David Michael Miller Associates

I am inspired by the contrasts created between the architectural styling of the house design itself by C.P. Drewett, and the amazing Sonoran desert. In the shadow of Camelback Mountain stands this bold stroke of a brilliant white building, with strong horizontal features that are reinforced by the distant McDowell Mountains to the east. Natural materials and a sense of place are integral characteristics of the interiors that we do, and this was where we started.

Drewett’s unique building plan encourages the integration between interior and exterior living space—with multiple locations of glass expanses that bring the outside in. C.P. leads with this intention in the first space a guest enters. By not designing a formal interior space to receive visitors, the architect devoted this covered foyer tower to greeting guests with a dramatic outdoor volume of space that feels much like an interior space.

We combined a native flat-weave wool rug, with a strikingly contemporary console table in sandblasted white oak, a found object lamp in French terra cotta, a large format modern painting, along with large antique limestone vessels, planted with tactile species that again blur the line between interior and exterior space. The large pendant light enhances the visitor’s sense of entry. The overall mood of the space is organic, dramatic and natural. To the visitor, the space is ambiguous about whether it is inside or outside.

David Michael Miller is founder and principal of David Michael Miller Associates, a residential interior design firm located in Scottsdale, Arizona. The firm, created in 1989, has an established reputation of being incredibly versatile stylistically, and excels in a broad range of interior aesthetics. David was born and raised in the Middle Western United States, and received his design training at Ray College, then located on the Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, in the heart of that city’s rich and diverse architectural landscape. Inspired by native Midwestern architects, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan, David’s education in interiors coincided with his study of these American architects. It is likely due to the influences of these two architects that David’s work is consistently respectful of, and integrated to, the architectural settings in which his interiors exist. David’s restrained aesthetic sensibilities create interiors that are understated, unpretentious and enduring.

In addition to his interest in architectural context, David’s affinity for organic forms and natural material, made him well suited to work in the desert Southwest. The broad open spaces of the west aligned with his attraction to natural forms and colors of the desert. Since moving to Arizona in 1982, David quickly came to love the desert nature scape, its crisp quality of light, rich color and diverse textures. By the time he founded David Michael Miller Associates in 1989, his sense of style and his own unique aesthetic had matured and clarified. It is evident in David’s interiors of the past 30 years that there is a common voice to all of his work, even though stylistically, the firm participates in projects that range from the modern to the deeply traditional genres. David’s simple lines, natural material and color palette, and carefully restrained choice or design of furnishings, all communicate a unique impression that is at once calming and nourishing.