Programa Logo
Programa Logo
Features

Specifications

Source smarter, spec faster

Presentations

Your designs deserve a stage.

Project Management

Coordinate your practice

Product Library

All-in-one hub for product details

Mood Boards

Visualize, present & develop ideas

Web Clipper

Product sourcing made easy

Client Dashboard & approvals

Studio space to share project details

Invoicing & Payments

Create & send invoices

Time Tracking

Capture every billable moment

Procurement

Order, ship, delivery, install

New

Introducing Presentations

Your project lives here. Now show it off.

Solutions

Solo designers

Find time to design again

Small studios

Fewer headaches, more projects

Large teams

Clarity across the whole studio

Watch demo

15 minute platform walkthrough

Pricing
Learn

Blog

News, product updates & more

Editorial

Read stories from our community

Made with Programa

Successful designer projects

Contact us

Get in touch, we're here to help

Changelog

New updates and improvements

Log inStart free
Programa Logo
Features

Specifications

Source smarter, spec faster

Presentations

Your designs deserve a stage.

Project Management

Coordinate your practice

Product Library

All-in-one hub for product details

Mood Boards

Visualize, present & develop ideas

Web Clipper

Product sourcing made easy

Client Dashboard & approvals

Studio space to share project details

Invoicing & Payments

Create & send invoices

Time Tracking

Capture every billable moment

Procurement

Order, ship, delivery, install

New

Introducing Presentations

Your project lives here. Now show it off.

Solutions

Solo designers

Find time to design again

Small studios

Fewer headaches, more projects

Large teams

Clarity across the whole studio

Watch demo

15 minute platform walkthrough

Pricing
Learn

Blog

News, product updates & more

Editorial

Read stories from our community

Made with Programa

Successful designer projects

Contact us

Get in touch, we're here to help

Changelog

New updates and improvements

Log inStart free
Interior Design
Share

Better your practice today, don't waste another minute.

Related posts

Living room at East Side Residence with pale sofas, a dark ribbed rug and full-height windows
  • Made with Programa
  • Interior Design

Legeard Studio

Made with Programa
Jul 2026
1906 Apartment
  • Interior Design

1906 Apartment

YSG Studio
May 2026
Mermaid House
  • Interior Design

Mermaid House

B.E Architecture
May 2026
Open kitchen of Hilltop Revival with a timber island, black pendant lights and sage green tile by Huron Interiors
  • Made with Programa

Huron Interiors

Made with Programa
Jul 2026

Product

  • All features
  • Specification tools
  • Management tools
  • Presentation tools

About

  • Company
  • Contact
  • FAQs
  • Pricing

Resources

  • Blog
  • Made with Programa
  • Editorial
  • Testimonials
  • Help Centre
  • Interior Design Software Guide
  • How to Choose FF&E Specification Software
  • What is Interior Design Procurement Software?

Legal

  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Acceptable Use Policy
  • Data Processing Addendum
  • All features
  • Help Centre
  • Pricing
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Acceptable Use Policy
  • Data Processing Addendum
© Programa 2026

For its Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas debut, Studio Eckström imagined Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room around a fictional collector shaped by travel, ritual and the social codes of the Gilded Age.

A hand-painted wallcovering, antique silhouettes, contemporary commissions and references to Austrian ceramic stoves and Palladian architecture give the room a history of its own.

The feature follows the project from character study to a 44-entry working Schedule, then looks at how the studio carries useful structure into its wider practice.

Background

The story and working method, behind Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room

Mark and Mikal Eckström
Studio Eckström logo
Studio EckströmMark and Mikal EckströmInterior Designers

For its Kips Bay Dallas debut, Studio Eckström imagined a collector shaped by travel, ritual and the social codes of the Gilded Age - then coordinated custom work and collaborators across several states to bring his room to life.

Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room was conceived as more than a collection of beautiful objects. It was a character study: a salon for a fictional man whose life could be read through the things he had gathered.

A hand-painted wallcovering gave the room the patina of age. Antique silhouettes sat beside contemporary commissions. Chrome shelving held books, art and small curiosities, while a blue ceramic stove, crystal chandelier, tailored seating and unexpected color made the room feel collected rather than staged.

Behind that atmosphere was a concentrated production: national sourcing, commissioned work, trades and installation coordinated across several states against a deadline that would not move.

