pg. 78/79 | Shot by Sarah Barlow
with Interior styling by Hilary Robertson
There are designers whose work you admire, and there are designers who make you feel something—a pull to create, fresh inspiration for how you want to live. Leanne Ford has always been in the second category for me. Long before I started designing products for Casa Zuma, I was saving her projects the way you save a song or a poem you want to refer back to—not to copy it, but because it grounded me in what I already believed. Her spaces don't perform. They're made for expression, and living your most joy-filled life.
Her new book, Feel Free Home, is a permission slip to express the type of spaces you love. A workbook for the kind of person who treats their home as a canvas—who trusts their gut over their Pinterest board, and understands that the soul of a space isn't something you can source or style your way into. It has to be felt first. I've been thinking about that a lot lately as we build Casa Zuma—what it means to create something that reflects how you want to live, not just how you want it to look. The excerpt below from Feel Free Home says it all.
pg. 102 | Shot by Erin Kelly
A SOUL FULL HOME
“Soul”—emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance.
Your home is a window into your soul, into your life, into your passions. We get to show our world in our world. Home is where you are safe to express what you want, how you want it, to who you want. For designers, our own home is our calling card, our strongest portfolio piece, and where we can do what we do best—undiluted, unrestrained, without questions, explanations, or complaints. It is a place for us to practice new ideas, to mess up, and to try, try again. Or, in some cases, cry, cry again. It is a place to find inspiration, which, if all goes well, will be sure to inspire others.
pg. 119 | Shot by Erin Kelly
How important is intuition in design? I think it’s one of the most important skills, and though I do believe we all have the skill of intuition in us, the key, like all other skills or muscles, is to use it. Following your gut in a project will get you much farther than following your Pinterest board. There is an unspoken atmosphere that can’t be translated outside of a mental or physical reaction to a creative decision. I promise you, when you follow your gut, things line up for you. When you fight the intuition, when you ignore your gut, the project will feel off. And if you are anything like me, you will be back later to fix it, to do what you knew you should have done the first time around.
You don’t need proof, evidence, or approval when you work from your intuition, which is when the “inspired” creations start to come out. Inspired is related to the phrase in spirit, meaning when you start to listen to more than just the people around you—in other words, to the voice inside of you—good things will happen. The soul of a space will emerge and warmth will fill it up. I promise.
Take on your design project with a sense of adventure. Because I assure you, that’s exactly what it’s about to be. As you look around and dive into your space, look at each area, each detail, good and bad, and ask yourself, “Do we celebrate? Or do we conceal?” There’s no in-between—we edit things out or we lean in!
pg. 111 | Designed in Collaboration
with and shot by Amy Neunsinger
INSPIRATION, EVERYWHERE
Inspiration can be found anywhere. Much of my inspiration, funnily enough, comes from music. Sometimes it’s not visual at all; rather, it’s just a feeling that evokes an idea. My design inspirations include Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Paul Simon—and other people not in my field, such as Julia Child. But they’re always doers. Always creative thinkers. Whatever inspires you, appreciate that, pull from that, let it flourish and grow into what you need it to be. At the end of the day, our home reflects what matters to us: a place that reminds us of who we are, who we love, what we love, who we want to be. Don’t give up. You too can create your own visual experience in your home— any style, any size, anywhere. Promise.
Design is emotional and subjective, just like art, like music, or like anything really. We can hardly expect everyone on the planet to line up and agree on what beauty looks like. How boring! I am thankful for all styles and for those who are free enough to express their individual style. You do you. And I’ll do me. And we can appreciate each other without quite getting it. Sometimes we just need to “get” that we don’t get it.
Just because I don’t love color doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it. I love when people use it fully and boldly and layered. I love muddy tones of dusty shades of any color. I just don’t gravitate toward it myself! But I love people who do! The main reason I don’t use a lot of color is that I am lazy. That’s right, I said it: lazy. I don’t want to fret over tones and shades and how this goes with this and this and blah blah blah. I want easy, quick, fail-proof design decisions. I want to do something I know I will love, will look good, and will stand the test of time. In other words, white paint, baby!
It all comes back to SOUL. It’s what you feel when you walk into a space. There are spaces you walk into and admire for their beauty. That’s cool, but I am not interested in those spaces. There are other spaces that evoke a feeling—a visceral feeling. Those are the spaces that stay with you. The homes that invite guests to sit! Stay awhile! Look around, have a drink, and put a record on. That’s the Feel Free Home.
“A soul is what breathes life into these bodies of ours. Our connection to God, from God. In the same way, we can breathe life into our homes.”
Excerpt from the new book Feel Free Home (Abrams) by Leanne Ford
© 2026 Leanne Ford
