San Francisco Interior Designer Lane McNab on Designing Furniture That Solves Problems

In her work designing Bay Area homes, Lane McNab consistently encountered a familiar limitation. Clients wanted furniture with presence that respected scale, architecture, and longevity. Pieces that felt considered rather than oversized, refined, not generic.

Finding those pieces proved far more difficult than expected. Showrooms and catalogs offered options that came close but required compromise: proportions that felt off, materials that wouldn’t endure, craftsmanship that didn’t hold up over time. The gap between what designers needed and what the market reliably offered became increasingly clear.

Over time, McNab recognized this wasn’t an isolated challenge. It was a recurring constraint across her practice, and one shared by designers working in high-end residential spaces everywhere. GUILD by LMI emerged not as a product ambition, but as a response to that persistent gap.

Every GUILD by LMI piece begins with meticulous hand sketches, translating inspiration into functional furniture through rigorous attention to proportion, scale, and joinery.

The Problem Every Designer Recognizes

Designers begin each project with a clear vision—specific scale, proportion, materiality, and function—yet sourcing furniture that meets those criteria is rarely straightforward. Pieces that align aesthetically often fall short in quality or longevity. Others are well-made but inflexible, poorly scaled, or disconnected from the realities of how people live.

McNab built long-standing relationships with skilled craftspeople to bridge that gap when necessary. But commissioning custom pieces for every project isn’t always practical or within reach for clients. The space between bespoke craftsmanship and mass-market furniture left designers with few dependable options.

As GUILD began to take shape, the response from the design community reinforced what McNab already understood. Other designers were navigating the same constraints. Clients wanted furniture that felt substantial, timeless, and responsibly made, but struggled to find pieces that delivered all three.

GUILD by LMI collection features customizable, heirloom-quality pieces including the Rebecca Chair and Monument side tables, all handcrafted by skilled California artisans.

From Necessity to Solution

Rather than continuing to work around those limitations, McNab chose to address them directly. The principles guiding her interior design practice, quality, customization, and environmental stewardship, became the foundation for GUILD by LMI. Combined with artisan craftsmanship and local production, the line reflects a deliberate, values-driven approach to furniture design.

GUILD wasn’t created to follow trends or expand into a product for its own sake. It grew from a designer’s understanding of what’s missing when specifying furniture for real homes and real clients and what’s required to fill that gap thoughtfully.

That perspective shapes every piece. McNab designs with scale learned through placement, not photography. She considers how furniture functions day to day, how it ages, and how it supports a room over time. 

Those insights translate directly into the collection. The Manta Bed provides architectural presence without overwhelming a space. The Rebecca Chair’s refined tailoring allows it to work across architectural styles. The Monument Dining Table balances sculptural form with restraint, ensuring it remains relevant well beyond current trends.

Decades of working within Bay Area homes, many of them historic Craftsman and Victorian structures, also informed material and construction decisions. GUILD furniture is designed to bridge past and present, allowing pieces to feel at home in historically significant settings while still reading as fresh and intentional.

The Philosophy Behind Every Piece

McNab believes the most responsible way to care for the planet is to reject disposable culture in favor of investing in pieces meant to endure. Sustainable design, in her view, is about choosing what you truly love and intend to keep.

That philosophy runs counter to fast furniture. GUILD pieces are intentionally designed as heirlooms: furniture meant to be lived with, not replaced when trends shift. Drawing inspiration from nature, the collection prioritizes longevity through thoughtful design, material selection, and craftsmanship that transcends passing fads.

Each piece is made to order by skilled artisans in California. This small-batch, U.S.-based production model ensures quality control while supporting local craftspeople who take pride in their work. It also allows for the level of customization McNab knew designers needed—variations in size, finish, and configuration that make pieces work for specific rooms and clients.

Material selection drives GUILD's commitment to longevity—from solid hardwoods sourced from certified sustainable forests to solid bronze hardware and non-toxic finishes.

Translating Vision Into Form

The creative process behind GUILD reflects McNab’s dual role as both designer and maker. Each piece begins with inspiration drawn from lived experience, then gets refined through rigorous attention to proportion, scale, joinery, and materiality.

The Kanu Coffee Table, for example, takes its curved form from dugout canoes McNab remembers from childhood trips to Florida’s panhandle. But inspiration alone doesn’t make functional furniture. The proportions had to work at standard seating heights. The curves needed to feel organic, not precious. The scale needed to anchor a room without overwhelming it.

The Hart Sofa emerged from snow-covered meadows near a cabin outside Mount Shasta, translating that sense of warmth and calm into upholstered comfort. From there, McNab’s process becomes highly exacting—specifying solid wood from certified sustainable forests, non-toxic low-VOC finishes, and plant-based materials that balance performance with environmental responsibility.

Details matter throughout, from how materials meet to the way light moves across a surface. These architectural considerations, the same ones McNab brings to her interiors, elevate GUILD pieces beyond furniture into carefully considered design objects.

GUILD by LMI’s Kanu Coffee Table's organic sculptural form complements this historic Craftsman kitchen's reclaimed wood floors and exposed beams, bridging past and present through thoughtful design.

Solving Real Challenges for Working Designers

Today, GUILD by LMI solves the sourcing challenges that inspired its creation. Designers can specify pieces that are beautiful, customizable, sustainably made, and built to last, available through respected showrooms including Studio RSH in San Francisco, Erik Waldorf in Seattle, Paul + in Atlanta, A & D Curated Studio in West Palm Beach and M-Geough in Boston. 

The collection offers exactly what McNab once struggled to find: furniture with richness, quality, and sustainability built in from the start. Pieces that don’t require compromising vision or values. Pieces that work as beautifully in a Victorian home as in a contemporary loft because they’re rooted in timeless design principles rather than fleeting trends.

GUILD by LMI reflects the same principles that guide Lane McNab’s interior design work: attention to scale, materiality, craftsmanship, and longevity. The collection extends that approach into furniture designed to support real homes and real projects without compromise.

Ready to discover furniture designed with a designer's eye? Explore the GUILD by LMI collection and learn more about Lane's approach to creating heirloom-quality pieces at guildbylmi.com. For design professionals, contact our showroom partners to experience the craftsmanship and customization options that make GUILD the solution to your sourcing challenges.