Celebrating LGBTQ Industry Leaders

Part IV: Interior Design

Our COO Mike Ufferman reveals why the bedroom is his favorite space to design and dishes on kitchen remodels for “takeout-tarians.”

Tell us about your design journey.

I was originally pre-med in college and I decided I didn’t want to be in school for seven more years, I was eager to start my life, go out, be mischievous and have fun.

I started my ‘design career’ at Butterfield’s Auction House in San Francisco, that’s where I was bit by the design bug. I was around pieces of artwork that were untouchable to most people. Once, I sat in a private room with a Picasso alone and just stared at it. I had my hands on an Alexander Calder mobile, learned about precious stones, and the importance of Ethnographic artwork. It felt like every day I was getting an MFA in Art History.

Wow, that’s incredible.

Yes, it was. I was there for many years, working directly with clients and eventually learning to be an auctioneer. Then I had a life-altering medical event at work and realized I couldn’t keep up with the late-night hours and intense deadlines.

Eventually, I traveled to Mexico and spent time on a remote beach with a bag of mushrooms to re-evaluate my life. I got a call from a dear friend who was leading a successful team at Visa. He told me he quit his job and was starting an interior design staging business and asked if I would join. I worked with him for eight or nine years, until I met Paige who was looking for someone to run her operations. Fast forward 11+ years, Paige and I are partners along with Catrina Cooper, running this crazy successful Bay Area interior design firm.

What a journey.
Pivoting a bit here, what’s your favorite room in the house to design?

The bedroom, hands down. It's our private space. It’s where we retire at night. It’s the first thing that we wake up to in the morning, and it has become this multifunctional space where it's not just a bedroom with a bed and two nightstands. It's now our office, sometimes it's our yoga studio. It's where we read to our kids at night. It’s a glass of wine and sexy time. It’s where we are the most intimate and vulnerable. It’s where families are started. It’s where we cry in bed at the loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship. It's this all-encompassing space that wraps you in a cocoon. These days it’s so fun and playful to design for the bedroom— build a reading nook, find interesting art pieces, design lighting to set a mood, choose bold paint colors—if a client says they want a simple accent wall behind their headboard one more time I'm going to lose my mind. We’ve advanced so far beyond that.

Love that perspective.
What do you tell first-time home buyers interested in design who are excited to try it themselves?

I call these folks our weekend warriors. They saw a Youtube video and they’re excited to retile or paint themselves. We usually get a call from them along the lines of ‘I tried to do this on my own and it doesn’t look cohesive. Can you fix it?’

Just think about paint alone. There are so many different paint options with unique enamels and qualities to them. Is it a matte finish? Is it a semi-gloss? What paint is best for a light-filled room? For a darker room? For kitchen cabinetry? There are so many choices that need to be left to someone with professional expertise, and a lot of times clients don’t understand until they’ve tried it themselves, then they call us.

When you kick off a new project with a client, do you need to manage expectations up front?

Given the world we’re in now, yes. Resetting expectations is the first conversation I have. The questions that usually come up are “Can you start next week?” and “Can it cost only half of what we think it’s going to cost?” My answer to both is no and also I mention there is a massive delay in products due to the supply chain disruption. Furniture is delayed and material for furniture is delayed. There is a major glass shortage right now that affects mirrors and lighting. At Loczi, we saw this as a great opportunity to offset the supply chain disruptions and be thoughtful with our carbon footprint— source furniture from local vendors and work with upcycled materials. This mindset has created new energy in the company. The story we need to tell our clients is yes, you will likely pay more for it, but it has a story behind it now, and it’s a custom-craft piece that can be handed down for years, it’s not just something that’s going to end up in a landfill. maybe instead, it ends up at auction years from now carrying a beautiful provenance with it.

Yes. More of that please.

Speaking of adaptability in an ever-changing environment, what did COVID teach us about home design?

Covid taught us to re-evaluate what the word ‘home’ means to all of us. It’s not just a place we return to after our 9-5 jobs. Our home functions for us differently than it did before.
During COVID home became our safe space. Remember when running to the grocery store felt dangerous? The home was a safe space where we could work, cook, and exercise. It taught us how to live in our spaces differently.

When we were first in lockdown, the world stopped and the phone calls stopped. Then, three months later the calls came, “Are you guys working? I’ve been in this house for three months, staring at these walls, and I dislike everything about this home.”

Covid re-energized our business in a way we didn’t see coming, and it was a novel challenge for designers. Clients realized they had to start cooking for themselves and needed a kitchen that wasn’t just countertop surface for take-out containers and pizza boxes. Designers had to re-imagine a kitchen for someone who only ate take-out.

And of course, Covid made us all slow down for a moment and appreciate what we’ve built around us.

Isn’t that the truth.
Lastly, how did you celebrate Pride Weekend?

My partner and I are very fortunate to have a house in the city and a beautiful space in Sonoma. We were with some of our closest friends, by the pool, drinking really delicious cocktails crafted by yours truly.

Cheers to that, thanks for your time and your vision for Loczi, Mike.

Thank you!