David Michael Miller has created award-winning interior design for more than 40 years in the Valley of the Sun and throughout the West. Whatever its anchor style, he has made every space, every home, uniquely his: Modern Adobe, Contemporary, Desert Pied-a-terre, English Country House, Rural French Estate. Connecting all are elegance, luminosity, restraint and refinement.
Born in Wisconsin, Miller grew up for the most part in the west suburbs of Chicago, where Frank Lloyd Wright – an architect he particularly admires – did much of his work.
“I was an artistic kid, sort of a fish out of water where I grew up,” he recalls from the Old Town Scottsdale studio that distinguished Phoenix architect Wendell Burnette designed for him in 2000.
Miller was planning a graphic arts career and was set to study that in a university, but in his senior year in high school he heard about a contest that had been posted in the art department, offering multiple disciplines for scholarship. He chose interior design.
The field had always interested him, so he submitted a project. A couple months later, Ray College informed him that he had won the competition.
“I loved downtown Chicago, so I just decided to spend my first year beyond high school there at the college,” Miller recalls. He continued until graduating from the program.
He moved to the Valley in 1982 after finishing design school and assisted an interior designer at Warner’s Interiors. Seven year later, he opened David Michael Miller Associates after working for several other Valley design firms. He now lives in a historic community in Paradise Valley.
Teachers have encouraged and guided Miller. At Ray College, instructors allowed students a broad range of curricula; they nurtured him during his early years with a strong foundation in the history of art and architecture, technical training and color.
Before his studies, Miller became acquainted with Wright’s work, which has influenced his approach to interiors, particularly in the use of natural materials, simple clean lines and an avoidance of trend.
“I have always believed that there is real aesthetic/spiritual nourishment in presenting natural materials for their own inherent beauty,” he explains, “so I always work to incorporate them in my work.”
Editing, Details, Camaraderie
Miller has always preferred to edit the spaces he creates, finishing projects that exemplify the Miesian architectural dictum: “Less is More.”
“My eye likes clean lines, high-quality furniture, objects and art but always in a pretty edited context,” he says.
Details matter, but a successful project isn’t just furnishings, artwork, accessories and heirloom pieces neatly set. A quality space is one that the furnishings and owners both inhabit.
“Carefully designing the interior spaces and backgrounds provides the proper context for the furnishings to inhabit. In so doing, a homogenous and coherent space to live in is created. I think that clients recognize that furnishing a home is only half of our job; the other half is in creating the interior architecture itself,” Miller adds.
One client, a Paradise Valley couple, enjoy an approximately 4,500-square-foot Contemporary-style house on the east end of Camelback Mountain. Completed in 2017, the home was designed by architect Susan Biegner, of Biegner-Murff Architects in Phoenix, with interior design by Miller. Stonecreek Building Company, Mesa, was the contractor and Scottsdale’s Berghoff Design Group the landscape designer.
Beigner and Miller have collaborated on multiple projects, and their design instincts pair nicely.
“Her beautiful architectural language was the perfect context for the interiors to live within,” Miller says. They worked closely on building finishes.
The homeowner says, “When you don’t want the project to end, you know it’s really going well. Working with David is watching an expert comb through the most minute and intricate detail, from the color of a hinge to the mechanics of a zipper on a pillow. The resulting end is a harmony, only truly understood by inhabiting the space.”
She adds that Miller’s expertise expands beyond decor and furnishings.
“We stood by as David studied the texture of our stone walls, architectural plans and garden specimens. When construction was finished and the last piece of art hung, David presented three encyclopedic volumes detailing every design detail sketched, material used and vendor sourced. For us, the books encapsulate the privilege of working with David, who is the consummate creative, planner, problem solver and hand holder.”
Miller’s industry associates and friends recognize this expertise as well. For almost 40 years, celebrated Scottsdale architect Mark Candelaria, AIA, has worked with Miller, first when he was a design assistant for interior designer Gail Adams on a project in the Biltmore area. Then, after Miller was on his own, they collaborated on a number of projects throughout the Valley in many styles and aesthetics, very traditional to very modern.
“His eye for detail and knowing the fine line between too little and too much is as good as anyone’s I have worked with, and his final product is eloquently sophisticated yet relaxing and comfortable,” Candelaria says. “It is always an amazing journey for the client and team to see what comes forth, not to mention the good times we have along the way.”
In addition, Miller has retained five loyal associates in the studio: Lily Motes, administrative assistant; Jeneanna Schentrup, assistant to designer; Brian Wieberg, project assistant to designer; Mechelle Kern, accounting and business administration; and Shelley Behrhorst, purchasing director, expediting, assistant to the designer.
“I’m very proud of them,” he says.
The Miller team is clear about their shared goal in creating interiors and serving clients.
“That has been essential to keep up standards of quality and consistency,” he says. “A couple of my team members have been with me more than 20 years, which in today’s age is a lifetime,” he explains. “Everyone in the studio plays an integral role in serving our clients.”
An Evolving Aesthetic
Clients and the public enjoy consistently high-level Miller spaces that are distinctively his, but Miller’s craft is always evolving.
“With many of my projects, I recall early conversations with potential clients saying, ‘I want a rural English house, but I don’t see that you have done one before.’ The same is true with a rural French house we did and others,” Miller reflects. “Delving into something new stylistically is what makes interior design so interesting to me.”
For instance, he and his team are working on several houses in Paradise Valley/Scottsdale as well as projects in Utah, California and Colorado.
“They’re stylistically unique, ranging from a mountain contemporary look, to luxe modern, to a contemporized rural Mediterranean — each one different from the other,” Miller says.
To some extent, he acknowledges that he is influenced by design trends.
“Occasionally, I incorporate some aspects of current trends, and sometimes my instinct is to avoid them,” he says.
For example, in certain projects, instead of the tone-on-tone layering Miller is well known for, he’s now more inclined toward higher contrast interiors. In the featured Paradise Valley home, for instance, he carefully balanced the Texas limestone walls with the couple’s traditional furnishings and antiques.
“We wanted to create a contemporary environment for the interiors but with a sense of richness. The furnishings treatment is somewhat traditional, which creates a beautiful contrast and tension between interiors and architecture,” Miller says.
Trending conduces to fashion thinking.
“If I have escaped trending, it is because I like more subtle moves in interiors. I think of interiors as being more durable than fashion and trend, more lasting,” he says. “Also, there is a nonconformist bent in me that just does not want to do what everybody else is doing.”
Photos courtesy David Michael Miller Associates
This story appeared in the AZ Foothills Home & Design, Best Places to Live issue. Read the full issue here.
