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Hunter and Company: Family Ties
July 28, 2010
Dave
 Laira Fonner photo
Dominick graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor of fine arts degree in interior design and she grew up around designers. In fact, her mother and father met in design school, and her father is designer Micky Nelson, a man who made a name for himself doing high-end projects like luxury railroad cars.
“I always assumed I’d be in the business,” Hunter says. She owns Hunter and Co., an interior design and home furnishings store in Whitefish. Her store features designer furniture, hardware, and a resource library for fabrics.
Dominick has captured a corner of the market in Whitefish, where large, upscale homes form a majority of the dollar value of homes being sold every year in northwest Montana. Hunter and Co. has three designers on staff, with backgrounds in architectural design and interior design.
One of Dominick’s recent acccomplishments is a home in Whitefish’s Iron Horse development. “We did everything, from A to Z on that home,” she said, from plumbing to light fixtures and “everything in between.”
The home has antique barnwood flooring, with dark millwood accents. She used quartzite in the mudroom and powder room, which also features a hand-slumped glass sink. A dining room table was made from an historic, dismantled foot bridge in Whitefish.
Built for a Florida couple, the home was done in a Western/contemporary style that pushes the envelope of the traditional Montana style home of rock and log.
The kitchen has a green granite counter top with tumbled slate backsplash accented with glass tile.
Dominick sees her self as being the translator between the varied world of design options, and the client. “Some of our clients know what they want but don’t know how to get there,” she said.
With Montana not exactly being located on Designer Row, designers sometimes find challenges in locating styles and furnishings. “That’s why we have a large library of materials for people to look through,” Dominick says.
As Montana’s population grows with out-of-state clients, the design world is beginning to reflect the myriad styles of her clients. “We’re pushing the boundaries of ‘Montana rustic’ to a whole new level,” she says. “Whatever we are putting into someone’s home, you’re not going to see in anyone else’s. That’s a key to good design.”
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