The Interior Collective
- Episodes
- 134
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 13, 2026
About the podcast
A podcast for the business of beautiful living presented by IDCO Studio. The Interior Collective is equal parts advisor, collaborator, and trusted friend to interior designers around the world. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey -- bringing in interior designers and industry tastemakers to provide you with actionable advice for your own practice from experts you already trust. Our star-studded lineup features industry-renowned names such as Heidi Caillier, Amber Lewis, Shea McGee, Marie Flanigan, Jake Arnold, Clara Jung, Carley Summers, Gail Davis, Lindsey Borchard, Lauren Liess, Light & Dwell, Victoria Sass, Megan Grehl and so many more. We’ve assigned each guest a specific topic for truly actionable, inspiring and strategic takeaways from each episode.
Episodes 134
The Full Presentation: Inside Heidi Caillier's Design Process
Season 10 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and I'm so excited to have Heidi Caillier on for another …
Show notes
Season 10 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and I'm so excited to have Heidi Caillier on for another conversation. If you have not listened to her previous episode, go back to Season 2, Episode 1 and start there. It is one of the most listened-to episodes in the show's history for good reason.
Heidi is an AD100 designer known for her confident use of pattern, color, and nostalgic detail. Her work is layered, deeply personal, and rooted in a love of vintage, antiques, and handcrafted things. And she has built a business model that blew my mind when I first heard it in detail at Design Camp.
Here is the short version: Heidi presents an entire home all at once. Every hard finish, every soft finish, every fixture, every piece of furniture, including the vintage. One presentation. A month of revisions. Then procurement begins and the design is done.
We covered the philosophy behind that model and the markup structure in our last conversation. Today we are going deeper into the mechanics of how it actually happens. What those six to eight weeks of design work look like inside the studio before anyone sees a single thing. How vintage pieces specifically are handled within a full home presentation, what mid-construction project management looks like once a project is handed off, and how she is managing all of this with a remote team.
If the full presentation model has ever felt out of reach, this conversation will change how you think about what is actually possible.
Utilizing Personal Projects as a Marketing Channel with Jean Stoffer and Grace Start
Season 10 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today two of my favorite people are back. Jean Stoffer …
Show notes
Season 10 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today two of my favorite people are back.
Jean Stoffer joined us in Season 5 to talk about building a family legacy in design, and it was such an impactful conversation. If you have not listened to it, go back and start there. Today we are picking up where we left off, but going somewhere completely new.
Jean and Grace were also keynote speakers at Design Camp last fall, and if you were in the room that day you already know what an extraordinary conversation it was. It’s a privilege to have them back.
Here is what I have been thinking about since we last spoke. The Madison, the 10,000 square foot Greek Revival home that started as a flip and ended with Jean and her husband moving in, is widely credited as the moment that put Jean Stoffer Design on the international map. The photos went viral on Instagram, the Magnolia Network came calling. And everything changed. Jean is now doing it again with the Reeds Lake house, a major renovation being documented on YouTube as a monthly series. And Grace has built her own deeply engaged following by sharing the story of the Log Cabin, her family home that started as a vacation rental, across The Established Home, Instagram, and YouTube.
What is fascinating to me is that neither of them is doing this casually. There is a real multi-channel strategy behind how these personal projects are shared. Today we are digging into this concept, because personal projects may be the most underutilized marketing tool available to designers at every stage.
Staying Hands-On as a Designer: Creative Control at Scale with Amber Lewis
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi. Hi, welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi.
Hi, welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey and I'm once again joined by Amber Lewis, founder of Amber Interiors, a studio that has grown from a small residential practice into a brand with hundreds of employees and a footprint that spans design, retail, and media. What's notable about Amber's path isn't just the scale, it's her signature design work has remained central to the business even as the company around it has expanded well beyond it.
In this conversation, we're getting into the mechanics of staying close to the creative product at that size: how she protects her point of view on projects, what design still contributes to the business financially, and whether taking on more design work remains a priority as the brand diversifies. We'll also talk about her own home renovation, working with brand partners inside her own space, her newly launched third book “Interiors”, and what her team structure looks like day to day to make room for all of it.
This is a conversation about staying hands-on without doing it all yourself.
Behind the Lens: How to Plan, Shoot, and License Your Design Work with Marie Flanigan
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today someone very special is back for another conversation.
Marie Flanigan has been a part of this show since the very beginning. She was our first-ever guest on Season 1 of the podcast, has been on again since, and is someone whose work and industry leadership I deeply admire.
