Talk Shop with Ariel Okin: A Fenimore Lane Production

This week we’re joined by a guest whose prolific work in the architecture and interiors worlds is, quite literally, historic. Ben Pentreath is an English architectural and interior designer, whose firm has become known for its brilliant master-planning and urban development, along with incredibly detailed and beautiful private homes and playful interiors all over the world. As Ben says, “we love designing spaces that work beautifully for the long term, and feel right for the place.”

Ben’s background is in Art History, which he studied at the University of Edinburgh before attending the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture. He worked for five years in New York at Fairfax and Sammons, and then with the Prince’s Foundation, before starting his own practice in 2004.

This week we’re joined by a designer who found her calling for interiors through a lifestyle blog she started on the side of her day job, back in 2009. Alexandra Kaehler (known as Alex!) is a talented interior designer whose work has been recognized on prestigious industry lists such as House Beautiful’s Next Wave and Luxe Magazine’s “Gold List”. 

Alex began what she believed to be her dream career in advertising, and soon realized interior design was actually her calling. Through her blog, and a postgraduate program at Harrington College of Design, Alex began to take on clients, and eventually opened her firm, Alexandra Kaehler Design, in 2011. Alex believes the most important element of design is to fill your home with things you love – nothing should be so fragile or delicate that you aren’t able to enjoy it. If you ask Alex, a home is meant to be loved and lived in. (And we agree!) 

More than a decade out since founding her firm, Alex still calls Chicago her home, with her husband and children. Her beautiful work has been featured in numerous publications and websites including House Beautiful, Domino, Luxe, Vogue, The Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal, and you can follow the behind the scenes of her own home renovation of a historic property in the Chicago suburbs, on her Instagram account, @alexkaehlerdeisgn. 

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This week we’re honored to welcome an incredibly talented interior designer with a prolific career, Alessandra Branca. Born and raised in Rome, Alessandra has called Chicago home for over 30 years. Alessandra acquired her love for classical beauty from her Italian upbringing, and those roots still speak to her soul today. Her designs are anchored by classical details: rich colors, patterns and textures, antique and custom furnishings, modern and European art, and distinctive accessories.

As an Art History student, Alessandra started collecting architectural and natural history prints, and after attending college and then moving to America, she opened a print business. Her shop, fashioned to look like a charming home, led to requests from customers to decorate for them, and the rest was history. 

Alessandra’s work has been featured in countless magazines, including Architectural Digest, Town & Country, The New York Times, Veranda, and Elle Decor, and has been recognized within the industry with a myriad of awards, including House Beautiful’s Master Class. 

Inspiration comes from all facets of Alessandra’s life, including design, history, art, nature, and travel, and she is continually seeking and exploring – I was incredibly inspired by this conversation and I hope you will be too. 

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This week’s guest cut her teeth on the fabulous sets of Hollywood, before transitioning her set design experience into a career: as one of the most sought-after interior designers in LA.

Mandy Cheng launched her solo design career first as a production and graphic designer in the film industry. You can find her design work in music videos for chart-topping names such as J.Cole, and One Republic, & DJ Snake, and her graphic design on projects ranging from 20th Century Women and Ladybird to Beyonce's Lemonade.

Mandy quickly realized she had a passion for interiors, and she has received widespread acclaim: her work on Emmy Raver-Lampman and Daveed Diggs’s home, landed the April 2021 cover of AD, and she most recently designed Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita’s home, which was featured in AD and their fan-favorite platform, Open Door.

Since she founded Mandy Cheng Design, Mandy has been named to the prestigious AD 100 list for three years in a row, and has designed a wide range of spaces, including residential and commercial, all spanning the country.

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For this week’s episode, it’s a Talk Shop first, as we welcome a duo (!) – lifelong friends and now co-founders,Hannah Weil McKinley and Leah Melby Clinton.

Hannah and Leah first met over a decade ago, during their time spent in editorial at POPSUGAR–a pop culture site that covers all things from fashion to beauty to shopping. After the birth of Hannah’s first daughter, she felt a seismic shift, and began to look for and share more candid stories around motherhood and womanhood. Across the country, Leah started to kick around an idea of creating a space for community. Then the pandemic hit, and the beginnings of In Kind took route.

Printed twice yearly, and available digitally, In Kind is thoughtfully curated and touches on the conversations modern women are having:  about motherhood, career, ambition, personal style, and of course, interiors. As Hannah and Leah say, In Kind is a conversation around the things that really matter, focused on capturing, exploring, and supporting the questions and dreams that women are having with each other. (And I agree, as a personal fan of the magazine.)

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