What Is a Full-Service Interior Design Studio? Inside Curio Studio’s Holistic Approach

So, What Exactly Is Curio Studio?

And What Do Interior Designers Actually Do?

Let me explain.

In short, Curio Studio is a full-service interior design company specializing in holistic, sustainable, playful, and deeply self-expressive design. Where we connect people, place, and planet.

A solid elevator pitch, right?

But if you’re thinking, Savannah, I still don’t really know what a full-service interior design company does… or what holistic design means… or why we’re connecting these three nouns 

So let this journal entry be both an introduction to how my brain works and how that thinking has evolved into the very real, very tangible company that is Curio Studio. A design studio that you can now invite into your home (you’re welcome 😉).

What Does a Full-Service Interior Design Company Actually Do?

The interior design industry can feel very mysterious from the outside.

Most people’s reference point is HGTV: house flips, quick renovations, dramatic reveals. But what about the homes featured in Architectural Digest? The ones on your Pinterest boards? The spaces that feel elevated, layered, intentional?

Behind the scenes of those homes are interior designers.

As a luxury full-service interior design company, Curio Studio has the ability to manage nearly every aspect of a renovation or furnishing project from concept to completion.

That includes (but is certainly not limited to):

Design & Planning

• Concept ideation

• Space planning

• Full construction drawing sets

  • Floor plans

  • Reflected ceiling plans (RCP)

  • Power & signal plans

  • Elevations, sections, and details

• Detailed millwork design and drawings

  • Custom built-ins, cabinetry, and furniture

FF&E (Furniture, Finishes & Equipment)

• Sourcing and selection

• Custom upholstery (sofas, chairs, beds, pillows)

• Interior finish selections

• Ensuring everything coordinates visually and functionally

• Procurement and purchasing

  • Order management

  • Storage, inspection, and installation

• Styling every object (yes, every single “nick-nack”)

Construction Administration

• Vendor and Contractor coordination / Management

  • Millwork shops, upholsterers, window treatment workrooms

  • Painters, wallpaper installers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC

  • Receiving warehouse

• Site visits

• FF&E schedules and spec books

In other words:

1. We make your life easier.

2. We save you time and mental energy.

3. And we bring beauty, intention, and joy into your home.

So… What Is Holistic Interior Design?

Merriam-Webster defines holistic as:

“Relating to or concerned with complete systems rather than individual parts.”

Think about how you’d want a doctor to approach your health, not just treating one symptom, but considering your age, hormones, genetics, history, and lived experience.

We approach interior design the same way.

At Curio Studio, we see the home as an interconnected system of living beings. (I know, a bit hippie, but stay with me!)

When you zoom out at what a “home” is … it’s simply just a structure that encompasses and enables life. 

It’s where you eat, sleep, bathe, work, learn, argue, celebrate, cry, heal, host, rest, and grow. It holds your memories. It supports your nervous system. It evolves as you do.

So when we design something like a kitchen, we’re not just designing a kitchen.

We’re designing:

• Where you nourish yourself

• Where you cry while cutting onions

• Where you dance after a great day

• Where kids’ backpacks pile up

• Where dogs’ bowls live

• Where guests ask, “Where’s the bathroom?” at every holiday party

  
  

Designing one room means accounting for a thousand versions of life, across seasons, years, and generations.

That’s holistic design: creating spaces that balance form and function while supporting real, messy, beautiful human life.

Why People, Place, and Planet?

I’m often asked what my design aesthetic is.

My answer is always the same:

Connecting people, place, and planet.

I don’t design for myself.

I design for the people living within a specific home (place) in a specific location (planet). 

People

Who are you?

Who do you want to become?

How do you want to live now, and ten, twenty, fifty years from now?

Place

What is this structure?

Is it an existing building that has been inhabited before? 

If so, by who, when and how? 

Is it new construction? 

Do you want it to feel old or new, or maybe a mix of both? 

Planet

Where are we geographically?

What ecosystems existed here long before the building did?

How can design support, not fight those systems?

These three forces are always coexisting. Always influencing one another.

That relationship, that ecology is the foundation of Curio Studio. 

It’s our north star. And it’s how we design homes that feel alive.

If you’re ready to work with an interior design studio that sees your home as more than just a pretty space, but as a living system, we’d love to talk.

Curio Studio is here when you’re ready.

Love, 

Sav

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