The Interior Collective

Hosted by Anastasia Casey

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117

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Jun 2026

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About the show

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.

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60 recent

June 12, 20261 hr 3 min

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 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.

June 5, 20261 hr 8 min

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 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.

May 29, 202658 min

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, 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.

May 22, 20261 hr 1 min

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 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.

May 15, 20261 hr 10 min

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 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.

May 8, 202658 min

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 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.

May 1, 202656 min

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 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.

April 24, 20261 hr 41 min

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, 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.

April 17, 20261 hr 10 min

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 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.

April 10, 202659 min

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, 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.