For anyone new to Marie, she is the founder of Marie Flanigan Interiors, a Houston-based full-service residential design studio with projects spanning the country. Originally trained as an architect, her work is known for its soulful restraint, its mastery of light, and a layered warmth that feels deeply personal to every client. She has been featured in countless shelter publications and has published two books, and has brand collaborations with Visual Comfort and Annie Selke.
All of that requires an enormous amount of photography, videography, and content. And today we are getting into exactly how she manages and delegates content creation of this scale. How her team plans a shoot, coordinates a photographer and videographer on the same project, how she thinks about licensing and rights, how brand partners factor into the production, and more.
If photography has ever felt like the last thing you figure out on a project, this conversation is going to reframe things entirely.
The Builder Advantage: Turning Contractor Relationships Into Your Most Powerful Client Pipeline with Ali Henrie
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi. Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi.
Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm sitting down with Ali Henrie, founder of Ali Henrie Interiors, based in Utah.
Most designers think about builders as a logistical relationship. Someone to coordinate with, someone to negotiate around, someone to manage. Ali Henrie thinks about builders as one of the most valuable business relationships a designer can have, and she has the pipeline to prove it.
Before Ali launched her own studio, she worked directly for a builder as their in-house designer. That experience gave her a genuine understanding of how builders think, what they need, what slows them down, and what makes a designer genuinely easy and valuable to work with. When she eventually launched her own firm, she took everything she learned on that side of the table and built a system around it.
Today, builders are one of Ali's biggest drivers of new clients. She has cultivated deep relationships with luxury builders across Utah, serves on the Utah Valley Homebuilders Association, and has chaired the Parade of Homes Committee, which means she is not just working alongside this community, she is embedded in it.
In this episode, we are getting into exactly how she did it. What builders actually need from a designer, what designers often get wrong about that relationship, how Ali has built a system that makes her easy to work with, and how those relationships have compounded into a client pipeline.
If you have ever wanted to crack the builder market, or if you have builder relationships that have never quite turned into the business you hoped, this conversation is going to give you a completely different way of thinking about it.
Selling Without Selling: The Strategy Behind Growing Oho Interiors with Melissa Oholendt
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today Melissa Oholendt of Oho Interiors is back for her second conversation on this show.
Melissa launched Oho Interiors in 2019 after a career that moved from corporate finance to wedding photography to interior photography to design. She has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Rue, Homes and Gardens, and the Wall Street Journal. She runs a nine-person studio spread across offices in Minneapolis and Black Forest, Colorado.
We have covered trade vendor relationships and procurement with Melissa before, and I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode. But today we are talking about how she has grown this firm, the strategy behind it, what she has done well, what she has gotten wrong, and most importantly, the philosophy that underpins all of it: the idea that the best sales process is one the client never feels is happening. From her social media and marketing all the way through to the final client experience, Melissa has built a system that creates trust and buy-in at every touchpoint. Today she is going to walk us through exactly how that works.
The Brand-Led Studio: How to Win Clients Before the Inquiry with Shea McGee
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Loloi.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today's guest needs absolutely no introduction - Shea McGee is back.
For those of you who were with us in Season 1, you know we had Shea on back in 2022, and that episode remains one of the most listened-to conversations in the show's history. A lot has happened since then. McGee & Co. has grown into one of the most recognizable home furnishings brands in the country. There have been books, major brand collaborations with Kohler, Ann Sacks, Target, The Shade Store, and more. And her debut cookbook, Around the Table, just released this spring.
But what I find most fascinating about Shea's story is not the scale of what she has built, it’s how she built it. Before there was a team, a Netflix show, or a product line, there was a blog with a consistent and deliberate way of showing up that made people feel like they knew her before they ever reached out. That instinct didn’t just build an audience, it built a brand where the right clients arrive already sold.
That is exactly what we are unpacking today. What it means to build a brand-led studio, the editorial decisions that create authority before anyone picks up the phone, how the client conversation changes as your brand grows, and what Shea's return to writing on Substack says about the staying power of long-form content.
There are lessons in Shea's evolution that apply to designers at every stage.
Designing Across Residential and Boutique Hospitality with Hearth Homes Interiors
Celebrate a decade of IDCO Studio with 10 days of 30% off site-wide. Use code DECADE30 at www.idco.studio today to lock in your savings. Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio …
Show notes
Celebrate a decade of IDCO Studio with 10 days of 30% off site-wide. Use code DECADE30 at www.idco.studio today to lock in your savings.
