What Thirty Years of Design Across Six Continents Taught Me
When I left Colombia to study design in Miami, I carried one piece of advice from my mother, Anita Torres, who was a fashion designer herself. She told me that culture knows no borders and that creativity is multi-lingual. I did not fully understand what she meant until decades later.
Now, after nearly thirty years of designing homes across six continents, I understand it completely. And the lessons that have shaped me most have very little to do with materials or floor plans. They are about people.
Every Culture Has a Different Relationship with Home
In Colombia, the kitchen is the emotional center of the house. It is where stories are told and families reconnect at the end of the day. In parts of Europe, the dining room holds that role — a more formal space, but no less intimate. In many Asian homes, the threshold between inside and outside is treated with a reverence that most American homes ignore entirely.
When I design a home in El Dorado Hills or Sacramento, I am not importing another culture. But I am drawing on what I have observed around the world — the idea that every room has a purpose that goes beyond its function. A kitchen is not just for cooking. A bedroom is not just for sleeping. Each space carries an emotional role in your family’s life, and the design should honor that role.
The Best Materials Have a Story
Early in my career, I chose materials because they looked beautiful in a catalog. That changed the first time I visited a textile workshop in person — watching the hands that made the fabric, understanding the tradition behind the weave, learning why certain patterns existed.
Now, I source materials from artisans I have met personally. I have visited workshops in Poland for linens, studied stone quarries in Italy, and spent time with Indigenous artisans in Colombia whose textile traditions go back centuries. When I place a textile or a stone in your home, it carries a provenance. It has a story. And that story is part of what makes your home feel alive rather than assembled.
This is not decoration. It is cultural layering — building a home from materials and objects that carry meaning, history, and craft.
Trends Are the Enemy of Timelessness
I have watched design trends come and go — Tuscan everything in the early 2000s, all-white minimalism after that, the grey-and-farmhouse era, and now the return of color and pattern. Each trend produces homes that look dated within five years.
What I learned from studying homes that have endured — centuries-old residences in Europe, colonial homes in South America, mid-century masterpieces in California — is that timelessness comes from proportion, material quality, and restraint. Not from following what is popular.
I never follow the latest style or trend. Any project I work on is as distinctive as every client is distinctive. I simply follow what inspires me and what the space and the client are telling me. The rest comes easily.
Listening Is the Most Important Design Skill
Whenever I meet new people or visit a new place, I continue to embrace new ideas. I listen to what people want, need, or have in their minds, interacting with heartfelt sincerity to develop a sense of trust.
The best design does not begin with a mood board. It begins with a conversation. I ask my clients to describe their favorite moment at home — not the room, but the feeling. Where were they? Who was with them? What did the light look like? Those answers tell me more than any Pinterest board.
Trust comes first. Design follows.
Home Is Not a Place You Decorate — It Is a Life You Design
After all these years, across all these continents, the thing I am most certain of is this: a home is not a collection of beautiful objects. It is the container for your life. It should support your rituals, reflect your identity, and evolve as you do.
I always put my heart into everything I do, focusing until I succeed in creating something that makes me feel proud. And what makes me proudest is not the home itself — it is the moment a client walks in and says, this feels like me.
That is what thirty years has taught me. That is what I bring to every project.
Marta Cecilia Rodriguez is the founder of Marta Cecilia Life & Style Design, with nearly three decades of residential design experience across six continents. She serves El Dorado Hills, Sacramento, Granite Bay, Folsom, and the Bay Area. Request a Private Consultation