Samantha Gallacher and Renata Vasconez of IG Workshop; Photo credit: Andy Gallacher

Meet Samantha Gallacher and Renata Vasconez, partners at IG Workshop located in Miami, FL.

Samantha graduated from the New York School of Interior Design and has an eye not only for interiors but fashion and home textiles as well. Renata holds an International Business degree and has lived all over the world. Inspired by her travels around the world, (from her home country of Ecuador to Buenos Aires, Milan, New York, and now Miami), Renata brings a unique stylistic flare to the table.

Together each of these bold women form IG Workshop, a full service boutique interior design and construction management firm that has a comfortable, contemporary style with bold and versatile global touches.

I had the opportunity to create custom pieces for a few of their projects and loved collaborating with these talented and artistic women. Samantha reached out to me about a 96 inch wide Blue Ridge piece with metallic detail for a residential project.

Creating this piece and sharing the process on Instagram Stories, initiated many requests for this design among other designers! It also became the inspiration for including larger, Limited Sized pieces in my monthly collections.

Working with designers to create the perfect piece of art for their projects is a passion of mine and getting to know the designers behind these firms is a privilege that I find so rewarding! Learning about Samantha and Renata has made me realize that sometimes we are only able to scratch the surface of what makes each design firm unique. Digging deeper brings out the inspiration and motivation behind the designs, so I hope you find that getting to know the women who form IG Workshop is as beneficial as I do!

How did you two meet? What led to you joining forces for IG Workshop?

We were neighbors and friends in an apartment building in Miami Beach. We decided to buy houses next to each other and renovate them together to see if we could work out better deals. Our plan worked and we took the design team on the road!

[Samantha] had started IG Workshop with another designer from New York who decided to take a break from design to have kids, and when Renata stepped in to help finish up projects we realized how well we worked together. We decided to keep it going and expand on the business. This was about five years ago, and since then we have expanded our team and have completed numerous projects together.

How would you describe the overall design for the Katz, Stone, and Gallacher projects? Why fiber art?

The Katz project is a very large scale modern home in Coconut Grove, Miami. The ceilings are extremely high and you have an open plan so the biggest challenge was to create warmth. The idea of an oversized fiber art wall was key to acoustically and aesthetically wrapping the walls in warmth and style, yet keeping the design modern.

In the Stone residence we used a Lauren Williams wall hanging above the king sized bed in the master. This was more out of a need for interesting art and the fact that it was fiber was an added benefit. These clients have great taste and wanted something very original that they wouldn’t see at all of their neighbors’ houses. We presented the piece and it was the first thing they approved in the whole project; we then designed around it!

The pill shaped tapestry used in the Gallacher staircase, much like the Katz project, was to warm up a somewhat overly modern space. This townhouse boasts four floors of staircases and we needed something that made this area of the home feel as much of a destination as a living room would be.

What is your firm’s greatest accomplishment to date?

It is hard to pinpoint our greatest accomplishment. Last year we designed and completed an incredible concept store in the Miami Design District for our friend, Tailor House. It is a high-end tailor concept in the heart of some of the most amazing retailers in the world. It needed to be chic and make a statement. We were able to really help the owner conceptualize the vision for the brand in our color scheme, materials, and layout. We imported a lot of the furniture from Italy and Portugal so each piece is very unique. It was as fun as it was rewarding to work on this project, and we have since received a lot of press and accolades for it. (See images of the space below)

In addition we have had a lot of repeat customers, meaning we did their home and office or we did multiple homes for the same family, this feels like a major compliment to our work and is very rewarding.

Not only do Samantha & Renata run IG Workshop, Samantha also owns and designs textiles at Art + Loom, a high end rug company that creates unique and bespoke rugs. With her experience as a rug designer for West Elm and her eye for creative design, Samantha began filling a hole in the interiors market via Art + Loom.

Tell us about Art + Loom!

Rugs became the essential element in designing a space because all too often they are made too small or not impactful enough. While shopping for rugs for our high end clients we just couldn’t ever find exactly what we wanted, or if we did it was so over budget that we couldn’t have afforded other elements. So I started making each piece as if we were designing a piece of art for the space. Since most rugs are all made to order, you aren’t held to “what sells” standards for pattern or color, so we were free to express our design intent as a canvas for the floor.

As artists yourselves, how do you approach including artwork in your designs?

In all honestly artwork is the most difficult task in designing a home, it is the most subjective element, what is beautiful to one person is horrendous to another. Luckily, Lauren’s tapestries are appealing to so many of our clients!

Any upcoming projects that you are excited about and can share with us?

Yes! Actually, we are collaborating with a fiber artist to transcend her artwork in to a collection of gorgeous, high-end rugs for Art+Loom! And if you’re wondering which fiber artist we have decided to collaborate with, you would be correct to guess LAUREN WILLIAMS! It’s true! Lauren and Art+Loom will be launching a collection of art for your floor in 2020!

You can follow IG Worshop’s work on Instagram and you can check out Samantha’s work at Art + Loom on Instagram.

Designer Spotlight: IG Workshop

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