Deke Rogers
Collected for the Home; Proprietor and Principal Curator
Deke Rogers has always loved to shop, but over time he found himself drawn to pieces that tell a story—antiques, vintage finds, and the unexpected. “I enjoy working those elements into a room,” he says. “It’s what makes a space feel collected instead of overly styled.”
What started as a visit to a friend's antique booth in Destin has taken him all over Europe. He recently returned from Belgium and is soon to travel to the Mercanteinfiera in Parma, Italy. Travel influences his sense of style and the items he brings to Birmingham shoppers at Collected for the Home, the Irondale storefront he opened last year. “To me, travel means getting away and seeing things that I normally don’t—and that does not necessarily mean a trip to Europe. It could be stopping at a little antique store on a road trip just to explore,” he says. “It’s about seeing things that are out of my norm, seeing something unique that I don’t normally see. It’s always good to have a fresh perspective.”
During his ventures, Rogers finds things for his own home, of course. Favorites include a 1960s Lucite horse sculpture from Italy and a Louis Vuitton trunk. “I first fell in love with Louis Vuitton watching Delta Burke on Designing Women when she was busting through the door with her little roller. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked it.” Another recent treasure he found in France is an 18th-century table painted in a delicate floral print. “I’m absolutely obsessed with it. It’s got a light blue marble top, and it’s really beautiful. I’d keep it if I had a place for it.”
But the real joy comes whenever someone else claims a piece for their space. “When somebody walks in and finds something that’s perfect—whether it’s a small tchotchke or a big piece of furniture—it means the same to me,” Rogers says. “I’m just happy they found what they were looking for.”
@collectedforthehome
Marcus Collins
Collected for the Home, Curatorial Associate
Marcus Collins likes to joke that when he first saw the volume of antiques Deke Rogers had amassed, he thought his partner might be a hoarder. “Beautiful things,” he says, “but there were storage units involved.” But each item had a purpose and a story. Collins encouraged Rogers to take the leap from collecting to curating, which led to the opening of Collected for the Home.
Collins’ design expertise lies in selecting accessories that perfectly finish a room. “Deke calls me the director of smalls,” Collins laughs. “Which sounds like I run a daycare, but really it’s about the little things that make a space feel finished.”
His eye was shaped by fashion long before interiors. “I’m always watching what people wear—at airports, restaurants—seeing patterns and repetition,” he says. “And I started thinking, what would that person’s house look like?” Clothing and interiors, he’s found, are closely linked.
His own style leans collected and personal: cottage-adjacent, layered, a little playful. “Think your grandpa’s house—if your grandpa had really great taste,” he says. “Ralph Lauren meets Nancy Meyers…something classic, but with contemporary art or a local artist mixed in so it still feels young.” He’s also a master of repurposing—vintage ashtrays become catch-alls; mementos add a sense of place. “I like having tokens,” he says. “Meaningful things that remind you of where you’ve been.”
Collins lights up when a customer recognizes the history behind a piece—like the time a visitor identified a pair of African chairs and immediately understood their significance. “Deke and I had just been to the Birmingham Museum of Art and seen pieces like those on display,” Collins says. “It’s exciting when someone comes in already knowing—or genuinely excited to learn—the history of a piece.”
When it comes to transporting fragile items to antique shows, Collins’ Air Force background proves helpful. He spent years working in ammunition logistics—storing, transporting, and protecting delicate cargo under pressure. “Antiques aren’t that different,” he says. “They’re fragile, and you certainly don’t want them damaged in transport.”
At Collected for the Home, Collins helps ensure every piece has both a past and a future. “Seeing that spark in someone’s eye when they find the right thing—that’s the best part,” he says. “It’s like matchmaking for furniture.”
@collectedforthehome
Michael Morrow
MDM Design Studio
Step inside Michael Morrow’s workshop and it’s immediately clear that nothing here is standard issue. Custom furniture and cabinetry come together methodically, shaped by the hands and eyes of craftsmen who care about the artistry of each piece. At MDM Design Studio, Morrow works closely with very talented architects, designers, and homeowners to create work that feels as considered as the home it will live in. “What we create here are hopefully considered more works of art than standard pieces of millwork,” he says. “There are people behind the pieces, and no two are exactly the same.”
