By Julie A. Palm
Interior designer Asha Maxey knows when an interior has come together just as she envisioned — she can feel it in her body, in her bones.
“When you see things come together, it feels like it speaks,” says Maxey, founder and principal designer of Asha Maía Design in Alexandria, Virginia. “It just reverberates in the air, and you feel it.”
And how does she know when the design hits the mark for her clients? They can feel it too.
“We get this a lot: The clients say, ‘This feels like me, but it’s nothing I could have ever done or ever even dreamed of.’ … We’re able to capture clients in a way that we’re taking (their home) to another level, but it’s fully their personality,” Maxey says. “… It’s a feeling that hits all the senses and they truly feel like it’s their home.”
“I love everything (about interior design),” Maxey continues, “but, at the end of the day, it’s the feelings I get from it — and I see those same feelings come across in our clients.”
Maxey’s three-person boutique design firm, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, focuses on residential projects, including new construction and renovations in Northern Virgina and surrounding areas.
Building and honing her business
She found her way to interior design via an unconventional route, albeit one that prepared her for many aspects of running her own design firm.
Maxey wanted to study interior design but took a detour into engineering and then earned a degree in management with a concentration in marketing. She began her career in supply chain management and procurement, but when she decided to start her own business, she chose event planning, while doing design projects for herself, friends and event clients.
“I started showing a portfolio and building a website and getting education in any way I could,” she says. “… I felt confident in what I was doing and felt like a lot of my design intuition came naturally … but I wanted some sort of education, so I studied under different designers and took courses.”
She eventually transitioned her business fully to interior design and notes that taking Sandra Funk’s Interior Design Standard program “completely changed my business.”
“We were doing well before … but in response to her program, we did a whole comprehensive restructuring of how we work with our clients, allowing me to be more confident in how we price things … Now we’re able to make something really special for the client,” she says.
And though she made a dramatic career change, her background in marketing, supply chains and forecasting helps her daily. “I’ll think, ‘OK, this is great. We have amazing projects right now, but what’s coming? What’s in the pipeline?’ (That question) helps me to make sure we’re marketing and staying visible.” The firm’s marketing channels range from Google ads to The Scout Guide Alexandria, a publication highlighting local businesses.
Not surprising, based on her firm’s location near the nation’s capital, Asha Maía Design counts a number of attorneys among its clients.
“I think attorneys get it: This is your expertise. They’ll say, ‘I love a home that’s beautiful and functional and that makes me feel great when I come home to it every night’ and then they kind of hand it over and let us run with it,” Maxey says.
‘Romanticizing life’
Maxey describes her own style as classic. “I love things that feel current all the time. I love a beautiful old home with moldings and carvings and all those details,” she says. “I love that how even today, that feels current and makes sense. … Even with fashion, I want to find pieces that I can wear for a long time and that always fit well together.”
Her aesthetic and the firm’s ethos help explain a couple of projects Maxey cites as current favorites.
“Right now, a lot of people are wanting to stay in their homes and make them fit their lifestyle today. We’re infusing more character into their house. … Maybe details weren’t as important when the houses were built, so we’re trying to bring them into the classic realm. In one home, we’re doing millwork throughout the main level,” she says. One aspect Maxey particularly likes is an area off the entry that currently serves as a playroom for kids. “We’re putting a built-in there with chairs and it’s going to serve as a place for the kids to do their homework, but down the road (if they want that space to be a dining room), it could also be a pretty sideboard,” she explains.
“I love the challenge of a renovation where we’re rethinking what’s there and elevating it, so we can serve the client where they are but in a more refined way,” Maxey adds.
Another current project is the renovation of a dark 1990s bathroom with updates including white Carrara marble. “We’re doing a more traditional, classic take … and just really trying to infuse these spaces with more character, more detail, more layers,” she says.
But what her clients really appreciate, beyond style, Maxey says, is “we design a finished project that aids them into a beautiful life. We’re romanticizing life. I know that’s kind of overused now, but I believe life is in the little moments, like creating a beautiful reading nook that’s going to slow our clients down a little bit and give them the opportunity to sit and read or have a coffee in the morning. We really try to infuse those opportunities into our design.” To help create that “beautiful life” some of Maxey’s favorite vendors include Rowe Furniture and TCS Designs, a small company in Hickory, North Carolina, for upholstery, and Woodbridge Furniture for case goods, as well as Uttermost and its Revelation brand for accent pieces and accessories. For lighting, go-to vendors are Curry & Company and Visual Comfort & Co. For rugs, Maxey likes Jaipur Living and Loloi.
As Maxey notes, currently sees more clients staying put in their homes and investing in renovations, whether it’s because they like their home’s location or are trapped in a stagnant housing market.
But as Maxey grows her business, she would like to do more new construction and would like to add a branch of the firm devoted to designing custom-built homes, “so we’re involved from literally before the plans are drawn and then it’s ‘our’ home where we’re designing, building and selling,” she says. “That’s on the horizon.”
“What I love the most is putting our stamp on new builds, getting in on the ground and really infusing the home with personality, character and charm — that enduring quality,” she adds. “That’s my favorite project to do.”
