By Lindsay Field Penticuff
Melissa Fields says she enjoyed her career serving in the military, but it wasn’t until she took a leap of faith and turned to interior design after retiring from a 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force when she discovered her true passion.
“I came into the military shortly after high school,” says Fields, who is Founder, CEO and Principle Designer at Shades of Gray Design Studio in San Antonio, Texas. “It was not necessarily what I wanted to do, but my dad said I needed to figure it out [what I should be doing after high school]. He was also in the military—U.S. Navy for 21 years.
“He was more concerned about stability and what I was going to do. … I went into the U.S. Air Force and thought it would be a quick, four-year thing.”
But four years turned into 20 years.
“Toward the later part of my career is when I really started thinking seriously about getting into design,” Fields says. “I enjoyed my career [in the Air Force] and it was an amazing experience, but I was ready to do what I was absolutely passionate about doing.”
About two years before she was scheduled to retire from the military, Fields began dabbling in interior design. She started by doing staging and redesign, but she quickly realized it’s not the area she wanted to focus on in the industry.
“I wanted to create a space; something unique and special for people who were going to live and enjoy their homes,” she says.
At the time, Fields was still on active duty, and while she knew attending a four-year design school may be difficult, she enrolled anyways.
“I quickly realized I could only do the online portion of the program, so I found an online program through the New York Institute of Art & Design, and I could do it by correspondence,” she says. “That’s how I got certified through my RIDQC [Residential Interior Design Qualifying Certification]. The rest is history.”
Fields opened Shades of Gray Design Studio in January 2018. It is a boutique interior design studio, dealing primary with residential interior design clients.
She leads every project with the core philosophy of her firm, HEART—Honesty, Excellence, Authenticity, Reliability and Teamwork.
“My heart kind of gets in the way of everything I do, because I love what I do,” she admits. “I just love people and that connection … I lead with heart … clients don’t want a transaction, they want an experience, so they want that relationship with their designer, I would say. I think most of the clients I have appreciate that.”
Her work has been described as deeply personal and intuitive, celebrating individuality and bold elegance in the spaces she designs.
So, what inspires her right now in our industry?
“We’ve been posting on Instagram what we’re seeing this summer—linens, fabrics, lighter-colored woods, fresh pops of color,” she says. “I just love season-type feels. The summer is lighter, but I like going into fall with thicker fabrics.”
Something she’s especially “obsessed” with right now is a material she used in a recent project, and one she hopes to continue to use in future projects.
“Kyle Bunting Home in Austin, Texas, does this Italian cow hide in every color you can think of that we used in a mural in a home office,” she says with a huge smile. “It’s of the Amalfi Coast, our client’s favorite destination. It’s absolutely stunning! We installed it behind custom built-ins. … It’s what I’m currently obsessing over, and I will be obsessing over it for a long time. I like to use unexpected materials in design.”
To learn more about Fields, from how her career in the military helped shape her success in interior design to what it’s been like being featured on HGTV and in Southern Living magazine, be sure to check out our full video interview.
