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" When the judges discussed your work, they called you an intelligent designer \u2013 what were the points you were trying to hit with your decor and overall scheme?  My idea was that I wanted to read as a designer and not a decorator \u2013 I wanted to come across as able. I wanted to show the things that I could do on my own, and I didn&amp;#039;t want it to just look like something I pulled out from a book. How do you see the difference between a decorator and a designer? Decorator and designer can go in the same hat, but I guess a designer is somebody who does have the skills to build a piece of furniture, who can go beyond just shopping. We all are decorators on our own. A designer takes a little bit more skill and talent and maybe some training, maybe a class. In general, would you say you work more on gut feeling or careful calculation?  Thinking back to the show, a lot of that was just on gut feeling. It depends on the client. You work with the client; you understand them; you hear their voice, and then you spread your voice to them. A lot of it is about your artistic capabilities, and working with a client, you&amp;#039;re sharing a vision. Margaret Russell loved your entrance, but she said it didn&amp;#039;t serve any real purpose. As an eccentric designer, do you think you ever lose touch with practicality? I guess maybe every designer loses touch with practicality. That&amp;#039;s part of the job. That&amp;#039;s what you have to do. You go over the top with things. You buy chandeliers that you don&amp;#039;t need. It&amp;#039;s really not about practicality. But for the entryway of that house, I didn&amp;#039;t feel like there was a necessity for two seating areas. It was more about making a great entrance. The judges praised you for being a risk taker. But they also warned that taking risks in someone else&amp;#039;s home can freak a client out. How do you handle that?  You have a vision which you want to express and obviously push, and that&amp;#039;s the artist in you. Taking risks, that&amp;#039;s what we&amp;#039;re supposed to do as designers; otherwise it&amp;#039;s so boring. It&amp;#039;s just copying. If you don&amp;#039;t take a risk, you&amp;#039;re not being an artist. Even though you won, there were missteps in your house\u2013namely, the enormous &amp;quot;sarcophagus&amp;quot; console in the living room. What have those mistakes and the criticism from the judges taught you as a designer? Damn it, did you see that? Laughing. When that came in the room, I thought, &amp;quot;Ooooh, crap, what have I done?&amp;quot; To be totally honest, it was a mistake. The minute I saw it coming into the house, I should have said, &amp;quot;No way.&amp;quot; As far as criticism goes, you have to have an open ear. You have to absorb it and be ready to reflect it in future work.  What was your favorite room in your house? The dining room was my absolute favorite. I put my heart and soul into it. I did a painting, made a table, made a chandelier. It felt very custom and very reflective of my personality and how I would like to design. The judges loved your painting in the dining room \u2013 how did you get that idea? Do you think you&amp;#039;ll start doing more art for clients in the future?  The painting came from me not being able to buy the artwork that I wanted, so I thought, I have to have something to fill up this void on the wall. So I got paint and a canvas and did something. As far as doing more artwork for clients, I doubt it. I wouldn&amp;#039;t call myself a painter. But it was cool. I wish I still had it. Margaret chalked up your win not just to talent, but to a sense of confidence in your design decisions. Has being on Top Design boosted your confidence to go even edgier with your designers? Absolutely. Being on Top Design was that chance and forum to do whatever I wanted. In the end, you were judged, you had a panel of people looking at your work: Margaret, Kelly, Jonathan, India, and whoever else they got each week. You had a small budget and limited materials and had to come up with something really brilliant. Moving ahead, I think I will be edgier with my work, but also confident in the sense of knowing how far you can go and how far you can&amp;#039;t. Do you think you ever went too far on the show? I think some of my ideas were kind of bogus. I&amp;#039;ve sort of talked my way out of a few situations. One in mind is the window display, which was just an entire disaster. It&amp;#039;s completely embarrassing that challenge was attached to my name. I didn&amp;#039;t know what I was doing. What were you thinking as you took the judges through your house? I was very proud. I was really excited to show them the space. I was thinking that I had produced something that I would put my name to. I didn&amp;#039;t feel embarrassed at all. It was very reflective of my personality as well as my ability and skill as a designer. I was confident in what I was showing. After the initial judging, did you think you were going to win? It was a very weird moment, because I poured my heart and soul into it but you never know. I was comparing it to Preston&amp;#039;s, comparing it to Ondine&amp;#039;s but in the end, all I could do was hope. What was the first thought that went through your head when they said you were the winner? Umm\u2026 God, I just remember kind of having this overwhelming shock. I was really questioning if they had actually said that to me. Thinking, oh my god was my work that good? Did they really like that? Are you sure it wasn&amp;#039;t Ondine? Preston? Am I going to wake up in a moment? It was dreamlike. It was surreal. What are you most excited about \u2013 the title of Top Design, being in ELLE DECOR, or the money? Laughing. I think the exposure in ELLE DECOR is pretty exciting. ELLE D\u00C9COR is obviously a very, very important shelter magazine, both in the United States and internationally. It&amp;#039;s regarded as kind of the top notch of shelter magazines. The money is great, but it&amp;#039;s an added bonus. Exposure in ELLE DECOR is the biggest deal. How are you going to use the $100,000? I recently launched my own business, Nathan Thomas Studios. It will help me move a little further, maybe buy a fax machine, copier, envelopes, you know, the things I need. Maybe I&amp;#039;ll do a little bit of travel. I&amp;#039;m off to Morocco for Christmas and New Years. It was already planned, but it&amp;#039;s going to be a better trip now! How do you think winning Top Design will help you in the future, and what opportunities will it give you that you didn&amp;#039;t think would be possible, otherwise? Being on Top Design for all of us, for every contestant, from Serge to me, it served as this platform for a national audience. It&amp;#039;s a wonderful, wonderful kind of trampoline for every designer that participated in the show. Fortunately, I think the finalists will be propelled to a lot of new heights. It&amp;#039;s almost like Top Design is your p.r. firm. It gives you a lot of exposure that you won&amp;#039;t get otherwise. We&amp;#039;re excited to see more from you \u2013 what have you been working on since the show ended, and what do you have in store? I&amp;#039;m excited, too! I&amp;#039;m hunting for clients right now. I&amp;#039;m finishing a job up in Williamsburg [in Brooklyn] that&amp;#039;s got an urban chic vibe to it and a graffiti-painted wall. I&amp;#039;m looking into furniture design. A furniture maker and I are going through the motions right now. I hope Nathan Thomas Studios moves into a lot of the branches: product, furniture, upholstery, textiles, wallpaper, and interiors. Click here to see work from the top three finalists. Get the full scoop at Top Design Central. Click here to check out all the past interviews.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/interior-designers/interviews/a587/top-design-interview-nathan-wins-52657/>