You bought the house eight months ago. The living room has a sofa in it that came from the last house and doesn't fit, three lamps you keep meaning to replace, and a rug you know is too small but can't quite prove. You've saved four hundred images and none of them are of rooms shaped like yours. Somewhere in there you started avoiding the room entirely, which is a strange thing to do in a house you love.
That's most of the calls we get. We work across Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Keswick, Ivy, Crozet, and Free Union, mostly in houses that were built before anyone thought about closets. Design fees are flat and start at $8,000, we don't mark up furnishings behind your back, and we'll talk about the whole budget before we show you a single image.
If the sofa from the last house doesn't fit and you can't say why, that's the whole reason we exist.
Full-Service Interior Design in Charlottesville
Plaster that won't hold a heavy mirror. Rooms with four doorways and no wall. Ceilings that are lower than the photos you saved. We plan around all three before it costs you anything.
You pay a design fee and you see what we pay for your furniture. Our income doesn't go up when you buy the more expensive sofa, which changes what we're willing to recommend.
We put a real number on paper before design starts, room by room, including the things people forget: window treatments, lighting, and the electrician who has to be there twice.
a real plan
flat fees, no hidden markup
the budget comes first
WHY ASHFIELD
A few recent rooms around Charlottesville and Albemarle
featured WORK
junie park
“They told us the real number in the first meeting. Two other designers we talked to wouldn't, and I think that's why we never hired them.”
WHAT Photographers ARE SAYING
Western Albermarle Renovation —
The rooms are smaller and the ceilings lower than what you left. Furniture that worked in a 2004 colonial will read enormous here. About half the pieces you're planning to bring probably shouldn't come, and we'd rather say so before the movers are booked.
what surprises people moving from Northern Virginia
Upholstery is running twelve to twenty weeks and custom window treatments eight to ten. Anything coming through a High Point vendor can slip a month without warning. We order in a sequence built around that, so your house isn't sitting half-finished waiting on one chair.
lead times are longer than the internet suggests
Heavy mirrors, gallery walls, and anything mounted above a mantel all need framing that isn't where you'd expect. In a balloon-framed house the studs sit at odd intervals. We locate them before we specify, because figuring out the hanging later is how a good plan gets compromised.
plaster changes what goes on a wall
Houses in Belmont, Ridge Street, and Fifeville were built when people owned a tenth of the clothing we do. That shapes more than storage. Bedrooms need real furniture instead of built-ins, and the room you thought was a study is usually where the wardrobe has to go.
the closet problem
What We Know About Houses in Charlottesville
A single room takes about four months from first meeting to install day. A whole house runs six to nine. Most of that is lead times, not design. We're typically booking two to three months ahead, so a spring start usually means an autumn install.
four to nine months, mostly waiting on freight
A single room runs $8,000 to $12,000. A whole house runs $22,000 to $35,000 depending on room count. Furnishing budgets are separate and usually start around $60,000 for a whole house. You see our cost on every item, and we don't mark it up.
design fees are flat and start at $8,000
Floor plans and furniture layouts, a full specification of every piece, paint and finish selections, lighting plan, window treatments, procurement and order tracking, delivery coordination, and installation day with everything placed and styled.
the full scope, in plain terms
What you actually get When working together
Different priorities: durability, a bed people compliment, and nothing a guest can break. Smaller budget, faster timeline, and a genuinely fun project.
THE GUEST COTTAGE OR SHORT-TERM RENTAL
Keswick, Ivy, Free Union. Bigger rooms, older bones, and a mile of driveway that determines what a freight truck can actually deliver. We check that early.
THE FARMHOUSE OUTSIDE TOWN
We come in at the drawings stage, which is the right time. Lighting, millwork detail, and finish decisions all get easier and cheaper when they happen before framing.
THE RENOVATION WITH AN ARCHITECT ALREADY ON IT
Interior work is generally yours to decide, but windows and exteriors are not. We flag anything approaching a review board question before you fall in love with it.
THE HISTORIC DISTRICT KITCHEN
Almost always a formal living room or a dining room nobody wanted to guess at. The smallest project we take, and often the one that unlocks the rest of the house.
THE ROOM THAT'S BEEN EMPTY FOR THREE YEARS
More square footage, smaller rooms, lower ceilings, and a moving truck of furniture scaled for a different kind of house. We do this walkthrough before your movers are booked when we can.
