How a Sensory Interview Finds What No Pinterest Board Can
There is a moment in every project — and I have lived this moment hundreds of times over nearly thirty years — when a client looks at me and says, “I do not know how to explain what I want.”
And I always tell them the same thing: you do not have to explain it. You just have to feel it.
That is where every project in my studio begins. Not with a style quiz. Not with a Pinterest board. Not with a catalog full of pre-selected options. It begins with a conversation — a real one, the kind that takes time, the kind that sometimes surprises people because nobody has ever asked them these questions about their own home before.
What I Learned from My Mother
My mother, Anita Torres, was a fashion designer in Colombia — a woman of extraordinary talent and even more extraordinary intuition. She never asked a client, “What style do you want?” She asked, “How do you want to feel when you walk into a room wearing this?”
That question changed everything for me. It changed the way I see design, and it changed the way I listen. The Cultural Layering Method is built on that same principle — that design is not about objects, it is about identity. It is not about what goes in the room, it is about who lives in it.
The Questions That Change Everything
I always start by asking: where have you traveled that made you feel at home?
Not where you had the best vacation. Not where the hotel was the most expensive. Where did you feel — in your body, in your breath — that you belonged?
Then I go deeper. What textures do you reach for without thinking? When you close your eyes and imagine comfort, what sounds do you hear? What is the most beautiful room you have ever walked into, and what made it beautiful?
These questions seem simple. They are anything but. When I ask someone about a texture they reach for, I am asking about their childhood. When I ask about a room that moved them, I am asking about who they want to become. When I ask what sounds mean comfort, I am learning whether their home needs to be a sanctuary of silence or a place filled with music and voices and the sound of family.
When a Couple Stopped Arguing About Their Home
I worked with a couple who came to me completely stuck. He wanted clean lines — something modern, something calm. She wanted warmth, color, texture, life. They had already let go of one designer because the mood boards felt like they were designed for someone else entirely.
I did not ask them about style. I asked them about travel.
He started talking about a small restaurant in Barcelona — a place they had found on a side street during their honeymoon. Rough plaster walls, pale and warm. Light coming through wooden shutters. Mismatched chairs that somehow felt perfect. The whole place felt — he kept reaching for the word — honest.
She was staring at him. She had never heard him describe anything that way. And then she said, “That is exactly what I want. I just did not know how to say it.”
That restaurant became the emotional compass for their entire home. Not because we recreated a Barcelona restaurant in Sacramento. But because the feeling of that place — the rough plaster, the filtered light, the warmth without pretension — became the foundation for every choice we made.
They stopped arguing about their home the day we found that common thread. Because it was never about modern versus traditional. It was about a feeling they both shared but had never named.
The Sensory Profile
The output of the Sensory Interview is what I call a Sensory Profile — a document unique to each client that maps their emotional and sensory landscape. Not style preferences. Not color choices. Feelings. Memories. The way they experience the world through touch, through light, through sound, through the smell of coffee in the morning or jasmine at night.
This document becomes the foundation for every design decision that follows. It is the reason my clients’ homes feel personal in a way that catalog-sourced interiors simply cannot. When every decision traces back to something real — a memory, a feeling, a place that mattered — the result is a home that feels collected over a lifetime rather than purchased in a weekend.
Why This Matters for Your Home
If you have ever felt frustrated trying to articulate what you want your home to feel like — if mood boards leave you cold, if Pinterest gives you inspiration but never satisfaction, if you know something is missing but cannot name it — the problem is not with your taste. The problem is with the questions you have been asked.
The right designer does not need you to arrive with a vision fully formed. The right designer knows how to find it with you — through conversation, through listening, through questions that go deeper than “what style do you like?”
That is what the Sensory Interview does. It finds the feeling. And once you have the feeling, the design becomes the easy part.
Read what clients say about this process, or explore our FAQ to learn more about how we work.
Marta Cecilia Rodriguez developed the Sensory Interview as the first phase of her signature Cultural Layering Method. She has conducted hundreds of these interviews over nearly thirty years, creating luxury residences that begin with who you are, not what is trending. She serves El Dorado Hills, Sacramento, Granite Bay, Folsom, and the Bay Area. Request a Private Consultation