While establishing Hoboken-based design firm D & G Interiors + Design, owners Marisa Drogin and Brian Garcia wanted to make design accessible to a broader market. “It’s a misconception to think you can’t have design if you’re living in a smaller space,” Marisa says.

This ethos proved the be the perfect approach for Hoboken’s brownstones and apartments and has served them well as they’ve grown with clients who used them to design their first place and then brought them on again as they got married, had children, and moved.

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Marisa and Brian’s skill sets perfectly compliment each other’s; Marisa has formal training in architecture and grew up on construction sites – her mom working as a construction project manager – while Brian has a degree in studio arts and worked for over a decade in visual merchandising. Between the two of them, they can handle any design project at any stage, from the purchasing process to renovations to staging a home for sale.

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When embarking on a new project, they start with the client’s style. “It’s important to know what they like but just as important to know what they don’t like,” says Brian.

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Also essential, is understanding the client’s lifestyle. “Do they have kids? Do they travel a lot? Is eco-friendly living important to them? These things make a big difference in the materials we use and the layouts we recommend” says Marisa. For example, with kids, using a durable countertop, like a man made instead of natural stone, can make daily living easier. It’s not overly porous and will stand up better to cleaning substances.

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Though they’re always aiming to match their client’s tastes, they’re also thinking outside the box.  They worked with a client on Garden Street during the renovation stage, helping them on every detail from the configuration down to the fixtures. Then, when the structure was complete, they went to work on personalizing it – really making it unique… with graffiti. They hired a local graffiti artist to do a mural in the backyard. They timed it so the homeowner was away while it was being painted and came back to an extraordinary piece of custom artwork.

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Marisa and Brian are meticulous in their planning, creative with their ideas, and pros at execution. D & G Interiors + Design create thoughtful designs for any space.

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