The Twin Cities is filled with lots of great design, and lots of great designers! With such a thriving design community right here, we thought it would be fun to get to know each other better through some local designer and design blogger features. A few weeks ago we featured Kim from Lark Nest Design, and today we’re visiting with Lisa, the designer behind Design by Lisa.

Tell me a little about your background – what did you do before starting Design by Lisa? How did you get started in the design industry?
Before working in interior design full-time, I worked for several years as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. I have a degree in Textiles, but while I was a flight attendant I studied Interior Design at the University of Minnesota and for several years I worked part-time in design while still flying full-time. In 2000 I left flying and worked full time in design at a large firm. In 2005 I started Design By Lisa.

Describe the services you provide your clients through Design by Lisa…
Almost all of my projects are residential rather than commercial but they can run the gamut from helping someone select a paint color to getting involved in a new construction project and being involved in the entire process. Variety is a great aspect of this job and working on projects of all types helps to keep things interesting.

Congratulations on winning Houzz’s Best of Remodeling Award for 2012! Can you share with us a little about that project? Was there a particular aspect or element of that project that you think made it exceptional or set it above the others?
The project that won the Best of Houzz award is one that I did for the ASID Showcase House in 2009 in collaboration with Brandi Adams. Like most great projects, this one was a collaboration where the input of the architects, the homeowner, and others involved contributed to helping to create a great final product. This project was an open stairway that was built in the center of the home so that it opened up the rooms and also added some great architectural interest.

The client had some fantastic artwork so we worked with him to place his art and also added a custom mural in the hallway that was a montage of several of the projects that he had worked on in his career in advertising.

In the end I think that the space was successful because it had some unique architectural features and many special elements, like portraits of the children, that were the one-of-a-kind touches that make a home unique.

You say on your website that your goal is to help streamline the process of remodeling and redecorating so that it can be an enjoyable experience for everyone. What steps do you take to try to do this? Can you offer a piece of advice for homeowners embarking on a home improvement project to make sure it is an enjoyable experience for them?
There are so many options available today that when people are considering a construction project it can quickly become overwhelming. One of the advantages of working with a designer that I don’t think people always consider is that they can handle a lot of the day-to-day communication between the builder and the client.

Knowing when decisions need to be made and helping the client to make those decisions and then passing the information along to the builder is something that a designer can do to help to keep a project moving forward.

How would you describe your personal style as it relates to home décor?
When I look through design magazines I’m always in awe of the beautiful, edited homes where everything has a place and there is no clutter to be seen. This is not, however, what my home looks like! I have two dogs who have the run of the house and choosing furniture that they can’t destroy is always part of the decision-making process when choosing things for my home.

Additionally I love collections, so I would describe my own house as an eclectic mix of modern, classic, and flea market finds. My home was built in 1950 so Mid Century Modern furniture is a great scale and look for the house, but I also have a collection of antique red and white transferware dishes that I love and a collection of dog portraits that fill the walls in my laundry room so there is definitely  a mix.

You can see more before and after pictures of Lisa’s work on her website.