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Friday Five with Patricia Davis Brown

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Vero Beach, Florida based Patricia Davis Brown is an award-winning interior designer with a whole lot of credentials after her name – CKBD, ASID, NCIDQ, and NKBA K+B Insider. In 1985 she entered the kitchen and bath industry and soon opened her eponymous studio, where she focuses on residential and commercial interior design, remodels, lighting design, and custom furniture. Besides running her own design blog, DigThisDesign.net, in 2010 she launched Professional Kitchen and Bath Plans, an online destination for all of your kitchen and bathroom design needs. For this week’s Friday Five, Patricia takes us on a journey to find out what keeps her creativity going.

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1. Graffiti Artist Diana Contreras
Diana Contreras, a Peruvian-born and Miami-based graffiti artist, inspires me to color outside the lines. Graffiti art represents breaking rules and this resonates with me in my design work because it’s breaking rules that create trends. I aspire to create out of the box kitchen and bath solutions with every project – my clients expect it.

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2. The Ocean
Water gives me peace and clarity in my work and life. Kayaking on the Indian River I find solitude when I am surrounded by a body of water and open skies. It’s just me, nature and wildlife and it humbles me. It makes me realize that I am a part of the universe and the responsibilities that it brings such as, implementing design practices that are conscientious to our environment. I feel it is up to me as a professional to introduce green products to my clients and offer a cleaner solution for their family and the world.

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3. My son Patrick
My eldest son Patrick inspires me every day with his love of life. He has taught me to face challenges like a warrior. I have learned how to be an advocate and a voice for people who do not have a voice, something I never knew I could do. Having a family member in a wheelchair made me realize the need for universal design and add it to my business model. Designing access for all people makes me a better designer.

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4. Photography by Brian Bowen Smith
Brian Bowen Smith is an American portrait photographer and photojournalist best known for his portraits of actors, business leaders, athletes and more. My favorite is “Metallic Life,” a photographic series that captures the body movements of individuals. The exposed bodies in his work speak through a language of poses accented by color and texture and this resonates with my love of yoga. Yoga is where I find clarity in my life and work. I believe one must reset in order to find their highest level of creativity.

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5. Antoni Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain
Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi used inspirations from nature and added luminosity through architectural detail and color; his work is a huge inspiration to me. He was a genius at bringing the outside world into his designs and using light to enhance them, which is an important part of my work, as well. I recently visited La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona with my fellow NKBA K+B Insiders and it was a treat to physically tour the La Sagrada Familia and La Casa Batlló. I stood in awe at how Gaudi designed the natural light to enter and move through his amazing structures.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.