Interior Design Consulting in San Francisco and Beyond

Interior designer San Francisco — open-plan kitchen with sage green shaker cabinetry, white oak hardwood floors, and decorative wrought iron stair railing by Studio VAE.

Design Guidance Without the Full-Service Commitment

Sometimes you don't need an interior designer to take the wheel — you just need someone seasoned in the passenger seat. Whether you're rethinking a whole project or just stuck on a single room, Interior Design Consulting is for the client steering their own project who wishes they could run questions and ideas by an experienced interior designer.

We bring more than 40 years of combined experience designing homes across San Francisco and the Bay Area — from the Outer Richmond to Cole Valley, Pacific Heights to Noe Valley — and we offer that expertise to you in real time. No design boards, no procurement, no project management — just clear, candid guidance on the decision in front of you.

Compact bathroom with white vertical tile, brass shower fixtures, a linen curtain, terracotta floors, an oak vanity, and dahlias in a vase.
Compact bathroom with white vertical tile, brass shower fixtures, a linen curtain, terracotta floors, an oak vanity, and dahlias in a vase.

How Interior Design Consulting Works

Phase One:
Choose your format

Select the consultation format that fits where you are in your project. All sessions are held remotely.

We offer two options: a comprehensive multi-topic session for clients juggling several decisions, or a focused single-issue session when you need to get one specific thing right.

COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN CONSULTATION

→ 55 minutes

For multiple decisions across a single project. Common areas where we help:

  • Perspective on refining your project’s overall scope

  • Insights on space plans and furniture layouts

  • Guidance on cohesive color selections

  • Feedback on material and furnishing choices

  • Support with styling ideas

  • Tips for hiring contractors and project management

FOCUSED DESIGN CONSULTATION

→ 25 minutes

For the single decision in front of you.
Common areas where we help:

  • Guidance on a specific design decision

  • Feedback on material or furnishing direction

  • Clarity on scope or next steps

  • Insights on a particular challenge you're facing

Phase Two:
Share your project

Once your session is booked, we'll send a questionnaire and ask for the context that helps us arrive prepared — photos, floor plans, paint chips, product links, whatever's relevant to your project. The more we know going in, the more value we can deliver in our time together.


Phase Three:
Meet with your interior designer

In our remote session, we work through your questions in real time — anything you'd benefit from a designer's eye on. You'll leave with clarity and confidence to make your next move.

The same day, you'll receive a video recording and full transcript of our conversation, so the session stays with you long after we've wrapped — to return to as decisions come up across your project.

What Clients Say

Words from recent clients across the Bay Area and beyond

“We uploaded documents before the meeting and got such excellent advice for how to optimize the spaces for our wishes. The different options got sketched out on the fly, and everything got recorded so we can review it later. Now we have a clear target and can start planning the projects to get there.”

“They came with many creative ideas for storage and how to frame our bed. We just loved the experience! Now we have a direction and know they are there to guide us. We're looking forward to signing up for more sessions.”

- Martijn & Katie, Netherlands

Contemporary modern home with interior designer Studio VAE San Francisco
Contemporary modern home with interior designer Studio VAE San Francisco

Meet Your San Francisco Interior Designers

Your consultation is led by a principal and owner of the studio — Veronica Jurist or Aggie Revane. Together, they run Studio VAE, with decades of residential experience across San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Learn more
Interior styling detail from a Studio VAE residential project in the Bay Area — antique gilt mirror, fluted lamp, and curated books.

Design Consulting FAQs

  • Interior Design Consulting is a single, remote guidance session for clients who need expert input on specific decisions.

    Full-Service Interior Design is our most comprehensive offering, where we lead every phase of your project from initial vision through final installation. The simplest way to think about it: with Interior Design Consulting, you steer the project and we advise; with Full-Service Interior Design, we steer the project for you.

    For a sense of how long a Full-Service project typically takes, see our interior design project timelines.

  • Anything you'd benefit from an experienced interior designer's perspective on.

    Common questions clients bring: which paint sheen to use, whether to open up a wall, how high to hang the chandelier, whether the sectional will fit, how a house they're considering would actually live and where its layout could be reconfigured, how to sequence renovation decisions, and how to coordinate with a contractor.

    For more on planning a renovation before you bring in trades, see What to Know Before Starting a Home Renovation.

  • Interior Design Consulting is a real-time guidance service and does not include design boards, drawings, renderings, or procurement. If you want those deliverables, plus design leadership from first sketch through final install, Full-Service Interior Design is the better fit.

  • Yes. Some clients come back as new questions come up across a single project, others book for new projects entirely, and many use consulting whenever they need a designer's eye on a decision in front of them.

    If you're working out the bigger picture of your style before drilling into decisions, How to Discover Your Ideal Design Aesthetic is a useful starting place.

  • Consultations are remote, which means we can support clients well beyond San Francisco and the Bay Area.

  • Yes — and it's one of the most useful times to bring in a designer. We can review the floor plan, walkthrough video, and listing photos before our remote session, then talk through how the house would work for your life, where the layout has potential to be reconfigured, and what's realistic given the existing structure.

    If you're weighing how a project on the home would unfold, What an Interior Designer Does During Construction gives a sense of what's involved beyond cosmetic work.

  • A single room is reason enough to reach out, even when the rest of the house can wait. There are two ways in. If you want to talk through layout, materials, contractor questions, or whatever else the room is raising, a Design Consulting session gives you a designer's eye on the decisions in front of you. If you'd rather we develop the room for you, with a plan, palette, and sourcing direction you can act on, Design Day is built for exactly that.

Choose Your Session

Built on decades of San Francisco interior design experience. Two formats, same expertise — pick the one that fits where you are in your project.