Our focus on our homes during the pandemic has increased the activity on the housing market, and the construction to improve where we already live. Leeds Custom Design has been the busiest Lead Designer Joe Tralongo has seen in 20 years.
Leeds Custom Design creates custom spaces for kitchens, closets, offices and more.
"We have boundaries, we have appliances, we have walls, we have plumbing, so we can be really creative within the boundaries that that have,” Tralongo explained.
At a time when the vast majority of designers in similar positions go straight from a conversation with a client into designing in a computer, Tralongo first gets the design right at his drafting table. He has trained in classical fashion, and studied the art of drawing and architectural styles around the world.
"While I’m sketching, I’m studying the space, I’m studying the ideas, I’m studying, I’m thinking about how the moldings are going to work. And that for me happens in the sketching process,” he said.
The company creates custom millwork, with moldings and archways perfectly straight and down to the measurements of one sixteenth of an inch. Tralongo’s drawings will eventually be executed into sculpture mere feet away in the woodshop. He says the custom woodworkers are among the brightest people he’s ever known, and they are artists in their own right.
Tralongo says right now, people are asking for his and hers home offices, fancier zoom call backgrounds, and spaces that can serve more than one purpose. He enjoy that his work will stand the test of time.
"Be there 20 years or 50 years, or be there generations to come,” he said.