Programa became one of the records connecting the room's point of view to its drawings, specifications, revisions and products. The project is the story; the working method explains how that story reached the finished room.

Chrome shelving with books, art and collected objects in Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room
Books, art and collected objects give the fictional Mr. Trotter a life beyond the room.

Because the platform allowed us to communicate with remote teams in real time, share drawings and specifications instantly, track revisions, and keep fabricators, vendors, and installers aligned across multiple states.

Mikal EckströmStudio Eckström
Antique chair, wood cabinet and blue artwork in Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room

Inventing Mr. Trotter

Build the room around a person

The fictional collector gave Studio Eckström a way to test every choice. The room had to suggest travel, ritual and the social life of a Gilded Age salon without becoming a historical replica.

References move across periods and places. The blue ceramic stove recalls Austrian kachelöfen. Architectural motifs bring in a Palladian order, while mirrored surfaces and a crystal chandelier add ceremony. Against them, a low pink sofa, blue chair and modern art keep the room in the present.

The hand-painted wallcovering is deliberately quiet. It gives the room depth without announcing itself as a new surface. Books, flowers, artwork and collected objects complete the fiction by making the room appear lived in.

This is the creative framework behind the project. Each later product decision had to answer to the same question: would Mr. Trotter have chosen it?

Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room with a blue ceramic stove, crystal chandelier and layered furnishings

Turn atmosphere into instructions

Let the specification sharpen the story

Using Programa, the spec for Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room contained over 100 entries across furniture, art and mirrors, lighting, stone and tile, fabric and paint.

It moves from the Made Goods Audin console and Maison Jansen tables to Vaughan lighting, Artistic Tile stone, Samuel & Sons trim and exact Benjamin Moore colors. The list makes the room more concrete without reducing it to a catalog.

Each row can carry the documentation code, dimensions, finish, material, quantity, lead time, supplier and status needed to act on a selection. Notes, attachments and custom specifications hold the details that do not fit a standard field.

A custom banquette needs fabrication requirements. Paint needs an exact color. Antique furniture and commissioned upholstery need enough information for people in different places to understand the same decision.

The number of entries is less important than the behavior behind them. Studio Eckström started with a strong narrative, then kept refining the record as that narrative became a room.

Pro tip

Give Schedule rows a consistent set of fields from the beginning. It is easier to leave a field empty than to rebuild the specification after decisions have moved forward.

Explore our Specifications
Wood cabinet with blue artwork, candle pendant and leafy arrangement in Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room

Hold the room together under pressure

Give remote collaborators one current record

The room combined national sourcing, commissioned work and installation carried out with fabricators, vendors and trades across several states. Under that kind of pressure, a beautiful concept is not enough; everyone needs to know which version is current.

Mikal Eckström describes Programa as the place where the studio could share drawings and specifications, track revisions and keep remote collaborators aligned in real time.

The working Schedule gave each selection a stable product record while the information around it developed. A collaborator could respond to the current specification rather than an attachment that had already been superseded.

That discipline is easy to miss in the finished photographs. It is also what allowed the many makers, materials and references in the room to arrive as one composition.

Burgundy banquette, pink marble table and blue ceramic stove in Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room

What the studio kept

Keep structure, not sameness

Kips Bay is the clearest project story. Studio Eckström's current workspace shows how the practice has carried useful structure into the work that followed.

Across other projects, image-first Presentations connect visual direction to product records. Client decisions and delivery status remain attached to the relevant selection, while pricing can be reviewed in the context of the specification.

The studio also maintains reusable Schedule structures for lighting, materials and finishes, fittings and fixtures, FF&E and Presentations. These preserve categories, fields and checks that should not need to be invented again for every brief.

Studio View and Time Tracking give the principals a wider view of active work across the practice. The project remains individual; the operating method becomes easier to repeat.

That is the lesson beyond the show house. A strong system does not give a room its personality. It gives that personality a better chance of reaching the finished image intact.

Pro tip

Template the structure, not the taste. Tasks, Schedule sections, fields and checks can carry forward while the design remains specific to the project.

Explore Project Management
Mark and Mikal Eckström in Mr. Trotter's Drawing Room
Founders Mark and Mikal Eckström in the finished room.

Collaborators

  • Studio EckströmDesign Studio
  • PhotographerPatrick Biller

Toolkit

  • Schedules & Specifications
  • Presentations
  • Time Tracking
  • Studio Management
  • Client Dashboard