Technology puts things at our fingertips and opens up whole new avenues, but the business is still tactile and still quite visceral for me,” muses Stephen Knollenberg, a Michigan-based designer known for interiors that are a tightly edited mix of the old and the new.

Though he incorporates plenty of the field’s cutting-edge developments into his seven-year-old practice (computerized visualizations allow clients to see how sunlight will play across rooms and outdoor spaces), he maintains there’s no substitute for seeing and feeling: “I think it’s important to note how much of the design process remains as it was. We need to see and touch textiles. I want to pull out a drawer or inspect the patina of an antique chest before I buy it.” Knollenberg also relies on his gut instincts as projects near completion. “At a certain point, I know when something is right and the best results have been achieved,” he says.

Stephen Knollenberg

248-203-1082

www.stephenknollenbergom