About Amy Dutton

Design has always inspired me. You know you’ve found your calling when the start of every new project feels like a fabulous adventure: I am SO excited for each one. As I consider every possibility for creating the most satisfying result, the beginning of each project is always filled with a mix of trust, anxiety, creativity – and very little sleep.

My connection to design started young. I loved my childhood bedroom in Berkeley, California, which featured really cool dormers and knee walls with built-in drawers and a funky closet door. I would lie in bed trying to figure out how the unique elements had been built and how they fit together.

As long as I did it myself, my parents would let me do whatever I wanted to my bedroom, so I spent years moving around furniture and painting to create a new and different space. It was the start of a lifelong passion that led me to earn a myriad of design degrees and embrace my experiences working at several interior design and architectural firms.

After starting my career in Chicago, and pregnant with our first child, coming to the Seacoast area immediately felt like the right place to put down roots. Our renovated 1910 bungalow in downtown Portsmouth, NH has been an ideal place to raise our three children. And Kittery, Maine, continues to be the perfect place to offer holistic design services from the interiors to the exteriors to all my clients at a personal level.

When you are looking to change the look of your surroundings, it’s not unusual for that to include structural architectural elements, interior material considerations, and alterations to the landscape outside of the home. When you hire three different professionals to focus on architecture, interior design, and landscape, something is lost.

Not only is it more to manage, but the level of cohesion, flow, harmony, and relationships isn’t where it could be. The more you delve into each facet of design, the more you understand the profound impact each has on the others, and how they truly function as an intricate puzzle that only looks and feels right when all the pieces are connected properly.

This interconnectedness is at the heart of what I define as “Whole Home Design”. Having spent years in the industry designing homes from the exterior to the interiors, I know firsthand how important it is for each element of your home and landscape to harmonize successfully with the others.

The beauty of our strategy is that all of these elements can be integrated seamlessly and intelligently in the flow of the whole property. With one designer at the heart of the process, there is an awareness and connection between the interior and exterior space. Though I believe that design should be fun, our process is very structured.

We want you to know you are in seasoned and capable hands from start to finish. We work with the nitty gritty details surrounding the property’s footprint, structural components, stair and landing needs, raise grade of the land, and land use.

Behind every design decision, there are logistics, details, and creative angles involved, and it is my job to determine how to prioritize and hone our focus. All you have to do is share your vision, and I will put the team together to make it happen.

Once we have determined the logistics, we will work together to define your overall design style. Don’t be daunted by having to know exactly what you’re looking for, I have worked with enough clients to know the questions that need to be asked to get to the core of what you want your home to look like and how you need it to function.

From there, I can work with you to bring the vision to life, guiding you on how to layer, how to balance texture and color, and how to control where the eye is directed.

Although I don’t believe in enforcing design ideas on you – it is your house, after all – I will always push you to consider elements you may not have considered that will ultimately help in creating a balanced and interesting home that is not static but vibrant and beautiful.

Amy