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I am sitting down with two people whose business model sits at the intersection of residential design and hospitality ownership.
Katie Labourdette-Martinez and Olivia Wahler are sisters-in-law and co-founders of Hearth Homes Interiors, a full-service residential interior design studio based in Santa Barbara. They started together in 2017 in a staging business, developed a reputation for honoring the character of older homes, and eventually pivoted their business entirely to full-service design. In 2023 they founded Hearth Hospitality Group alongside Olivia's brothers Lucas and Julian and their longtime friend Jason. They now own and operate three historic inns and two restaurants across Santa Barbara, with Hearth Homes Interiors as the design arm for all of it.
The Craft House Inn was included in Goop's best of Santa Barbara guide, named one of the Best Hotels in Santa Barbara in the 2024 Sunset Travel Awards, and their design work has been featured in Luxe, Sunset, Modern Luxury, and Rue.
The Hearth philosophy is simple: honor what came before, and create spaces with an unmistakable sense of place. Today we are discussing what it means to design across both residential and boutique hospitality, and what other design studios can learn and implement into their own business.
Collaborators, Craft, and the Path to Publication with Sean Anderson
Celebrate a decade of IDCO Studio with 10 days of 30% off site-wide. Use code DECADE30 at www.idco.studio today to lock in your savings. Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio …
Show notes
Celebrate a decade of IDCO Studio with 10 days of 30% off site-wide. Use code DECADE30 at www.idco.studio today to lock in your savings.
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I am sitting down with someone I've really been looking forward to getting to know — Sean Anderson.
Sean grew up in rural Mississippi, where his mother encouraged his love of art long before he ever thought of it as a career. He never went to design school. He started in Memphis in his thirties with a small circle of loyal clients and word of mouth, and he's said that he considers every day in this industry an education — that every install is still his final exam.
Since founding his namesake studio in 2013, Sean Anderson has grown into offices in both Memphis and New York. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Milieu, Garden and Gun, and Departures. He's been named to the 1stDibs 50 and the Wallpaper 400. And this fall, he's releasing his debut monograph with Rizzoli, Interior Narratives — with a foreword by architect Jeffrey Dungan, text by Sam Cochran, and photography by his longtime collaborator, Haris Kenjar.
We are getting into all of it today. What it actually took to build a two-city practice from a standing start in Memphis. The creative partnerships — with an architect, a writer, a photographer — that shaped this book and his business. And for every designer who has a book on their vision board, the real, unglamorous path to publication from the inside.
Seans Andersons book, Interior Narratives, is now available!The 100 Image Exercise: Tiffany Leigh's Client Discovery Process
Celebrate a decade of IDCO Studio with 10 days of 30% off site-wide. Use code DECADE30 at www.idco.studio today to lock in your savings. Tiffany Piotrowski is back, and this time we are digging into her …
Show notes
Celebrate a decade of IDCO Studio with 10 days of 30% off site-wide. Use code DECADE30 at www.idco.studio today to lock in your savings.
Tiffany Piotrowski is back, and this time we are digging into her studio’s 100 image exercise.
This episode relies heavily on the video portion of it, as Tiffany generously shows us physical examples of what she’s explaining. If you are not already watching this on Patreon or YouTube, pause, and head over there. Subscribing on Patreon gets you access to not only the full video conversation to this and all episodes, it also gains access to 2 additional episodes per month, exclusive to Patreon subscribers. Supporting the podcast directly is what makes it possible to keep this show running, and we have a lot more of it coming.
Tiffany is the founder of Tiffany Leigh Design, a full-service studio based in Barrie, Ontario, known for its English-inspired interiors, layered materiality, and a deeply thoughtful approach to understanding what home means to each client.
Tiffany is a close personal friend, and in one of our industry group texts, she mentioned this concept of a 100 Image Exercise. Immediately I knew we needed to record a show about it. In her process, Tiffany has developed what she calls a Dream and Scheme Meeting, a structured first meeting with every new client that goes far beyond the standard questionnaire. It has four parts, it happens in person at her studio, and it is designed to surface the things a client would never think to write down.
