Client Spotlight: Peg Berens

Meet Peg Berens, founder and principal of Peg Berens Interior Design LLC (now retired). As an award-winning interior designer with a studio in Orange County, Peg is using her uniquely eclectic aesthetic to bring high style to California homes one design project at a time.

A glance at her gallery reveals Peg’s talent for creating custom interiors that exude warm personality and chic style. Given her expertise, we weren’t surprised that Peg would emphasize the value of lighting in designing interiors. Peg places particular importance on thoughtful consideration of light fixture design, materials and integration of lighting with interior spaces. “Lighting is one of the most important design elements,” Peg explains. “People underestimate the value of lighting, but it’s a major design element that, when well-executed, can pull together the overall aesthetic of a home.” While it’s often viewed as the jewelry or the ‘finishing touch’ of a home, Peg believes that lighting decisions should never be left until last. There’s an important psychology wrapped around lighting and the layering of light, she explains, which is why lighting should be included in the initial planning phases of a residential design project. “It’s easy to tell when lighting decisions are left to the last minute, as it diminishes the impact of the overall design.” When it came time to select lighting for her own home, Peg called on Hammerton. We were thrilled, as there is no higher compliment than to have an interior designer select our products for their personal residence. Nestled on a one-acre ranch in an equestrian community in Orange County, Peg’s house has the look of an east coast traditional estate. Her interiors embody a warm yet fresh style by thoughtfully combining traditional and eclectic design elements. Her motto: “To use common materials in unexpected ways and unexpected materials in common ways.” The master bath, for instance, boasts an eye-catching agate vanity. Peg emphasizes that her lighting choices were instrumental to achieving an aesthetic balance between ‘classic’ and ‘current’ in her home. She selected fixtures from the Hammerton Contemporary and Chateau Redux collections that updated traditional forms and shapes with clean lines and unusual materials like woven steel mesh and crystal beads. “Hammerton does a great job of blending past and present in their designs,” explains Peg, “And their craftsmanship is incredible. But the real icing on the cake is their amazing customer service. Very responsive and thorough.”