THE NORTHERN VIRGINIA RELOCATION
Eight months in, one room working and the rest holding furniture from the last place. Usually whole-house, usually staged over two phases so the money and the disruption spread out.
THE HOUSE YOU JUST BOUGHT
After a few dozen projects around Albemarle County, most of what we do falls into one of seven situations. Find yours and you'll have a rough sense of scope and cost before we ever talk.
Ways to work together
marisol vega
“We brought everything from our old house and they walked us through what should stay and what shouldn't. Cost us a hard conversation and saved us about fifteen thousand dollars.”
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Full-service interior design across Charlottesville and Albemarle County, with a budget agreed before anyone picks a fabric.
Recent Projects Around Charlottesville
Furnishing a Keswick farmhouse without the furniture from the old house
A four-doorway living room on Ridge Street that finally has a seating plan
Updates to a downtown Charlottesville Historic Home —
About $60,000 for a whole house, and roughly $15,000 for a single room, not counting the design fee. Those aren't arbitrary. Below them we'd be specifying pieces we don't think are worth your money. If your budget is under that, a good retail furniture consultant or a paint-and-layout-only consultation will serve you better, and we'll say so.
What's the minimum furnishing budget?
No. Everything we do involves being in the house, because the things that determine whether a room works here are the things you can't see in a photo: ceiling height, where the light falls in the afternoon, how the four doorways interrupt the walls. If you're outside our area and want a virtual service, we can point you to people who do it well.
Do you do e-design or virtual only?
Constantly, and earlier is better. If you're renovating, bring us in at the drawings stage rather than after framing. Lighting placement, outlet locations, millwork detail, and door swings are all cheap to change on paper and expensive to change later. We're comfortable in a job-site meeting and we don't need to run the project to be useful in it.
Do you work with our architect or contractor?
You tell us, and we change it. The presentation is a starting point, not a verdict, and revisions are built into the fee rather than billed extra. In eight years we've had two projects where the direction was genuinely wrong after the first presentation, and both times we started over. If it ever became clear we weren't the right fit, we'd stop and refund the unworked portion.
What happens if I don't like the design?
Yes, and we'd rather you did where it makes sense. Bring us photos and measurements early. We'll tell you honestly what works in the new rooms and what won't, which for houses around here usually comes down to scale. Furniture bought for a newer house with nine-foot ceilings tends to read enormous in a 1920s room.
Can we use furniture we already own?
No. You see our trade cost on every item and you pay that cost. Our income is the design fee, which means we have nothing to gain from steering you toward a more expensive sofa. Plenty of good designers work on a markup model instead, and it's a legitimate structure. We just find the conversation goes better this way.
Do you mark up furniture?
Both, and single rooms are a real part of what we do. A living room or dining room that's been empty since you moved in is a perfectly good project, and it's often how people start with us before doing more. Whole-house work can also be phased across two years if that suits your budget better than doing it all at once.
Do you take single rooms or only whole houses?
Our design fees are flat and start at $8,000 for a single room, $22,000 to $35,000 for a whole house. That's separate from what you spend on furnishings, which for a whole house usually starts around $60,000. We give you the full number in the first meeting rather than after you're invested, because the budget conversation is easier when nobody has fallen in love with anything yet.
How much does an interior designer cost in Charlottesville?
Frequently asked Questions
Two of us, eight years, and about a dozen projects a year across Albemarle County. We work on flat fees and pass furnishings through at our cost, which is unusual and which we'd explain happily if you want to know why.
Most of what we do is old houses with awkward rooms. That started as a practical matter, because it's what's here, and turned into the thing we're best at. If your house has four doorways and no wall long enough for a sofa, we've solved that specific problem more than once.
Phone number, address, and hours as live text, matching your Google Business Profile exactly.
brand and website designer for wedding photographers
Krista Jones
read the post —
Phasing a whole-house project across two years
read the post —
How to hang heavy things on plaster walls
read the post —
Moving from Northern Virginia: what furniture to bring and what to sell
read the post —
What interior design actually costs in Charlottesville
Journal
latest posts from the
thank you! we'll be in touch soon!
Booking two to three months out. If you're renovating and have an architect involved, get in touch earlier than feels necessary, because the decisions we'd change are the cheap ones to change now.
Fill out the form or call [phone number]. Tell us which rooms and roughly when you bought the house. If you already have a budget in mind, include it, and we'll tell you straight away whether it's realistic for what you're describing.