I am an Oregon native. I studied in California, Texas, and Paris France before putting down roots in California’s Central Valley with my husband, a Central Valley native himself. We’re raising three kids, all five and under, so I know a thing or two about a home that has to work hard. In 2015, I designed and built our first fully custom home. That project turned a longtime interest in design into Dakota Consulting + Design. I also come from a family of contractors, and it shows in how I work. I am as comfortable on a job site talking through framing and rough-in as I am presenting finishes to a client, and that keeps a project moving instead of stalling in translation between the two. My approach starts with the site, not a mood board. In the Oaks, the floor plan was drawn around a stand of existing California Live Oaks, not the other way around. Windows to the Vineyard was rebuilt around the orchard views the original house never took advantage of. The style of the finished home changes project to project. What stays constant is starting from what is already there and building outward from it.