One of the centerpieces of that meeting is the 100 image exercise, something she learned from Melissa Oholendt of Oho Interiors and has since made her own. Today she is walking us through the whole thing, and she is doing a live demo on camera. The 100 image exercise itself: how her team curates and prints 100 images for every client, and why the physical, printed format matters more than a digital slideshow. The exact printer she uses: https://a.co/d/0hL48rkV
The HGTV Effect: What TV Competition Design Taught About Process, Pressure, and Profitability with Britany Simon
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm sitting down with someone whose career trajectory …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm sitting down with someone whose career trajectory is genuinely one of a kind in this industry.
Britany Simon grew up around construction, the daughter of a residential developer in Arizona. She earned a degree in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in business and interior design, and spent years working in some of the top design firms in the state before landing her big break on HGTV.
After gaining national recognition as a runner-up and fan favorite on Design Star, she went on to appear on multiple design-focused television programs, developing a strong media presence alongside deep technical expertise. In 2015, she launched Britany Simon Design House, which she has since grown into a highly respected boutique studio known for its elevated client experience, strong internal systems, and thoughtful approach to scaling a design business.
Today we are covering what those years on set taught her about delivering under pressure, and how those same instincts became the foundation for a client process that protects her time, her margins, and her relationships. We are going step by step, phase by phase, because a well-structured client experience is the difference between a busy studio and a profitable one.
Showhouses as a Strategic Brand-Building Investment with Claire Staszak
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I am sitting down with Claire Staszak, founder and …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I am sitting down with Claire Staszak, founder and principal of Centered by Design, a full-service residential interior design studio based in Chicago specializing in the design and restoration of historic homes.
Claire came from journalism and marketing before she came to interiors, and that background has shaped everything about how she has built her firm, including how she thinks about showhouses. Most designers treat a showhouse as a client opportunity, but Claire treats it as a brand investment with a measurable return. She has done both local and national showhouses and built a team that helps make it all happen.
Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Domino, Luxe, and the Chicago Tribune. She has a studio and showroom in East Lakeview, a second design annex on the North Shore, a wallpaper collection with Isidore Leroy, and a debut book slated for Fall 2027.
Today we are getting into the real costs of a showhouse, the brand partnerships that make them financially viable, what local versus national showhouses actually produce for a studio, and what every designer should be thinking about before they say yes to the next one.
The Sameness Problem: What Fashion Styling Teaches About Protecting Your Creative Point of View with Nicole Fisher
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm sitting down with Nicole Fisher, founder of …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm sitting down with Nicole Fisher, founder of Nicole Fisher Interiors, a residential design studio now based in New York City.
Before Nicole was designing homes, she was dressing Lady Gaga.She started her career in fashion, working as a stylist under Brandon Maxwell and Nicola Formichetti. That level of intentionality around detail, character, and originality didn't leave her when she transitioned into interior design. It became the entire foundation of how she works.
And that foundation has never been more relevant than right now. Because we are living through a moment in this industry where AI tools, algorithmic feeds, and the sheer volume of visual content being produced are creating a kind of aesthetic gravity — a pull toward the same. And the designers who are going to thrive in that environment are the ones who built something so specific and so genuinely theirs that no algorithm could have produced it.
Nicole is one of those designers. She's been named to Luxe's inaugural NEXT list, featured in Architectural Digest, and after ten-plus years of building her firm in Hudson, New York, she's moving her studio back to the city where her career began.
In this episode, we're talking about all of it. The fashion years, what that world taught her about building a visual identity, how she thinks about originality as a business strategy, and what designers need to understand about protecting their creative point of view in an era of algorithmic sameness. This is a conversation about creativity as a competitive advantage.
Hiring for Culture, Leading with Values: Building a Team with Diverse Backgrounds with Trish Lynn
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm sitting down with Trish Lynn …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm sitting down with Trish Lynn, founder and principal designer of Colette Interiors, a full-service residential studio based in Chatham, New Jersey.
I want to ask you something before we get into this episode. When you picture your next hire, what do you picture? Someone fresh out of a design program? Someone who's already worked at another firm? Someone whose portfolio you can scroll through?
What if the best person for the job has never held a design title in their life?
Trish Lynn has built a six-person studio in one of the most competitive residential markets in the country — and she did it by hiring people with backgrounds in editorial, teaching, nursing, and finance alongside her design team. Before she launched Colette Interiors, she spent years in the corporate world, which meant she came to team-building with something most designers have to figure out entirely on their own: a real framework for what makes a person the right fit, and the confidence to look for it outside the obvious places.
In this episode, we're unpacking all of it. What those non-traditional backgrounds actually contribute to a design studio. How Trish hires for the qualities that don't show up in a portfolio. How she onboards someone into a creative process when they're coming from a completely different industry. And how she leads in a way that makes strong people want to stay.
