After forty years of design work, the answers to these questions still prevail and often are the substance of my days. The biggest challenge is to keep a fresh view of the possible solutions for the client and for myself. I like to try new materials, new patterns and new construction. I’m not the type of person who likes the do the same thing again and again, although I do believe in perfecting that which works, in different ways, as you might notice with my variety of handmade bags. 

Having been an interior designer and a maker of handmade goods for a while now, I have always grappled with how to live two different worlds. One, building or restoring whatever please me. Two, understanding what a client’s needs are and how to build for them. These are such different worlds yet there is one element they have in common: using as little of the earth’s resources as possible. You could say it’s my religion. From my first big hotel project in Coconut Grove, Florida, to the gallery of reawakened furniture I ran with my husband Carlos Castro for twelve years in the eighties, to the over sixty restaurants, nightclubs and homes I’ve designed…..I’m careful to not to over-tax the planet.  Henry David Thoreau said it beautifully: “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone.” 

My design clients are numerous and so very different in their needs and budgets. Often contractors who carry through my complex design plans, are like those strange creatures sitting at the bar in the Star Wars movie….shifting from one side of the stool exhaling in huffs and puffs. They proclaim: “Yes, don’t’ worry, leave it up to me…..”(when they intend to bypass the plans)  or “If you want to do it that way, why don’t you do it yourself?!” as we stare into a void. And yes, they probably are as perplexed by me.  But by the time I leave a construction site, cross the county and slide into my oasis of a studio, it’s finally playtime! Yep, fixing, sewing, gluing paper or whatever my heart desires ignites my fire! The result of this solo time is what you see with the items in my Antares Furnishings online store. 

My Mom and Granddad built wonderful projects from restoration of cottage houses, cabins in the woods, to classic New Mexican ranch style adobe homes. I learned to be courageous and grateful for every opportunity I was given. I made bricks in the hot sun and stripped wallpaper off walls when I was a kid. I am just as happy today, painting a mural, stenciling walls, making a puppet or restoring an old toy as I am in leading the subs through a year long construction project.  My Dad taught me to always tell a good story and know how to end it well. Seems this story isn’t over and because of your patronage, I’m a very fortunate soul! Thank you.  

                                                                          - Carolyn Robbins

finding your calling

remembering nature