As a grade-school tyke, Steven Miller's bike-riding missions were different from those of his peers. His goal was to find people who were moving into his neighborhood so he could help them arrange their furniture. "I was the weird little kid people started calling on to make their houses look amazing," says Miller with a self-deprecating laugh.

The "freak child," as he amusingly calls his young self, is now all grown up with his own interior design business, Steven Miller Design Studio, with locations in San Francisco and New York. Many of his clients are still local—Bay Area ranch owners, business executives, and private families—and Miller continues to dazzle them with his exquisite sense of style, placement, and decor. Elegant without being precious, his eclectic, layered, and even sometimes whimsical interiors have caught the eye of the New York Times, Better Homes & Gardens, Travel + Leisure, and HGTV.

Miller grew up in a creative milieu: His father was an industrial engineer and inventor, his great-grandmother was a fine artist, and his paternal grandparents were furniture store owners on Chicago's Michigan Avenue. He ran his own wallpapering business in high school and went on to spend time at the University of Colorado and Harrington Institute in Chicago, as well as the art supply companies Art Hardware and Flax, until in 1989 he came to CCA "to be truly challenged as a creative person."

Miller's years at CCA provided him with a foundation that has carried him through his career. Appending himself to faculty member Vicki Doubleday, he helped her augment the interiors slide library by more than 1,500 images, "cementing what I learned from her in class." Heather Cogswell's History of Industrial Design course also provided inspiration and a solid foundation in design history that has informed his work ever since.

After graduation Miller launched a furniture line in collaboration with the distinguished designer Gary Hutton, whom he met during a professional critique at CCA. "Gary was a great mentor, always generous with his time and knowledge," says Miller. When Miller branched off on his own in 1999, he did so with Hutton's blessing—and even a client or two to get him started.

Today, Steven Miller Design Studio boasts six employees and five to ten clients at any given time. The recent opening of his New York office has given him entrée with licensing agents who are taking his furniture designs national. "I'm very proud of what I learned at CCA," he says, "as well as my relationships with the faculty, classmates, alums, and the students I've had as interns. It's a great, stimulating place."

See also: artist's websites at www.stevenmillerdesignstudio.com

From Glance, Spring 2008

Born in 1965 in Evanston, Illinois

CCA degree:
Interior Architecture Program, 1992

Residence:
San Francisco

Current occupation:
Interior architect, interior designer, interior decorator, San Francisco, New York

Influences at CCA:
Bill Stout, Hank Dunlop, Jerry Van Slambrouck, Keith Wilson

Website:
www.stevenmiller
designstudio.com