had our team to help us along the way!
Are there any trends that our readers need to know about? What are some of your favorites?
One of the biggest trends I see is how home automation is very much plug-and-play and is available to everyone. It doesn’t make a noticeable visual impact on our interiors projects, but it does allow for projects where the age of the home or the budget don’t allow for integrated systems to quickly bring their homes into the 21st century. Wiring for electric cars is also something we include in every new project. Like it or not, electric cars are here to stay and having integrated power for them will increase the value of homes going forward.
On an interiors note, I see more and more people finally ditching the formal dining room and repurposing it to expand the daily living footprint of existing homes. For our new home, we didn’t even design a “dining room” into the design. Our kitchen is elevated enough to do double duty for more formal, adult entertaining. If we want to have a separate space for Thanksgiving or a larger meal than our kitchen can accommodate, we have alternate furniture layouts for different rooms that allow us to temporarily move or relocate furniture and convert the space into a dining room for the night.
When it comes to kitchen design, I am finally winning the fight of the upper cabinet. When I first propose the idea to my clients, many often push back and say they need them. While sometimes needed and the only option for storage in smaller spaces, I find that many people incorporate upper cabinets into kitchens because they ‘think’ they are supposed to have them. When I ask them what they store up there, many people are shocked to realize they can’t even reach the upper shelves and many times the upper cabinets are bare. When they are not bare, they are overstuffed with stuff that hasn’t been used in years. I’m not really a ‘supposed-to-have-them’ kind of guy so I purposefully relegate additional storage to thoughtfully design pantry and ancillary storage areas and create bright, open kitchens that my clients love.
I am also seeing more and more pushback on the open concept layouts. For me, they are hard to design with the warmth and sophistication people look to me for, but they are also loud and tough to live in with kids and tv’s and music all going at the same time.
If money were no object, what would you like to design?
If money were no object, I think I’d like to design a town. It would be great to have the ability to take all of the great bits and pieces of amazing urban planning and wonderful small towns that grew organically with stunning architecture and layouts and incorporate these elements into not just the homes of the space, but the entire town. My favorite example of this is Alys Beach, Florida, but there are other areas that are so thoughtfully planned and executed.
On a smaller scale, if money were no object, I’d like to design a smaller home with every detail fully considered…. every detail. Details are so key to successful design and it would be great to have a project where absolutely nothing had to be left out solely because of budget.
What are some of your favorite go-to magazines, websites and/or books for design inspiration?
Lately, I pull a lot from Instagram and Pinterest. The depth of sophisticated and thought-provoking interior design imagery is never-ending and the platforms make it easy to store inspiration by project or just for a future engagement. I also like looking through books with floorplans from the 1920s and ’30s. Many of the layouts don’t work for how we live in the 21st century, but they do allow for a great starting point when developing a new layout for a new home or addition and they have great details that most people don’t design into homes anymore.
I also like looking through hospitality design magazines for small details that could make the leap to a residential application like the design of a modern railing or kitchen layout at a hotel. Just as residential design is creeping into commercial design – resimercial – hospitality details and solutions are working their way into residential design. Items like top-open beverage refrigerators, use of industrial-grade materials in luxury settings, and hotel-like floorplans are all on the rise. Why not live like you vacation?
When you’re not designing gorgeous homes, what do you do for fun?
When not designing, I like spending as much time with my family. My kids are growing up so fast, it is important for me to spend as much time with them as possible. I also love playing polo. I’m not particularly good nor do I have time to keep the ponies, but I fly to Argentina and Spain whenever I can to take lessons and play.
To view the full portfolio of Frederick’s work or learn more, visit www.mfrederick.com.
