In an age where every industry is going green, Robin Wilson has become a nationally recognized eco-friendly and healthy space interior designer. While there are many dimensions to Wilson’s trailblazing career, many of her efforts have focused on allergy and asthma-related issues and indoor air quality. The Austin, Texas native got her start working on the Lower Colorado River Authority, immersing herself in the Central Texas environmental issues of energy efficiency and water conservation. However, throughout her life, Wilson suffered from asthma and allergies, making her always wonder about indoor and outdoor air quality. As this breathing difficulty would continue to affect her life, Wilson would soon make a career out of trying to solve the problem for herself as well as for others.
A decade into her already-successful career in environmental protection, Wilson decided she needed a change. She headed to New York City to get a master’s degree in Real Estate Finance at New York University. Combining her love for real estate with her recurring health [2]problems, Wilson found a unique niche market that had gone relatively unexplored by experts and health professionals. She believed there was a tie to indoor air quality and asthma and allergies, due to things like dust pollution and other factors.
In 2000 she founded her firm that would become branded as Robin Wilson Home, becoming one of the earliest advocates for clean construction methods. She also insisted that work teams that she hired use low-VOC paints in both their residential and commercial spaces so that she and her clients would not start wheezing and sneezing. While this may have been considered bizarre or picky to her vendors at first, the health of her clients always improved in the spaces that she interior designed. Soon Wilson went from interior design health extremist to a trailblazer in the field, molding her industry with a health-conscious mindset.
It has paid-off over the past decade. Consistent clients around New York City and beyond helped Wilson become one of the top interior designers in the industry and prompted contracts with a number of illustrious people and companies. Wilson has done work for President Clinton’s Harlem office, the Good Housekeeping Showhouse, the private residence of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the White House Fellows organization. Her firm was the winner of the 2008 Make Mine a million dollar business award, sponsored by American Express OPEN. Wilson also is the first woman to license her name to eco-friendly [3]kitchen cabinetry thought Holiday Kitchens, which is sold at over 500 independent dealers nationwide. These cabinets are made from sustainable forests, non-formaldehyde adhesives and waste wood that comes out of their construction is recycled. In 2010, she wrote a book about her work on the Kennedy home, called Kennedy Green House: Designing an Eco-Friendly Home from the Foundation to the Furniture. In June of 2011, she was named an ambassador to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
For a related article on green home designs, click here. [4]