Lisa Frantz Interiors Lisa Frantz Interiors

Journal.

Start Small, Think Big: Interior Design Process

Ready to reimagine your home but not ready to commit to a full-scale redesign?

Having a hard time finding an interior designer with the experience and expertise that you’re impressed by? Or maybe you would love to work with us but don’t live in the New York area?

It’s time for a no-cost online interior design consultation. Click here to contact us.

Whether you want to redecorate one room or renovate your entire home, we decorate and design spaces that feel personal, comfortable, and beautiful.

Combining modern traditional design with Hollywood regency, our award-winning interior design firm has been featured in publications such as Elle Décor and Architectural Digest. You might have also seen our trend-setting and iconic set decoration for the movies Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada

No-cost online interior design consultation

Marks and Frantz collaborates with clients around the world. We approach each project with the same attention to detail and excellence wherever it takes us.

We will never charge a consultation fee to discuss a new project. Every interior design project is as different as every client. Beautiful things happen when the designer and their clients are in sync.

For a consultation, we spend an hour together on the phone or in person. We will ask you a lot of questions. What is your favorite color? Do you like pattern? What are your children’s hobbies? What do you collect? Do you entertain? Do you have some pieces of furniture or accessories that you want to keep and repurpose in your new design?

Interior Design

From powder room to entire home redesigns, we can help.

Some of our interior design clients started came to us with one or two tricky spaces that needed some clever interior design and those projects often evolved into entire home redesigns. Many clients want to decorate their entire home but would also like to keep and repurpose certain pieces of furniture or accessories. Some of our clients want us to coordinate their architects, builders, and contractors for them, as well as design and decorate. We pride ourselves on our flexibility with the design process!

The Nitty-Gritty

We discuss time frame, budget and your priorities and figure out a billing structure that works best for you. We typically charge a design fee to begin a project (see below), purchase goods at NET cost (about 40% off retail), and then add a 35% markup to goods and services. This structure works well for the client who does not want to think about time and hourly billing. It is also cost effective for the client because all pricing is kept below retail. Architectural services provided by M&F (for renovation and new construction) are billed at 20% of construction costs. We also can work on an hourly for those clients who prefer to work that way. Different structures work for different people and projects. See below for sample interior design fees by room.

What is the cost?

Here are sample design fees by room:

Childrens’ Rooms: $2500-$4500
Family Room: $3500-$6500
Formal Living Room: $4500-$7500
Foyer: $2000-$3000
Kitchen: $6000-$7500
Master Suite: $4500-$7500
Office: $2500-$4500
Powder Room: $1500-2500

The Franklin Report is a great resource for standard industry pricing and what to expect, click here for more info!

modern traditional design

The Design Process (The Fun Part):

We start to create your project’s design schematics, mood boards, floor plans, elevations, and color palettes: everything you could possibly need to visualize what your interiors can become. Many visual examples can be found on our works in process page.

Construction Documents

When we coordinate and manage general contractors and tradespersons (wallpaper hangers, painters, faux finishers, general contractors, stone masons, etc.), we are obsessive with the details, everything is put in writing (we call these work orders!) so that no stone is left unturned. We work with architects, expeditors, co-op boards…whomever needs that perfect paperwork to proceed. Nailing all these details down upfront insures a smooth and mistake-free design process.

Final Design Steps!

Once we reach the final design phase; we have combed thru every detail more than once, revised, finessed, customized, detailed some more and only then do we come to a place of mutual design bliss.

Expediting the design.

Expediting comes next, also known as ordering, purchasing, shipping, receiving and inspecting! This is all going on in the Marks & Frantz back office – mostly handled by our genius studio manager, Lidia Ferreira and our talented junior designer, Rebecca Kubick with Lisa and Lydia obsessively checking all the paperwork for your project – and believe us, there are mountains of it!

Project Management – the Lisa & Lydia show!

During this phase, we are on site, working with contractors and tradespeople to bring the design to life. We involve our clients as much or as little during this process as they like. Regardless of your involvement in the management, we keep you up to date with photos, progress reports and immediate notification of any changes as they arise. We work to keep the process calm and organized as it unfolds. We shoulder the stress of construction so that you don’t have to.

The Big Reveal…

This is our favorite part! We spend a few days or a few weeks loading all rugs, furniture, custom millwork, window treatments, lighting fixtures into the house and install with a team of magicians. By this point, all items have been inspected by a receiving warehouse for damages and defects, so everything that arrives to the big reveal should be perfect and ready to go.

One of our favorite reveals was documented in this video by Open House on NBC.

Contact Us

Have an upcoming design project that you’ve been thinking of and don’t know where to start?

Click here to arrange a no-cost consultation. We’re looking forward to the conversation.

Lydia Marks & Lisa Frantz

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A New York-based boutique interior design firm