Lauren Reyes Lim is a name you’re likely familiar with from her standout work on popular TV shows like The Property Brothers and Celebrity IOU. With a 15-year career that spans television and interior design, Lauren has built a reputation for blending vibrant colors with luxurious textures to create spaces that are functional, funky and feel suspended in their sense of time and place.
Learning from the best
Her experience at prestigious firms like Yabu Pushelberg and Kelly Wearstler, emphasized the importance of materiality and of understanding the needs of high-end clientele. These lessons have shaped her ability to balance creativity with business acumen, making her an expert at navigating both art and commerce.
Where LVR Studios shops for their clients
LVR Studio’s latest favorite furniture source is Soho Home, which she says, “seems to get everything right,” referencing their attention to trend, scale, customization and customer service.
Another LVR favorite is the well-curated collections of Lulu and Georgia which make it easy to source for clients. Lauren also loves endlessly scrolling first-dibs for unique vintage finds. Each of these sources, while varied in style, has a distinctive design-forward and easy-to-navigate website experience, a common theme in the favorite sources of millennial and Gen Z designers, whose procurement has increasingly moved online.
LVR Studios’ work emphasizes the importance of sourcing local materials and collaborating with regional artisans to adapt designs to the local tastes and environment. This localization of design is essential for professionals working across different markets and points to the convergence of both sustainability’s growing influence on design as well as hospitality design’s aesthetic influence on the residential design market.
Design television
In our discussion, Lauren’s positivity characterizes designing for television as a net-positive experience. In the fast-paced nature of designing for TV, deadlines are tight, which limits the product selections, compared to LVR Studios’ private client work.
The two-day-whole-home-makeovers depicted on design television shows are among the most pervasive in their influence over client expectations and can take some unlearning. Still, she explains, the foundational design skills remain constant whether one is designing on or off television—precision, attention to detail, and creative problem-solving and, in her experience, the shows were amazing exposure for her design business.
Culture and craftsmanship
Lauren’s Filipino heritage and family of art-hobbists has influenced her design philosophy, inspiring her to explore ways to incorporate Filipino craftsmanship into her projects, most recently their woodworking. This emphasis on cultural authenticity speaks to a broader trend in design— bringing diverse, global artistic traditions back home to a local audience.
(You can expect to see more global-influences woven throughout the collections premiering this Fall at High Point Market — stay tuned for our product previews, coming to you next week.)
For design professionals, Lauren’s career highlights the importance of cultural influence, balancing creativity with business, adapting to local markets, and fostering strong client relationships. Her blend of artistry and business acumen offers a blueprint for success as an interior designer in the age of digital media. | To see more of LVR Studios and learn more about Lauren, visit her online:https://www.lvr-studios.com/