MYS: Taylor Howes on Interior Design for Yachts

We sat down with Karen Howes, CEO & Founder of Taylor Howes, to learn more about her company and how she finds the transition between designing beautiful homes and beautiful yachts.

“We’re going to be 25 next year,” she began. “It was me and my then business partner Gail Taylor. We took our first office from the incredible Issie Blow, who some of the viewers will know was an extraordinary, creative, totally crazy lady.

“We have a team now based in Knightsbridge, we moved into our studio a year ago. “We took over the old Aston Martin car show room so we have this amazing 3,500 square foot of space, which is fabulous. We have a team of 30 passionate designers working there. We are an international brand and do design projects all over the world, but for us it’s all about building relationships.

“So the reason we’re here, is that we have a lot of clients for whom we do their London home, their beach house in Abu Dhabi, stuff in New York, Connecticut, and they say ‘Karen come and do our yacht for us!’ And we have members of our team who have huge experience in that area, so we’re here to speak to everyone and learn more about it.”

So for a company that could probably finish an interior design project for a beautiful home while blindfolded, what has she found are some of the main challenges of designing for yachts instead?

“We are very aware that there are a lot more restrictions when you’re doing a yacht,” she said. Technically in terms of the legislation and restrictions. But in honest truth, we work in super houses and super houses and superyachts are not that dissimilar.”