Have You Heard the Rumors?
Rumor Design + Redesign shares big news with a dream office and HGTV prize
Lead designers Lindsey Jamison and Valerie Stafford recently opened Rumor’s new headquarters. The downtown Steamboat Springs space includes an office, design bar and chic café. | Photography by David Patterson
Rumor Design + Redesign likes to mix things up. “I love layers, I love colors, textures, fabrics,” says Valerie Stafford, partner and lead designer. “It’s the curation of all of that. Design is always evolving.”
Located in Steamboat Springs, Rumor Design + Redesign recently won HGTV Designer of the Year in the Small Spaces category. The winning project is an eclectic tiny cabin that combines different styles. “The client, Tanya, likes to have fun in design,” says Lindsey Jamison, partner and lead designer. “Her husband, Michael, likes Mountain Modern, so we had two different styles that we had to mesh together.”
Rumor’s office and store is a space for the community to enjoy. “Sometimes there are ladies knitting by the coffee shop and they’ll pop into our conference room to knit and chat. It’s the vibe–it’s not a stale place,” Stafford says.
The HGTV-winning cabin is small, but Jamison and Stafford took advantage of its compact size. “I think color and pattern is easier to do in small spaces, because it’s just little elements that make the design more interesting,” Jamison says. Stafford agrees: “It gives you a chance to take some risks. It’s fun in a small space to experiment and to use more upscale materials.”
Stafford started Rumor Designs in 2008—during the Great Recession. “You start at the bottom, and there is no place to go but up,” she says. It wasn’t all luck that contributed to Rumor’s success: Stafford identified a niche that needed to be filled. “People were ready for the next thing in mountain design. It was really good timing.”
Rumor combines organic materials like stone, leather and metal with luxurious velvet and abstract paintings. Pieces by well-known designers intermingle with work by local artists—it’s all about mixing the right elements.
Jamison became Rumor’s newest partner shortly before the pandemic, while the company was looking for a new space. And the timing worked out yet again. Rumor took over a 4,000-square-foot space in a historic building. “Coincidentally, everyone was moving to the mountains from the city. With everyone moving here, business just exploded,” she says.
Their remodeled space, which opened in June 2021, houses Rumor Design + Redesign, which provides interior design services, and R | D Home, which belongs in its own category. Part retail store, part coffee shop and part inspirational space, R | D Home sells home furnishings and accessories, including work by local artists. Additionally, it’s a stylish place to gather.
The Rumor team includes eight designers and one architect. “We feel so lucky because we aren’t just Mountain Modern. We can do so many different styles,” Jamison says.
Retail stylists move things around, creating different vignettes in the design lounge and café. “The R | D Home side is a new part of Rumor Designs. It’s showcasing and sharing what we do here,” Jamison says. Stafford adds, ”It’s much more inspiring now that we ourselves can walk through the showroom, and it’s constantly changing. When you move something, you see it in a new light.” Take a desk, for example. Because of remote work, Jamison is rethinking desks altogether. “In bedrooms, I’ve been doing a nightstand on one side and a desk on the other,” she says.
The R | D Home store includes furniture, finishes and accessories, as well as areas where clients can see and touch materials. From hard surfaces to luxe carpets and kitchen faucets,
the samples bring Rumor’s interior design concepts to life.
Rumor’s projects, including the HGTV-winning cabin, truly reflect the homeowners. Stafford thinks good design should focus on the individual: “Does it make you happy? Does it inspire you? Those are things to think about when you’re doing your house.”
