The Start of Year Three at Studio Lee: A Founder’s Note on Growth, Grounding, and What’s Next
A new year always brings reflection, but this one feels different. Studio Lee is officially stepping into year three, and instead of racing ahead, I wanted to pause just long enough to look back at how we got here and why the next chapter feels so aligned.
Studio Lee was never meant to be just an interior design studio. It was always about how spaces support real life, real work, and real growth for homeowners, builders, investors, and business owners alike.
Before we look ahead, we have to go back to the beginning.
How It Started: Design, Construction, and a Very Long Trail of Clues
I was born and raised in the Northeast and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a degree in graphic design and a minor in aesthetics and critical studies… a fancy way of saying art and architectural history. At the time, I didn’t realize I was quietly building the foundation for a lifelong obsession with architecture, construction, and how people move through space.
Before Studio Lee existed, my husband and I were already deep in it. With his background in construction management and mine in design, we bought, repaired, lived in, and sold our first three homes. Those early projects taught me more about materials, timelines, budgets, and decision-making than any classroom ever could. Design wasn’t theoretical: it was lived.
Here’s us in action handling demo and design in one of our homes many moons ago! And where I caught the design bug.
My professional career started in graphic design at a home builder, creating marketing materials for new communities, updating floor plans, and spending lunch breaks wandering showrooms, studying tile, cabinetry, and hardware. From there, I moved into digital advertising, working with blue-collar brands and learning how brand strategy, design, and execution come together in the real world.
Eventually, I landed in the mortgage industry, where I spent over seven years building and leading a brand and customer experience department of 50+ people for a national firm. I worked my way up to Senior Vice President of Brand and Customer Experience, overseeing everything from onboarding and employee experience to marketing, events, and physical office design.
One of my favorite moments from that chapter was designing the Charlotte corporate headquarters—and later flying to Scottsdale, hard hat in hand, to help shape the vision for a larger flagship office. That intersection of brand, business, construction, and space design has always been where I thrive.
Launching Studio Lee (and Saying Yes to the Long Game)
After designing and building my own personal home, it became clear that interior design and wellness wasn’t just a side passion, it was the work I wanted to build my life around. Studio Lee launched soon after.
Over the last two years, Studio Lee has supported a wide range of project types across the country—from deeply custom homes to fast-moving renovations and virtual consulting. That breadth of work has sharpened both the studio’s process and its ability to scale across different needs, timelines, and markets.
What Studio Lee Does
At its core, Studio Lee is a construction-forward interior design studio built to support how projects are actually executed not just how they look at the end.
We specialize in custom homes, residential renovations, spec builds, and close collaboration with builders, general contractors, and homeowners.
Our work lives at the intersection of design clarity and construction efficiency. We focus heavily on selections, materials, finishes, and systems, making informed decisions early so projects move faster, budgets stay tighter, and teams stay aligned.
Design isn’t layered on at the end. It’s integrated from the start.
Stylistically, Studio Lee leans organic modern: natural materials, grounded palettes, timeless finishes, and spaces designed around real life. Bigger doesn’t automatically mean better. Thoughtful almost always does.
This approach has allowed me to work across regions, project types, and scales—traveling where the project, team, and fit align.
FlipKit: Design Decisions Without the Bottleneck
While many investors continue to hire me directly to design and select finishes for build-to-sell and higher-touch projects, I began seeing a different pattern emerge.
Investors, flippers, and real estate operators were reaching out for help on traditional flips, BRRRR properties, and rental portfolios—projects that still needed cohesive, market-ready design but couldn’t support a fully custom process every time.
To solve that very specific problem, I launched FlipKit.
FlipKit is a curated design system built to streamline and expedite finish selections for investment properties without sacrificing quality, durability, or market appeal. With over 100 vetted SKUs, it’s designed to reduce holding costs by removing decision fatigue and keeping projects moving. We now have flippers, investors, GCs and Realtors using and loving FlipKit.
While this may feel ‘outside’ of our core focus, one thing that I am adamant about. Solutions. I was honestly tired of seeing poor ‘renovations’ hit the market. I knew we could do better but it just didn’t fit for design processes. So, I built one and now can act as a design, self-service resource to many.
Looking Ahead: Brand-Driven Spaces That Work as Hard as the People Using Them
As Studio Lee moves into year three, my focus is expanding—but it’s a natural evolution, not a pivot.
The same principles that guide residential work: clarity, longevity, material honesty, and alignment between vision and execution, translate seamlessly into resi-mercial and micro-commercial spaces.
Studios. Offices. Wellness centers. Pilates and fitness spaces. Med spas. Small retail and service-based businesses.
These environments sit at a unique crossroads. They need to express brand identity and function efficiently. They need to feel elevated without being precious. And they need to be designed with construction realities in mind.
This is where my background in brand strategy, interior design, and construction collaboration comes together. I step in as a lead designer and strategic bridge—working alongside business owners, brand designers, and construction teams to ensure the space supports both the business and the build. If you are reading this and want to talk more about a commercial space, brick and mortar or build out concept, we’d love to connect.
A Little More About Me (and Why It Matters)
At my core, I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy. Equal parts builder brain and barefoot-in-the-yard energy. I’m a hippie at heart, drawn to anything earthy, grounded, and connected to nature.
You’ll usually find me hiking, gardening, or figuring out how to grow one more thing—from herbs and fresh-cut stems to vegetables and fruit. I care deeply about wellness in the everyday sense: real food, organic where possible, movement, fresh air, and spaces that help you slow down without sacrificing function.
I’m a lifelong sports lover, a dog person through and through, a travel enthusiast (wannabe), and—worth mentioning—a serious coffee lover. These aren’t just personal quirks; they’re the lens through which I design.
I believe there’s something powerful about designing around lifestyle—not just at home, but at work too. The way you live, move, eat, gather, and rest should be reflected in the spaces you occupy every day. When a home or office aligns with the values of the people using it, it simply works better.
That belief is woven into every Studio Lee project: spaces designed to support real life, real routines, and long-term well-being.
Gratitude, Growth, and What Comes Next
This post is a reflection but it’s also a marker.
Studio Lee is entering its third year grounded, clear, and steadily expanding. I’m grateful for the homeowners, builders, investors, and collaborators who’ve trusted me with their projects and am deeply excited for the partnerships still ahead.
If you have a project in mind, reach out to start the conversation.
Let’s work together
If you don’t have a project yet but want to stay connected—whether as a builder, investor, realtor, creative partner, or business owner join our network. It’s simply a way to stay in the loop on Studio Lee’s work, offerings, availability, collaborations, and shared opportunities. No project required.
Here’s to designing homes, businesses, and environments that support how people actually live and work.
Year three—let’s build.
— Erica