If you've ever felt like you're hiring from a very small pool — or like every hire you've made has been a version of yourself — this conversation is going to open something up for you.
Designing a Service Menu That Scales: How Zoë Feldman Built a Studio That Serves Clients at Every Level Without Diluting the Brand
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm thrilled to welcome back one of the most …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I'm thrilled to welcome back one of the most business-savvy designers working right now — and one of the most generous guests we've ever had on this show.
If you were here for Zoë's first episode, you know she walked us through her six-step design process with a level of clarity and detail that genuinely stopped designers in their tracks. The questions kept coming, and honestly, so did mine. So when I started thinking about who I wanted back in Season 8, Zoë was at the top of my list.
Zoë Feldman is the founder of Zoë Feldman Design, a studio with offices in both Washington DC and New York City, specializing in high-end residential interiors with a signature approach. She's been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, House Beautiful, and more — and beyond the press, she has spent years methodically building a studio that doesn't just produce beautiful work. It operates like a real business.
In this episode, we're talking about something that every designer hits at some point in their growth: how do you build a service structure that captures the right clients, at the right level, without compromising your brand or burning out your team? Zoë has done exactly that. She runs a full-service design offering for complex, high-investment projects. She recently launched Demi, a design-forward but operationally lighter service tier for clients who don't need full project management. And she's the most-booked designer on The Expert platform on the entire East Coast.
How she built all three of those things — how she prices them, positions them, staffs them, and protects the quality across all of them — is what we are getting into today. This one is going to be a masterclass.
Building A Design Firm Outside a Major Market with Emily Tucker
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I’m joined by someone whose story I think is going to …
Show notes
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I’m joined by someone whose story I think is going to resonate deeply with so many of you who are building businesses outside of the obvious design epicenters.
Emily Tucker is the founder of Emily Tucker Design, a full-service residential studio headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, with projects across the country. With a degree in Architecture and Planning from the University of Colorado Boulder and nearly a decade spent training under Kelly Wearstler, Steven Gambrel, and Ruthie Summers in Los Angeles and New York, Emily returned to Colorado in 2015 with a clear vision and a serious pedigree. She has since built one of the most respected design studios in her region, working on large-scale custom residential projects and earning a spot on Luxe’s Gold List — and just this year, she was named a Luxe ‘NEXT’ Designer for 2026.
What makes Emily such a compelling voice for this community is her willingness to talk about the business of design with real honesty. Today we’re diving into what it actually looks like to build a thriving firm in a smaller market, navigating the realities of non-linear growth and unpredictable pipelines, and why the economics of a great project start long before any furniture is selected. We’re talking client alignment, budget stewardship, the right team, and what it means to do this work sustainably.
If you’ve ever wondered how to grow beyond the market you’re in, or how to weather the slow seasons without losing your footing, this conversation is for you.
Creative Mindset: How to Do Your Best Work and Protect the Creativity of a Project from Start to Finish with Julia Miller
Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio. Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and I'm so glad to have a returning guest with us …
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Season 9 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Materio.
Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey, and I'm so glad to have a returning guest with us today.
Julia Miller is the founder and creative director of Yond Interiors, a full-service residential design studio based in Minneapolis that serves clients across the country. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal, RUE, Sunset, and more, and she's been recognized by House Beautiful's Next Wave and The Expert Top 40. Beyond Yond, Julia is the co-founder of Brunel, a custom furniture shop rooted in craftsmanship, and the founder of The Studio Table — a mentoring program built around the real operations of a working design firm.
When Julia came back to the show, we had planned to dig into the systems and process side of her practice. But in the lead-up to this conversation, she brought up something she felt was even more foundational — and honestly, I couldn't agree more.
Today we're talking about creative mindset: what it actually takes to get into the frame of mind to do your best work, how to protect that creativity throughout the lifecycle of a project, and what happens when the pressure of running a business starts to crowd out the thing that made you want to do this in the first place.
This one is a little different, a little more personal, and I think it's going to resonate deeply.
S2 E5: The Logistics of Distance Design
Yond Interiors
Brunel
Studio TableThe Interior Collective: Website | Youtube
IDCO Studio: Website | Instagram
Kwin Made: Website | Instagram
Design Camp: Website | InstagramThe Strategic Hire: Utilizing Remote Support to Scale Your Studio with Reed Humphrey
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. Today on The Interior Collective, I'm sitting down with Reed Humphrey, co-founder of Alder & Tweed, one of the largest residential interior …
Show notes
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist.
