The Chic Home

The Chic Home Interior Designer- Bay Area

06/11/2026

People DM me asking “”how does this actually work?”” Here’s the honest answer:

1. You DM. We get on a call. I want to hear about your home and what’s not right about it yet.

2. I come walk your space with you. We align on what you actually want — and what you don’t.

3. I design your plan and your mood board. Every detail, every source, every reason. This is the part most people don’t realize they can hire for separately.

4. We bring it to life together. Your pace, your home. I’m there for the parts you want help with.

Real homes. Real plans. Real you.

If you’re a Bay Area homeowner who’s been wanting your home to feel finished and you didn’t know where to start — you’re already at step 1. DM me.

06/10/2026

There are three things I won’t design, full stop:

1. A kitchen with no counter landing zone. Cooks need at least 24”” of clear counter on both sides of the cooktop. If your kitchen doesn’t allow for that, we’re rethinking the layout before we pick a tile.

2. A primary bedroom without somewhere to set a glass of water. Bedside surface is non-negotiable — even a stool counts. Without one, the bedroom reads “”guest room”” no matter how nice the linens are.

3. A home where everything matches. Matching nightstands, matching art pairs over the bed, matching sofa-and-loveseat sets. Buying as sets is the design equivalent of dressing in head-to-toe outfits straight off a mannequin.

These aren’t trends. They’re the things that make a home not work, no matter how beautiful the pieces are.

If a Bay Area designer has ever talked you out of one of these — that’s me, in advance.

DM me if you’re early enough in a project to actually catch one of these.

06/09/2026

Every Bay Area homeowner asks some version of these five before they book. Here’s what I actually tell them:

1. “”Can you work with what I already own?””
Yes. The best homes are 60% kept, 40% added. If you have heirlooms, we’ll work around them. If you have an antique dresser you secretly love, we’re keeping it.

2. “”How long does the process take?””
The plan takes 4–6 weeks from kickoff to presentation. The ex*****on takes as long as you want it to. Some clients implement in a weekend. Some take a year. Both are right.

3. “”What if my taste is really different from yours?””
That’s the point. I’m not designing my home, I’m designing yours. The mood board you approve isn’t my taste — it’s yours, edited.

4. “”Do you actually source things or just point me at Pinterest?””
I source every single piece. Specific store, specific size, specific finish, specific link. You shouldn’t have to guess.

5. “”What if I get stuck halfway?””
Most clients do. That’s what we plan for. We’re not done when the plan is delivered — we’re done when the home feels right.

If you’re a Bay Area homeowner who’s been “”almost ready”” to reach out for a year, this is your nudge. DM me. We’ll start with the call.

06/08/2026

Before I propose a single piece of furniture, I spend 30 minutes alone with a mood board.

90% of homeowners skip this step. They go straight to shopping — and that’s exactly why their home never feels cohesive.

Here’s what 30 minutes of mood-boarding does:

1. It forces you to commit to a feeling before you commit to a couch.
2. It tells you what’s missing in the rooms next to it — because every room is a sentence and the home is the paragraph.
3. It saves you from buying three sofas in five years.

The mood board isn’t decoration. It’s the strategy.

Save this for the next time you’re tempted to “”just go to the store and see what speaks to you.””

Comment MOOD if you want to see the one I’m building right now.

05/28/2026

I didn’t grow up in a “”designed”” home.

I grew up in a home where:

The good plates came out for everyone.
There was always a soft light on in the entry, no matter what time you came home.
Every room had something handmade in it — embroidered, knit, framed, or stitched by someone whose name we knew.

I didn’t think any of that was design. I thought it was just how we lived.

Now I put one of each in every project I do. I think most people raised in homes like mine could find the same three.

Tell me what your childhood home had that you didn’t know was design. I bet you have a list.

05/27/2026

I went on Zillow for “”research.”” I left with five listings I can’t unsee.

The pattern across all of them: nobody hired a stager, nobody styled the photos, and nobody asked a friend if the dining room looked like a hostage situation.

A listing photo is the most-viewed image of your house, ever. It will outlive your time in the home. It’s worth getting right.

If you’re listing soon and the photos are giving “”hostage situation,”” DM me before they go up. I’m faster than you think.

05/26/2026

I don’t deep-clean before people come over.

I do this 30-minute reset instead, in this exact order, every time:

1. Every lamp on. Every overhead off. Even at noon. The room reads warmer in 10 seconds.

2. Throw pillows fluffed and set at an angle. This one move makes the sofa look like a magazine.

3. One candle lit, by the entry, three minutes before they arrive. The smell hits as they walk in. People will tell you your home “”feels different”” and they won’t know why.

4. Counters cleared of everything except one beautiful object. Visual quiet beats scrubbed counters every time.

5. Music on, low, before they ring the bell. A home with sound is a home with life.

Most people are reverse-engineering the wrong thing. They’re cleaning. They should be styling.

Save this for the next time someone says “”I’m coming over in an hour.”

05/22/2026

The most expensive design mistake I made in my own home is still hanging from my ceiling.

I picked a statement chandelier that was beautiful in the showroom — and devastating once it was hung. Wrong scale. Too big for the room, too low over the table, eats every photo I’ve ever tried to take in here.

I knew the rule. I broke it anyway. I told myself I’d “”make it work.””

Reader: I did not make it work.

Here’s what I tell every Bay Area client who is one decision away from doing the same thing:

Showrooms lie to you about scale. The ceilings are higher, the rooms are bigger, the light is different. A fixture that looks “”statement”” in a 14-foot showroom will look “”oversized”” in your 9-foot dining room.

Always tape it out. Always trust the room you actually have, not the one you wish you had.

I’ll change it eventually. Until then, it stays — as a very expensive reminder.

DM me if you’re about to make a decision you’re not sure about. I’d rather argue with you for free than watch you live with it.

05/21/2026

Here’s the thing most designers won’t say to a client’s face:

Your house doesn’t need more stuff. It needs less, arranged better.

The second sofa, the third lamp, the fourth console — they’re not solving the problem. They’re hiding it.

The problem is almost always that something in the room is the wrong size, in the wrong place, or fighting with the thing next to it. New stuff doesn’t fix that. It just adds to it.

I tell my clients this in private. I’m telling you here.

Save this. Look around your room. Be honest. DM me which piece you already know is the problem.

05/19/2026

I’ll admit it.

In 2024, I called sink skirts “”grandma-coded.”” I just installed one in a primary bath in Los Altos. It’s the best decision in the room.

I told a client wall-to-wall carpet was a hard no. Then I saw it laid in a primary bedroom — plush, deep color, trimmed with a wood border — and changed my mind on the spot. Now I spec it whenever the client wants their bedroom to feel like a hotel.

I refused to do skirted sofas for years. “”Too matronly,”” I said. Last month I put one in a 1920s Pacific Heights living room. It absolutely makes the room.

There’s a thread across all three: design is softening. The hard, sharp, minimalist era is over. The textiles minimalism rejected — gathered fabric, plush carpet, things that absorb sound and light — are coming back, and they’re not coming back as kitsch. They’re coming back as the next move.

Tell me a trend you publicly hated and quietly love now. No judgment.

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Walnut Creek, CA

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