Milena Bica-Shibata, founder of The Whistling Well, a design + wellness studio, has reenvisioned the approach to working with clients who want to live better in their environments. With over 15 years of experience, she’s an expert in crafting and transforming spatial narratives to support the user and their lifestyle holistically, enhancing their wellness and bringing them joy. Trained as an architect, a certified Interior Designer, and a KonMari Consultant, Milena’s creative process weaves a genuine connection with clients and considers their needs and wants in life and their sense of aesthetics, resulting in one-of-a-kind, intentional space-making.
Milena Bica-Shibata, Multidisciplinary Designer and Studio Director
Who does The Whistling Well serve? What are examples of challenges clients want your help to overcome?
We love working with professionals and their families who have already incorporated any type of wellness into their lives. Maybe they’ve already hired help to organize their home or a builder to create an addition, yet they still feel overcrowded, stuck, stressed and simply unhappy in their spaces. Some of their environments are outdated, some do not maximize architectural breath. And other spaces are large in scale to the point of feeling sterile and impersonal. Other homes are simply housing too many items.
And so we work to align families, their ideal emotional state, priorities and lifestyle with the spaces where life narratives largely unfold–their homes.
Could you take us back to how The Whistling Well came to be? What sparked its creation?
Environment and wellness have always had a strong relationship for me, and throughout my career in architecture and design, there was evidence of how one impacted the other. It wasn’t until the pandemic, however, that we all clearly witnessed how our spaces affect our individual and familial wellness, when most people throughout the globe had been confined to their homes.
In my family, we had a home that helped us connect with nature. Its mid-century modern style with large windows facing the Hudson River provided a horizontal expanse that allowed us to breathe during such a turbulent time. Parenting a 5 and 3-year-old, we also had collected stuff–paper, craft items, toys, legos,etc, and though organized, it all lived with us, present all the time. The stuff exuded stress, as well as mirrored our internal mental conditions. It simply was not how my partner and I wanted to live.
Having heard of the KonMari Method a few years back, I embarked on a tidying journey. I went through all of my belongings, from years of clothing, make-up, art supplies, stationary to an incredible number of books. The process was deep, it was not so much about the stuff. It was about me. There were layers of personal contradictions present in my possessions, evidence of
me embracing aspects of life I thought were important, yet not true to me. I found my wardrobe was a collection of trends, rather than clothing that was an expression of me. I had to fit into them, rather than the clothes fitting my body. My high school painting supplies grew stale in cardboard boxes, waiting for me to return to that medium for my art. I had not touched them in almost two decades. So I confronted it all, and I aligned my possessions with the way I wanted to live as a creative, a parent, and a human on earth. My partner’s and kids’ willingness to undergo the method helped transform our life, as they too found the practice refreshing to daily life. After 8 years as a family, we intentionally created a home that supports us in living well.
The intersection of joy, wellness and design was so transporting that I wanted to share it with others. And so they became the seeds from which The Whistling Well grew to be.
What is your creative process as an interior designer?
I truly enjoy meeting my clients and listening to them in the space that will be transformed. We start each project with an on-site design consultation where I visit their home and we spend 2 hours together walking through the house and discussing opportunities. I always ask them to tell me what they love about their home, because we want to preserve, if not accentuate, those traits. We also discuss the pain points and challenges they wish to improve upon.
This is an experience where we are all using our seven senses. What can be heard in this space at this time? How does the sun illuminate the room during this season and what kind of shadows are created? Does this affect the clients? Is the space filled with perfumes or smells of cooking? Are the users responding to plastic materials in the space? Does the space feel balanced in its layout? Are the clients balanced in the way they use the space? This allows me to get to know them in a profound way in relation to their home. As I engage with them, I am creating in my mind and deeply getting to know their narratives. I then take it all with me, not only the quantitative data for the project, but the people and space and what they want from each other.
From here, I started working simultaneously with spatial layouts, materials, and colors. I’m in my office, sketching ideas, testing them in a 3D model, while selecting options of materials from piles that surround me. It’s a fluid process. What opportunities do I see in the constraints? Can the form of the architecture be transformed to better function and diffuse morning light into a glorious glow? Materials hold specific energies and it is my task to select them responsibly for each of my clients. Colors all have depth and engage us differently. Like spices in cooking, they can be included for their effects to support the main ingredients or amplify the overall flavor completely.
I work until all of these layers are adjusted to feel right, for those specific clients, for that particular space, at this time. I then bring the design to the client and present perspectives,
material and furniture selections to unfold the narrative to help them imagine living in and with the design.
What values help you run your business?
Trust, creative freedom, financial responsibility, business standards and transparency are all important in running a successful, profitable and creative focused business. No matter the budget, it is imperative that the clients know what it can and cannot buy them. It is also important for them to decide how they will invest consciously and if that reflects their life priorities.
Say a client dislikes cooking but loves to garden, my advice is to invest in both of those proportionately to their lifestyle and life joys. We often get caught up in thinking of an investment as something that exponentially grows monetarily. While we have to be financially responsible, we can also invest in experiences that help us grow, develop and enjoy our lives.
What do you look to for inspiration in your work?
Life. I’m in constant awe of it all and can see beauty all around me–in people- their craft, words and kindness, my kids and their friends that bring fresh and creative perspectives to daily life, a leaf (when was the last time you really looked at a leaf?), the sound of water running into rocks and the resulting visual effect–the energy it must take to make such a thing happen!
What is a concept often in your toolbox?
Alignment. Complex/multidimensional life can be nurtured through less stuff, more human connection, beautiful spaces, and joy.
To wrap things up, what do you have planned for your studio in the next year?
I’m quite excited to announce that we are opening a studio in Kyoto, Japan in 2025. Having close ties to Japanese culture and finding it a constant source of inspiration for the way I approach my work and life, it was a beautiful next step for us. This, of course, will take much work and travel, and we are thrilled to take this opportunity to have it come to fruition.
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