Today on The Interior Collective, I'm sitting down with Reed Humphrey, co-founder of Alder & Tweed, one of the largest residential interior design firms in the country, and the founder of Dezign Assist, the platform helping interior designers grow their team at a fraction of the cost.
Reed built Alder & Tweed alongside his sister Heather, carved out a niche in luxury second-home and vacation destination design, and scaled the firm to a team that now relies on more than 20 remote junior designers to support projects across the country.
That staffing model didn't come from a business book. It came from hitting a very real wall inside his own firm, recognizing that the way most design studios hire was making growth unnecessarily expensive and unnecessarily painful, and deciding to solve it differently.
What he built became Dezign Assist. And today we're going to get into all of it: the problem it was designed to solve, who these designers actually are, how to integrate remote support into a studio without losing your standards or your client experience, and what it really means to build a team that lets you get back to the work only you can do.
If you've ever talked yourself out of hiring because you couldn't justify the cost, this episode is going to reframe that conversation entirely.
Vintage as a Revenue Stream: How to Source, Price, and Scale One of a Kind Design with Ashley Montgomery
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio. Today’s guest is someone who needs very little introduction: Ashley Montgomery …
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Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio.Today’s guest is someone who needs very little introduction: Ashley Montgomery is the founder and principal of Ashley Montgomery Design, one of Canada’s most publicly recognized interior design studios. Her work is instantly identifiable. Layered, warm, deeply collected, and anchored in vintage pieces that feel storied and intentional rather than trendy.
But what I’m especially excited to unpack today is not just the aesthetic. It’s the operational side of building a firm around vintage. Because sourcing one of a kind pieces at scale is not for the faint of heart. It requires systems, relationships, risk management, pricing strategy, and a deep understanding of margin. And doing that from Canada adds an entirely different layer of logistics that many U.S. designers may not fully understand.
Ashley has built a studio that doesn’t just use vintage occasionally. It is embedded into her brand identity. And in today’s conversation, we’re pulling back the curtain on how she sources, how she prices, how she protects profitability, and how she has scaled a taste-driven aesthetic across a growing team.
We’ll talk about cross-border importing, markup strategy on antiques, client education, and whether vintage actually increases project profitability or simply increases complexity.
What It Really Takes to Launch a Textile or Wallpaper Line with Callie Jenschke
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi. Today’s episode is one I know so many of you have been curious about, because we’re diving into what it actually looks like to step beyond …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
Today’s episode is one I know so many of you have been curious about, because we’re diving into what it actually looks like to step beyond client work and into product development.
I’m joined by Callie, founder of SUPPLY Showroom-a boutique fabric and wallpaper showroom-which is the hub of Austin’s design community, and whose reach extends well beyond Texas. It’s truly one of those spaces that’s worth the trip, whether you’re local or flying in. They’ve also been a longtime partner of Design Camp, generously hosting our campers each year for a welcome breakfast and private tour, and we’ll be back with them again this August. You can learn more at design-camp.co.
Callie has a front row seat to what makes a textile or wallpaper collection successful, and just as importantly, where designers tend to get it wrong. We’re talking through the real investment required to launch a line, how to think about memos and distribution, what showrooms actually do behind the scenes, and how to approach this as a long-term business decision, not just a passion project.
If you’ve ever considered launching your own textile or wallpaper collection, this episode is going to give you a much clearer picture of what it takes to do it well.
Contract & Scope Missteps Designers Make and How to Prevent Them with Brittany Hakimfar
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi. Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey, and today we’re diving into one of the most important …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey, and today we’re diving into one of the most important, and often overlooked, foundations of a healthy design business: contracts and scope management.
I’m joined today by Brittney Hakimfar, founder of Far Studio, a Philadelphia–based interior design studio known for its thoughtful, layered work and highly organized project structure. But beyond the aesthetics, Brittney has built a reputation for running projects with clarity, strong boundaries, and systems that protect both the designer and the client experience.
In this episode, we’re talking about the contract and scope missteps that so many designers encounter at some point in their careers. We’ll get into the specific language that helps prevent scope creep and revision overload, why vague deliverables often lead to long-term issues on a project, and how to structure revision rounds, approvals, and change orders clearly from the very beginning.
Brittney also shares how Far Studio structures their team, how they approach pricing and project management today, and how those systems have evolved as the studio has grown.