Morrow didn’t arrive at custom furniture by a straight path. In college, he moved between majors—business, medical, nutrition—before returning to what had always called to him: art. “People tried to steer me away from my creative side. They said you can’t get a job in art,” he says plainly. “But I don’t think I was meant to sit in a cubicle.”
After graduating and taking a string of early jobs—from galleries to an engineering firm testing concrete—he began making small pieces on the side. Designers took notice. One commission led to another, and in 2008, Morrow opened the doors of MDM Design Studio.
Today, a team of 15 craftsmen works alongside him, blending traditional woodworking with modern tools. No two pieces are alike, each shaped by the natural character of the wood itself. Morrow is drawn to many design styles but was initially inspired by European modernism—Bauhaus lines, Mies van der Rohe’s restraint, the steel-and-glass buildings of mid-century Chicago.
What matters most to Morrow is the people—both those creating each piece and those for whom it’s being created. “It’s not just somebody punching buttons or a bunch of robots making things,” he says. “We have a great group of people who really care about the product we’re putting out and the craft itself.” That care is evident in every one-of-a-kind piece that leaves the shop.
@mdmdesignstudio
Mark Kennamer
Mark Kennamer Design
Mark Kennamer feels every interior should be as individual as the people living there. “No two houses will ever look the same,” he says. “Every one we do has its own personality. It’s not a carbon copy of the last client.”
Creativity has always been part of his story. He worked at a flower shop in high school, studied design after graduation, and spent a short time in Atlanta working for an event planner before an opportunity to design a home brought him back to Birmingham. One house led to another, and before long, he had built a career designing unique, livable interiors. He’s been at it for more than 23 years now—and still insists the reason he loves it is simple. “Because it’s fun.”
His personal style is reflected in his traditional English home. “Think Cotswolds,” he says. “I’m very traditional, but I like modern lighting, furniture, and art—so it’s eclectic, but classic.” His go-to color palette includes lots of blues and greens.
Kennamer enjoys getting to know each client’s personality and helping them discover their style. “A lot of our clients don’t know what they want at first,” he says. “Pinterest and Instagram are my worst nightmares,” he adds with a laugh, “because those ideas don’t always translate well to people’s particular homes. “I stay in my lane so much it’s hard for me to even think about what’s trendy,” he says. He focuses on elements that last.
Travel influences Kennamer’s design approach, too—though not in the obvious way. He notices details others might overlook: the way a hotel handles scale, how materials are fabricated, the small choices that shape how a space feels.
Many of his clients return again and again, calling on him for edits, refreshes, and entirely new chapters. Second homes offer another kind of freedom, allowing clients to step outside the language of their primary residence and try something entirely different.
Even in his own house, Kennamer enjoys mixing things up. A room may stay in place for a while, but it’s always fair game to be his next playground. “I’m picking out fabric for new draperies in my guest room right now,” he says, laughing. More than two decades into the business, the pleasure still follows him home.
@markkennamer
Andrew Davis
Trestle Construction
Some builders prefer to avoid remodeling old homes. Not Andrew Davis. He jumps at the chance to reimagine them.
“I love old houses,” he says, without hesitation. “I want pre–World War II. I want knob-and-tube. I love how they’re built.” For Davis, founder of Trestle Construction, the appeal lies in what’s revealed once a house is opened up. “When you start disassembling an older home, you can tell the level of care that went into it,” he says. “The people who worked on those houses took pride in what they did.”
In Birmingham neighborhoods, where historic homes still anchor the streetscapes, Davis focuses on helping homeowners bring those houses forward without sanding off what made them special in the first place. The challenge lies in balancing modern expectations with architectural honesty. “I love thinking about how we bring a house up to today’s standards without taking away from what it was meant to be.”
Since launching Trestle in 2018, Davis’s projects have grown in size and complexity, from thoughtful renovations to a custom home currently underway in Mountain Brook. Before ever discussing finishes or floor plans, he starts with questions about the long-term play: How long do you plan to stay? What do you want this house to give you over time?
