Waste nothing—that’s the maxim Blair Moore learned growing up on a cattle property in Australia. From a design perspective, the message came into clearer focus as she watched her builder father transform long-abandoned, dilapidated structures (sometimes home to opossums and snakes) into fully renovated homes ready for their second life.

After earning a business degree, Moore moved to New York for a degree in fashion design from Parsons, followed by a brief stint in that industry. Quickly, the world of interiors pulled her in, and she founded her own firm, Moore House Design, in 2016. Taking a cue from the projects she witnessed growing up, Moore embarked on her design career aspiring to create work that would last—but the industry, it seemed, wasn’t always built for this ideal. From opening a receiving warehouse for her firm to launching her furniture company, Roweam, Moore made it her mission to prioritize quality above all else, with the ultimate goal of creating better projects, a better firm and a better design industry.

Elsewhere in the episode, she shares how she’s striving to reduce waste in the design process and why maximizing profit isn’t her firm’s biggest focus.

Crucial insight: In the early days of Moore House Design, there was one step in the design process that never failed to introduce new mistakes and challenges: retrieving shipped items from a warehouse on install day. No matter which warehouse it was (and Moore tried several, across New England and New York), items consistently arrived damaged, in the wrong color, or with incorrect detailing. Quality control was one of the firm’s top priorities—so Moore took matters into her own hands. “I got a receiving warehouse and we started doing it on our own,” she says. “Everything is unpackaged and inspected. … That made me and my clients a lot happier. When we were installing spaces, it felt 100 percent complete and finished, and there was no detail untouched.”

Key quote: “We only pitch things that are necessary and that are going to add value to both the home and the client,” says Moore. “Yes, it does make it harder—but for me, it’s not about profitability. It’s about adding that value to the home.”

Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This episode was sponsored by Jaipur Living.