If you’ve ever had a project expand far beyond its original scope, or struggled to set clear boundaries with clients, this conversation will give you practical tools to protect your time, your creativity, and ultimately your profitability.
Taking the Leap: Building a Design Business Through Growth, Trust, and Strategic Support with Danielle Rose
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. Today on The Interior Collective, we’re talking about something that …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist.Today on The Interior Collective, we’re talking about something that every designer eventually faces in their career: the moment when growth requires a leap of faith.
Building a successful interior design studio isn’t just about talent or great projects. It’s about mindset. It’s about trusting yourself enough to make big decisions before you feel completely ready. And it’s about recognizing that the strongest businesses are rarely built alone.
In this episode, I’m joined by Danielle Chiprut of Danielle Rose Design Co. a designer who has embraced that growth mentality in a meaningful way. We’re talking about what it really looks like to bet on yourself, how to navigate the risks that come with scaling a creative business, and why building a strong support system outside of your internal team can be one of the most powerful decisions you make.
From photographers and PR partners to the broader network of collaborators who help bring a designer’s work to life, we’re exploring how those relationships shape not only the visibility of a studio, but its long-term trajectory.
The Visionary vs. The Enforcer: Why Designers Lose Authority (and How to Get It Back) with Bri Ussery
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist.Hi, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey.
Today’s conversation is one I think a lot of interior designers are going to feel deeply seen by. I’m joined by Bri Ussery, and together we’re unpacking a dynamic that quietly shapes almost every design studio: the split between the visionary and the enforcer.
Designers are often asked to hold two opposing roles at once. On one hand, you’re expected to be the creative leader. The person with taste, clarity, and vision. On the other, you’re also expected to enforce boundaries, manage approvals, push timelines forward, and uphold fees. When both of those identities live in the same person, something starts to fracture.
In this episode, Bri and I explore why that split happens, where it shows up most clearly in real projects, and how it impacts everything from client trust to profitability to a designer’s sense of authority. We also talk through the structural and operational fixes that help protect the principal’s role and keep designers in the visionary posturerole clients believe they’re hiring them for.
If you’ve ever felt the tension between leading creatively and enforcing operationally, or noticed moments where your authority starts to blur, this conversation will give language and structure to something you’ve likely been experiencing for years.
Scaling Back to Scale Better: Redefining Success as an Influencer Designer with Nicole Salceda
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. Today’s guest is Nicole Salceda, founder of Eye for Pretty. Nicole built …
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Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist.Today’s guest is Nicole Salceda, founder of Eye for Pretty. Nicole built a highly visible brand at the intersection of interior design, retail, and digital influence. But what makes her story especially compelling is not just how she grew quickly, but how she chose to scale back with intention.
In this episode, we’re talking about what happens when growth outpaces alignment, how to downsize without feeling like you’ve failed, and what it really means to be an “influencer designer” in today’s market. We also get into her team structure, partnerships with builders, brick and mortar retail, and how custom spec builds have reshaped her revenue model.
If you’ve ever questioned whether bigger automatically means better, this conversation is for you.
Art with Authority: Integrating Fine Art into Your Design Process with Sarah Hurt
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. Today we’re talking about one of the most intimidating and misunderstood …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist.Today we’re talking about one of the most intimidating and misunderstood layers of an interior design project: art.
My guest is Sarah Hurt, founder of Seattle Art Source, an art advisory that has worked alongside interior designers across the Pacific Northwest since 2017. Sarah’s entire business exists to remove the hesitation designers often feel around specifying art, and to help them position it not as an afterthought, but as a strategic and emotional anchor within a home.
In this episode, we’re getting practical. We’re talking about when to introduce art into the project timeline, how to speak about it with authority, what your role is versus an art advisor’s role, and how art can actually elevate your client experience while protecting their financial investment.
If art has ever felt like the most mysterious line item in your design proposal, this one is for you.
Creating Profitable Proposals: Pricing, Presenting & Closing with Confidence with Lindsey Borchard
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist.Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey, and today we are diving into a topic that every single interior designer has to master if they want a profitable, sustainable business and that is creating proposals, pricing projects, and confidently selling the bid.
Because here’s the truth. You can be the most talented designer in the room, but if you cannot build an accurate quote, present it with clarity, and hold your ground when pricing pushback comes up, your business will feel reactive instead of strategic.
And this is not just about choosing hourly versus flat rate. This is about understanding your numbers. Gathering real data from your past projects. Accounting for your team’s time. Structuring a proposal that protects your profit. And then having the confidence to walk a client through that number without shrinking when they raise an eyebrow.
