This special interview with Emily Nicoara, the founder of Emily Nicoara Design Studio, highlights the power of emotions in interior design and how design touches personal stories. In her journey from emergency services to the world of design, Emily creates warm, belonging, and nostalgic interiors with her unique vision and aesthetic sensibility. Stepping into the industry without formal training and quickly making a mark with striking projects, Emily Nicoara masterfully reflects the soul and timeless elegance that natural stones especially marble bring to spaces. With her sincere storytelling, this inspiring conversation allows you to explore not just design but also the details that make a space truly feel like “home.”
Can you share the story of how Emily Nicoara Design Studio was founded?
Emily Nicoara Design Studio was founded 4 years ago when my husband and I were searching for our first home. Both working in emergency services, we were seeking a home that created an emotional escape from our fast paced, high stress careers. In our search, we noticed a need for design that created spaces with emotional belonging. As someone who has been obsessed with art, whether fashion or home design, the artistic part of running a business was like second nature. Over the years, we have developed our craft of connecting our clients with their homes. Emotionally Evoked Interiors became the foundation of our design firm.
What were the biggest challenges you faced when stepping into the world of design?
With no professional training, but an obsessive personality that constantly seeks a learning opportunity, the last few years were all about developing a brand and our client processes. We have learned how to organize our individual roles within the business, and that has kept not only an seamless process at work for our team, but also our clients. With myself as lead designer and owner, I oversee the design vision for each project. My husband Andrew oversees client communications and procurement during the project. Behind the scenes, our team is also made up of individuals with backgrounds in design and handle all technical skills of 3D renderings, elevations and more. With overcoming the challenge of assigning roles within our business, we also faced the challenge of creating trust with future clients of who we are aesthetically. We specialize in the Modern European approach, which more specifically refers to a way of life and uses natural materials with a high majority sourced from Europe. In order to build this trust, we decided to do a full renovation of our personal home that will be featured in print this summer, which is a huge milestone for Emily Nicoara Design Studio.
What does creating an “Emotional Resonance” in Interior Design mean to you?
Emotionally Evoked Interiors can mean different things for each client. For some, it’s creating a home that feels like nostalgia, like pulling a memory from our childhood and getting a glimpse of it each time we come home. For others, it’s about setting the tone for everyday life and possibly our goals for the future. While some clients can articulate how they want to feel at home, others cannot and that is where we come. We use emotional intelligence, in-depth questionnaires, and the ability to read between the lines in order to help the soul of the client resonate with the soul of the home. Emotionally Evoked Interiors is design that touches all of our senses.
Project 1994, which will be featured this summer, travels a lifetime of where we’ve been, who we are at our core, and the challenges that we have overcome. In simple terms, the rooms travel from turmoil, to grief, to nostalgia, to tension, and ultimately joy. We encourage our clients to walk with us and trust the process of creating a sense of belonging at home.
How do you incorporate marble and natural stone into your designs?
We love using natural stone in all aspects of a home, but our favorite is using it in the kitchen. Having spent my early childhood years growing up in Europe, and later traveling different countries in Europe, I have fallen in love with the stories that the patinaed stone tells. While in some homes the stone is the showstopper, for example Project 1994, in some it is seamlessly incorporated to be quiet and enhance the materials around it. We have used natural stone in powder room sinks, living room accent tables, and entryway consoles. We like to incorporate new slabs, and vintages pieces that we have sourced into our projects. An example is the entryway console in Project 1994 that was sourced from a bakery in a small Arizona mining town from the early 1900’s. I can safely say that there is not a photo that is taken in any of our projects that does not incorporate natural stone in some way. It really is the love language of Emily Nicoara Design Studio.
How does marble influence the emotional impact of a space?
While marble is extremely beautiful from its natural colors weaving through in chaos, or completely muted in earthlike tones, my personal favorite is how it feels to the touch. It reminds me of being a kid and walking barefoot on stone, cool to the touch, slightly rough, and grounding. While we’ve had clients ask us about the maintenance of marble, our biggest assurance is to show them that living with natural material creates patina that tells their life story. In a world searching for perfection, we encourage our clients to enjoy the chaos of imperfection and embrace the natural beauty God has provided us. To me, stone is the perfect example of life, that even with imperfections, it can still be beautiful.
