Press

ALEJANDRA “ALE” FORTIN
Founder & Interior Designer

Alejandra Fortin’s relationship with art and objects began long before she considered making a career of them.

Born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Ale grew up surrounded by craftsmanship, music and collecting. Her father Eduardo owned a furniture business specializing in handcrafted wooden furniture, and some of her earliest memories are of wandering through his factory, fascinated by the craftsmen at work and by the natural beauty of the woods themselves. Even as a child, she was a collector—beginning with something as elemental as rocks, chosen simply because she found them beautiful.

Her grandmother was Elena Maria Lardizabal Hartling, an avid art collector and former Miss Honduras, who introduced another dimension to Ale’s visual world, surrounding her with art and classical music from an early age. Creativity also runs through the family: her grandmother was also the granddaughter of Karl Hartling, the German-born composer and conductor who settled in Honduras and composed the music for the Honduran national anthem.

Together, these influences fostered an appreciation for objects not simply as decoration, but as expressions of material, craftsmanship, history and human creativity.

After immigrating to the United States, that instinct eventually evolved into a professional life in art, objects and interiors. Alongside her partner, Luke, Ale began dealing in art and collected objects, developing a creative partnership shaped by two distinct eyes. Their differing instincts—and the productive push and pull between them—became an essential part of their work.

Today, that dialogue sits at the heart of This Is Home Studio, where Ale brings a lifelong sensitivity to material, craftsmanship and the emotional resonance of objects to interiors that feel collected, personal and deeply lived in.