Anyone who knows David Quarles, either in person or through his brilliant, offbeat Instagram account, will tell you that the Memphis interior designer likes to live his life in Technicolor. “I’m a synesthete,” David says of his preternatural talent. “I see sounds and hear colors.” That’s why the first thing he asks his clients when he first meets them is what their favorite songs are. “It’s especially useful when they can’t articulate how they want their space to feel or look. When I listen to their playlist, the colors come to me as if I’ve always known them,” he adds—even if the songs in said playlist are in French. Exhibit A: his latest project, a charming apartment in Central Gardens, Memphis, where his brain outsmarted Google Translate to transform a patriotic ballad by French singer Édith Piaf into the perfect colorful aesthetic.
For owner Brooke Ward Mills, an operations manager in the nonprofit sector and a self-professed Francophile, the home was in many ways a fresh start. Having endured some difficult chapters in her life, she saw this as her chance to write her next chapter—or, as David puts it, “a chance to create a place where she could express her whole personality.” Although the designer claims his client has “a divine sense of style,” it turns out she had no idea where to start.
