The Interior Collective

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Hiring for Culture, Leading with Values: Building a Team with Diverse Backgrounds with Trish Lynn Aug 07, 2026

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 Jul 31, 2026

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 Jul 24, 2026

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 Jul 17, 2026

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 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 Table

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The Strategic Hire: Utilizing Remote Support to Scale Your Studio with Reed Humphrey Jun 19, 2026

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 Jun 12, 2026

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’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 Jun 05, 2026

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 May 29, 2026

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 May 22, 2026

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 May 15, 2026

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.

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