Daniel Faires stood at the end of the group of Design Star contestants, his flannel shirt and work boots authentically rustic in the line of name-brand finery and stilettos. Although his Arkansas upbringing and construction background set him apart from big-city designers, Faires’ eye for detail and quirky style have quickly spotlighted him as a key player on the HGTV competition.
Northwest Arkansas native Faires spent his childhood learning the skills that have come to define him as a designer.
“I grew up in a century-old home,” Faires said. “I was dad’s little helper.”
After graduating from Springdale high school, Faires spent two years at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville before transferring to UA and graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology.
The original plan was to continue his education into medical school, but Faires decided to enter into employment while he sorted out his future plans. He moved to Mississippi to take a job in medical sales, and was there only a few months before Hurricane Katrina hit and devastated the surrounding area. Faires finished out the year in Mississippi, helping clean up homes and offices leveled by the storm.
“It was a crazy, eye-opening experience,” he said.
Little did Faires know that his philanthropic work would continue to build onto his DIY background, propelling him all the more into his future in design.
Faires’ girlfriend Dasha Sprague, UA apparel studies major, was set to graduate in the spring and planned to move to New York City to pursue her career in fashion design. Faires and Sprague met in high school as friends.
“Then it became a romance and we’ve just grown together over the years,” Faires said. “Now we feel like we’re ready to tie the knot and officially begin life together.”
The couple will wed on July 23rd at the Pratt Place in Fayetteville.
Faires planned accordingly, and followed Sprague to New York with another medical sales job, yet all the while continued to dabble in contracting and landscape work with freelance jobs on the side.
Faires struck gold when he was noticed for his stellar landscaping skills on a job in Hoboken, New Jersey, and was hired on with a prestigious contracting company. He continued to promote his own landscaping, furniture building and contracting on the side.
“It wasn’t until I moved to New York that I realized that this innate passion and drive within me could be a career,” Faires recalled.
Faires’ passion was what eventually led him to audition for a spot on the HGTV show Design Star.
“Because I love HGTV so much, I get on their website often…I was just browsing one day and saw that they were doing a casting call for the show in New York City,” Faires said. “I was confident at first but I don’t think I really realized the enormity of the situation. I just thought I’d go in and be myself and show my skills and see if the were impressed.”
Faires has always been an avid follower of the show, but conceded that the televised episodes don’t always match up to the reality of Design Star.
“Going into it you don’t realize the intensity of the situation until you’re thrown into it. You have eleven other people, about whom you know nothing, and you’re trying to get to know them personally and professionally, to understand the differences in everyone else’s personality and design skills and trying to make it mesh together on the show.”
The “White Box Challenge” illustrated the hardest part of the show, according to Faires. Designers were arranged in pairs and instructed to decorate a room – the “white box” – based on the other designers’ personalities.
“When everyone has to work together, it’s the hardest,” he said.
The fast pace of the design process, however, was one of Faires’ favorite aspects of the show.
“My favorite part was just being able to bang out designs in two days. It’s a very heated, intense couple of days, and you’re completely exhausted afterwards, but most of the designs and jobs I’ve done they drag on for months…so it’s a very different situation to have to go shop and put a room together in two days flat,” Faires said. “The adrenaline rush and the intensity of each challenge was incredible.”
Of his own design aesthetic, Faires described it as “rustic, modern, industrial and bohemian all together.”
“The rustic comes from my history and past in Arkansas. My house growing up was like a flea market: my mom had a lot of antiques, and from that I definitely have an eclectic style, but lean towards modern and rustic for sure. I love found things, and I create a lot of my own things from found objects.”
Faires has channeled his passion for “re-purposing” into his design company, Capsule Furniture (capsulefurniture.com). He specializes in sculptural benches, end tables and coffee tables made from salvaged wood, each one unique and maintaining Faires’ modern yet rustic touch.
Of his successes on the show, Faires credits hard work and dedication, along with the pragmatism of his upbringing.
“That’s kind of how I view life: I just kind of live each day at a time. I feel very blessed to have been raised the way that I was. And not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be on Design Star.”
“What a life dream,” Faires marveled.
Faires is still making a strong performance on Design Star. The show has finished taping and airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. on HGTV.