So I invited back someone who I trust deeply on this topic, Lindsey Borchard, Principal of Lindsey Brooke Design and my co-founder of Design Camp.
Lindsey has been incredibly transparent about how her pricing has evolved, what she has learned through trial and error, and how she has built systems in her studio to create accurate, timely, and profitable quotes. Today we are getting very tactical. We are talking about how to calculate flat fees behind the scenes, how to blend hourly and flat rate models, how to turn around proposals efficiently, and how to handle negotiations without discounting yourself into resentment.
If you have ever hesitated before hitting send on a proposal, if you have ever wondered whether your number was too high or too low, or if you have ever reduced your fee just to secure the project, consider this episode a mini-masterclass from what you can expect at Design Camp.
Building a Product Brand Alongside an Interior Design Studio with DuVäl Reynolds
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. DuVäl Reynolds is the founder and principal of DuVäl Design, a studio …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist.DuVäl Reynolds is the founder and principal of DuVäl Design, a studio known for its layered, highly curated interiors. But alongside the studio, DuVäl has also created a completely separate brand, House of DuVäl, an e-commerce destination for furniture, lighting, décor, and objects that reflect his design perspective.
In today’s conversation, we’re talking about what it actually looks like to build a product business as an interior designer. DuVäl shares why he intentionally kept the studio and retail brand completely separate, how he approaches sourcing and developing products, and what it takes to run an e-commerce company alongside a design firm.
We also discuss licensing, including the debut of his new upholstery and casegoods collection with Sherrill Furniture Brands at High Point Market, and of course, his wildly popular “Curse of a Designer” social media series.
If you’ve ever thought about expanding beyond client work and building a product-driven brand, this episode is a great place to start.
Strategy First: Applying Advertising Principles to Interior Design with Kylie Bass
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio. Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio.Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey, and today I’m sitting down with Kylie K. Bass, founder of KKB Interiors.
Before launching her interior design studio, Kylie built her career in advertising, working inside an industry that’s deeply rooted in strategy, messaging, timelines, and performance. In today’s episode, we’re unpacking how those skills translated into the structure, pricing, and client experience of her design practice.
We talk about the surprising ways advertising thinking shows up in everything from proposals to project pacing, how designers can borrow proven frameworks from other industries without overcomplicating their business, and why clarity, not creativity, is often the thing that unlocks growth.
As always, we’ll also get into the nuts and bolts. Team structure, pricing models, and how Kylie thinks about running a studio that’s both creatively fulfilling and commercially sound.
The Business of Launching a Furniture Line with Bergman Vass
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio. Today on The Interior Collective, I’m sitting down with Erica Vassalotti and …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio.Today on The Interior Collective, I’m sitting down with Erica Vassalotti and Dana Bergman Falcione, co-founders of Bergman Vass. Erica and Dana’s work sits at the intersection of interior design, product development, and brand building, and in this episode, we’re diving deep into what it really looks like to expand beyond services and into physical product.
We’ll be talking about the business realities of developing a furniture and rug line, from early concepting and manufacturing decisions to financial risk, pricing, and long-term brand strategy. Erica and Dana also share how growing a product arm has influenced the way they run their studio, how they think about visibility in a crowded market, and why investing in a new studio space was a non-optional move.
If you’ve ever considered launching a product line, scaling your brand beyond client work, or building a studio that supports where your business is going, not just where it’s been, this conversation is for you.
From 0 to 60: Scaling a Bi-City Design Firm in Record Time with Parris Mckenna
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio. Today on The Interior Collective, I’m honored to be sitting down with Parris of …
Show notes
Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Materio.Today on The Interior Collective, I’m honored to be sitting down with Parris of Parris McKenna Design, a Toronto-based interior design firm that has experienced what I would call true star power acceleration. Not only is Parris the principal of one of House & Home’s 100 top designers, she’s a close, personal friend and dear advisor.
In just a few short years, Parris has grown her studio from a new business to a multi-office operation serving both Toronto and Muskoka, with a large and expanding team to support it. And what fascinates me most is not just the growth, but the infrastructure behind it.
We’re diving into her 0 to 60 trajectory. How she built momentum quickly, what operational decisions supported that scale, how she structured her team, and how YouTube became a serious marketing engine for her business.
If you are in a season of growth, or hoping to be, this episode is going to give you a real look at what scaling actually requires.
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