OUR TEAM

​DANIEL J. SHENMAN- PRINCIPAL

Daniel has been designing spaces since he was a child, drawing rooms filled with antique furniture, and turning his basement into imaginary movie sets.  He spent summer days making forts in the woods, which were treated like a built environment, displaying found treasures.
​
"Growing up I had two major design icons.  My mother was an artistic free-spirit, who created an elegant, whimsical backdrop for our family.  She mixed Louis XIV antiques with hippy inspired art and macrame wall-hangings that she made herself... with plants everywhere!  There were no rules but everything was still placed just right. which is what made it all work.  My Grandmother on the other hand had the most elegant, completely traditional home I had ever seen, and it inspired me tremendously.  I don't believe style can be intentionally learned, but I do think it's inherited."

Daniel studied business administration and marketing at American University in Washington, D.C.  It was at this time that the reactions he got from the way he had decorated his first apartment made him realize the perfect career path had been right in front of him for years.  Immediately following graduation he enrolled in an interior design graduate program at Marymount University.  While in graduate school he began working full time at a design boutique, where he gained the most valuable experience.

"I was sort of put on this showroom floor to assist people with drapery panels.  Before I knew it I was 22 years old doing in-home consultations in 5 million dollar homes... I had no clue what the hell I was doing in reality, but I just sort of faked it until I made it.  I guess deep down I just always trusted in my abilities."

He completed his masters degree, with a thesis that explored the significance of interior design in the White House, and the influence set by Jacqueline Kennedy's 1961 restoration, both in establishing the White House as a place of heritage, and in the deliberate use of interior design for political branding.  

Daniel has been working non-stop ever since, designing both private and public spaces all over the US.  Despite its challenges, he considers himself so lucky to have found a career which he is so immensely passionate about.