“I take a pragmatic approach,” he says. If a homeowner plans to move in a few years, he’s candid about return and restraint. If they’re settling in for the long haul, the conversation shifts. “When you’re planning to be there ten years or more, you focus more on making it exactly what you want,” he says. “At that point, investing more starts to make more sense.”
His guiding philosophy is that every project is a team effort. “Collaborating with the client, the architect, the designer, and our vendors—that’s my favorite part of the process,” he says. “I really love getting to know a potential client and earning their trust as we create a home they’ll enjoy for years to come.”
Jimmy Laughlin
James B. Laughlin Residential Design
Jimmy Laughlin has been drawing houses since he was eight years old—floor plans, specifically. “I was sketching them as a child,” he says. “I’ve always had an appreciation for beautiful things, in the most humble way—cars, gardens, houses.” That early instinct eventually revealed itself as architecture, becoming not only his profession but his life’s passion.
“It’s an honor to be involved in what is often the largest investment of someone’s life,” Laughlin says. One project in particular still stands out: a home designed to resemble a centuries-old coastal structure, so successful it changed the course of its owner’s life. The client loved it enough to relocate full-time—and later hired Laughlin again to design a barn and guesthouse. “We joke that he’s a repeat offender,” Laughlin says. “But that’s always the highest compliment.”
While he’s been sought after to design homes across the country, Laughlin carries a particular affection for Birmingham and the South. He grew up in a house rooted in tradition, where meals, gatherings, and the way a table was set carried meaning from one generation to the next—and he sees those same inherited values reflected in Southern homes today. “People care deeply about their houses here,” he says. “In the South, entertaining is different because traditions are passed down.” It’s a joy, he says, to create what he calls “inheritable homes”—places designed to feel as relevant a century from now as they do today. In Birmingham especially, he senses an uncommon energy. “There’s an enthusiasm here that’s rooted in design—not just architecture,” he says. “There’s a unique collaborative spirit. People are invested.”
His own home reflects that same sensibility. A 100-year-old Georgian in a historic district, it required an exacting restoration—replicated moldings, stripped hardware, and careful decisions made within strict preservation guidelines. “Working in preservation teaches you restraint,” Laughlin says. “And restraint is vital if something is going to feel timeless.”
Whether designing a house perched along the coast of Maine or one nestled in the heart of Birmingham, Laughlin and his team hand-draw every plan with the belief that a home should transport you. “It should fit into the neighborhood fabric,” he says, “but also take you to another world.”
@jamesblaughlin
Zachary Westall
Zachary J. Westall Studios
While some kids were waiting in line for theme park rides, Zachary Westall was wandering through historic homes, learning, without realizing it, how to pay attention. His father, an architect, made sure of that. Family trips revolved around estates, gardens, and places with stories layered into the walls. “We were more of a tour-Newport-mansions kind of family,” Westall says.
Even now, Westall notices what most people pass by—a boulder tucked into the woods along the highway, the way space opens or tightens, the spatial relationship between objects. His landscape designs start with that instinct. “I can tell where things fit,” he says. “I can feel when something’s off.” He believes a strong sense of spatial reasoning is essential to design.
Before he sketches a single idea, Westall listens. He wants to know how people live, what they remember, what they’re drawn to. “I want to hear what they’re dreaming up.” His work reflects a thoughtful merging of styles. Classical gardens might welcome a sleek modern bench. A formal space might feature romantic blooms. “You have to mix things,” he says. “That’s how it becomes timeless.”
Westall designs with the seasons in mind—paperbush blooming in winter with soft, golden bells; camellias carrying color through the cold months; Lenten rose gently following behind. In early spring, he loves the moment when saucer magnolias bloom on bare branches, buttery yellow flowers floating against silvery bark. “It’s absolutely magical,” he says.
His design philosophy centers on the significance of beauty in our sense of well-being. “Everyone should be surrounded by beauty and take pride in themselves and the places they live,” Westall says. “Beautiful things stimulate the mind. If you’re surrounded by things you love, it creates comfort and a sense of organization.” And there’s no better place to begin than in the garden—where beauty is ever-present and never stops growing.
@zacharyjwestall