Rafe Churchill and Heide Hendricks were both raised in homes their fathers built. “You learn a lot about your parents when they take on a task like building the family house—you learn a lot about their marriage, their goals as individuals and who excels at what,” Churchill tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “You just see a lot of things going on that other kids don’t see.” As it turns out, the family homes were in close proximity in Connecticut, but the future couple didn’t meet until shortly after college.
Churchill went on to start a construction company with his brother, while Hendricks entered the PR world, working with famed architects Frank Gehry and Diller Scofidio before pivoting to interior design. The couple initially flipped their own homes as a side hustle, until his clients began taking interest in her design work and they officially went into business together nearly a decade ago. “I still marvel over how much that learning curve wasn’t drastic,” says Hendricks. “As a publicist, you learn how to create a budget and stick to it. You know your way around a spreadsheet. You know how to channel ideas and work toward a greater goal. Nights and weekends, I was working with Rafe on floor plans and lighting and paint and tile, so really, there were just a few more technical things I had to figure out along the way. … It didn’t take long before I realized this is maybe what I should have been doing all along.”
The duo prefers to take on historic renovations over new builds. “Our brand was built out of our shared love and appreciation for the New England vernacular, a lot of [which] was crafted from skilled carpenters and tradespeople,” says Hendricks. “Even back in our 20s, when we first met, we were always very much aligned in what we were attracted to, whether it was spending the day at Hancock Shaker Village [in western Massachusetts], or just driving around looking at old houses, so a lot of that informs our aesthetic to this day.”
“I want to engage with those [historic] properties in a way that is 100 percent respectful and leaves almost no trace,” adds Churchill. “I don’t want it to be obvious I was there. I don’t want someone to be like, ‘Oh, that’s a Rafe Churchill project.’ I am 100 percent dedicated to the historical precedent of that property and the regional architecture. I am not entering into these projects to leave my mark in a way that feeds my ego.”
Crucial insight: Churchill’s father, grandfather and uncle and all of his cousins have been in the trades, so he saw firsthand how (and how not) to run a business. A key takeaway was that many firms get obsessed with revenue and forget about profit. “We just sent an invoice out for $50,000, and that probably sounds really exciting to a young designer,” he says. “But what they’re not really remembering, and I see it every day, is you send an invoice or a bill and you get paid: That’s wonderful, but that’s revenue. Well, now you pay all your expenses, you’ve got to pay yourself, you pay taxes, and it’d be nice to have some cash in your tax savings account and your operating account and your escrow account. Next thing you know, there’s not a lot of money left. So you have to determine how much of your time is being utilized toward profit, and if it’s not profitable time, what’s it being spent on? And you have to model that every single week—not every quarter, but every week.”
Key quote: “Builders are one of the most important parts of the entire process and the backbone of the industry, because without them, there would be nothing to decorate and things wouldn’t leave the paper,” says Churchill. “But [they’re] also an easy target: They’re easily blamed for some of the problems. They are blamed because they can be, because there isn’t evidence to the contrary. The secret about contracts that nobody really wants to talk about is that the contracts that builders sign with their clients are worthless because the builder cannot afford to defend it, whereas the client can easily prove negligence or lack of approvals or whatever. So it’s entirely about trust, and that’s why you have to be selective of both sides: the client and the builder.”
This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Blu Dot. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Thursday Show
Host Dennis Scully and BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including RH’s new acquisitions, what’s going on with Industry West, and what design looks like on Reddit. Later, legendary designer Charlotte Moss joins the show to reflect on a big anniversary and talk about her latest project, the Southern Living Idea House.
This episode is sponsored by Ernesta. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