Can you share a standout project where you used marble to create a unique atmosphere?
Project Herra Torrento was a home office and makeup studio, whose focal point was a marble desk. While the stone colors are muted, it was the centerpiece and showstopper of the room. It weaves colors of taupe, grays, ivory, with slivers of natural sparkle. The desk had cut outs to hold pens, or in this case, makeup brushes. The legs were very stout, not only to hold the thick marble top, but had shelves to feature beautiful objects. This desk set the tone for the whole space making it chic, timeless, and extremely sophisticated. In the words of our client “I am so proud to bring clients into this space when I get them ready for their special day.”
How have you made a difference in the industry without formal design education?
Specifically for the area that I live in, there is an influx of modern homes, somewhat lacking in warmth and personal touches. While our goal is not necessarily focused on creating trends, I believe our ethos of Evoking Emotions back into homes has created a wave that has caused people to rethink their personal space. Our use of print, color and vintage pieces has introduced a unique point of view in our industry. In the most humble way possible, I believe what we do at Emily Nicoara Design Studio is completely unique and would be recognized as our own whenever it is seen.
While our team is made up of formally design educated people, I believe that art is not taught in school, but lived everyday through our own lives. Our goal is to showcase that even without a formal education, a true sense of perspective can influence the artistic world. In the words of Anton Ego, the food critique in the Pixar movie Ratatouille, “You know what I am craving? A little perspective.”
What kind of experience can a client expect when working with Emily Nicoara Design Studio?
Our clients can expect a very thorough onboarding process that gives our team a unique insight into who our client is, how they live, and how they would like to grow within their home. Our design presentations not only offer visual representations, but textural experiences as well. In the past we designed a hair salon remodel and sprayed the entire room in the client’s personal favorite hair spray in order to touch more than just the visual sense. Our client’s experience is fully immersive from the initial meeting to the sign off of the design presentation. Once the project management begins, our clients can expect weekly check-ins that include all updates with construction, ordering and budgets. They should also expect all procurement to be handled by our team, and full transparency while our team carries the stress of renovations or full builds, communicating with contractors and architects allowing the client to enjoy the process. We are a full service design studio with an emphasis on hospitality to the fullest extent. With a background in emergency services, our team is used to multitasking and operating in high stress, fast paced environments while exceeding the clients expectations.
What trends do you foresee in interior design in the future?
We foresee a return to unique and personal interior design that focuses on who the individual is and less on what is currently trending. While Project 1994 was envisioned over three years ago, the main emotion we wanted to evoke was nostalgia. Fast forward to today, we have noticed that nostalgia is at the forefront of interior design from commercial spaces to homes with the use of color, print, and vintage items sourced from all over the world.
I believe that butter yellow and soft blues will be 2026’s biggest use, as a refresh from last year with the use of shades of brown and maroon. I believe that trends follow what we are craving. With a slow departure from sterile, modern spaces, design has emersed itself into warm nostalgia.
I predict the craving of light, airy spaces for the years to come while maintaining our return to nostalgia. In terms of natural stone, we saw a huge rise in colorful and heavy veining throughout the last few years. While those stones are timeless, I think that we can predict the rise of muted tones for the future. For example, travertine, Terre Di Bolgheri, and limestone thar are not only beautiful, but will allow other materials such as steel and a return to dark wood stains stand out and complement at the same time.
What are the future goals of Emily Nicoara Design Studio?
We have hit some large milestones this year at Emily Nicoara Design Studio. One of which is our own home “Project 1994” being featured in print. We started a full renovation on Project Morningside with our dream clients, that are not only allowing us full creative process but trusting us to blend their unique story and weave it throughout their home. The space will feature a mix of industrial and old school European touches. From European style cabinetry, 1940’s vintage lighting, and handmade tiles by Belle Flow Farm Studio.
Our continued goals for Emily Nicoara Design Studio would be to work on a historic home on the east coast and travel to Europe to not only source natural stone, but vintage items that give homes the ENDS look. We would love to expand our team and be able to take on seven to eight projects per year. While our goals are large, our biggest goal is always to see the smile on the clients face when they experience Emotionally Evoked Interiors in their own home.
+90 532 585 51 95
+90 532 585 51 95