Katherine B. Melvin Design
Katherine Bramlett Melvin founded her full-service interior design firm in 2016 in Birmingham, Alabama. Katherine’s love for design began at early age weaving in and out of antique stores and art galleries with her mom. Later she studied art history and architecture at both Vanderbilt and at Oxford in England. Katherine's classical education and travel coupled with her southern design roots have shaped her sophisticated yet welcoming aesthetic.
Katherine believes that all great projects start with listening to the client’s lifestyle needs and dreams for their space. She then works to bring the client’s dream to life in a fresh way. Katherine loves to find clever ways to mix the traditional with the new, and always leaves space for something delightful and unexpected. She hopes that spaces she designs will serve only to further enhance the beauty of every day life.
Today, Katherine and her wonderful team work long and happy days from their studio in Mountain Brook village, with projects throughout the southeast. And they look forward with great excitement to the things to come!
In Her Words...read on to get to know Katherine!
How did you get started in interior design? What is your background?
Growing up, home and family were of the utmost importance. That emphasis coupled with my moms design eye and my dads creativity influenced who I have become in a big way. Later in school, I fell in love with my art & architecture courses in both the States & abroad. After a series of internships during school, I found myself working for a small firm back in Birmingham. I am endlessly grateful for that opportunity for so many reasons, but especially because it allowed me to get to know the full scope of running an interior design business — from invoicing, to site visits, to autoCAD, to organizing fabrics, to client relations. I fell in love with all of it and the rest is history.
What do you love most about including original art in your designs?
I love that every piece of art hanging in a home tells a little story- the artists story (why & how they created the piece) as well as the collectors story (what drew them to purchase this piece). Art reflects a piece of the artist in the most unique way and to have the opportunity to include those pieces in a home is a privilege. Art gives context and history to a home in a way that only art can do! I have a very specific memory from a project I worked on early in my career where the wife had been an artist. She had passed away but her work still covered the walls of their family home. She left her story all over those walls & I’m sure on countless other collectors walls. It was a beautiful reminder of how art can transcend time and place, and continue to share beauty for decades to come. Few things have such a lasting impact therefore i think art is always a worthy investment.
What is your favorite room in your own house?
My favorite room in our house is our front living room. It sits on the front of the home and gets the most amazing light in the mornings. It washes the whole space in a golden light. Its easily the most formal room in our house, which I love because when I’m in there, I feel a little bit set apart from the rest of the house. Somehow my to-do list doesn’t seem to follow me into the room. The room has some new pieces but also holds several passed down pieces, giving it that collected feel that I strive for. I look forward to continually adding treasures here & there and enjoying my morning coffee there for years to come.
