Interior design is the key to creating a warm and welcoming space that you love coming home to. Interior designers employ three critical elements to create that feeling – color, light and texture. I’m best known for my work redecorating lobbies and hallways for condo and coop communities in the New York metropolitan area. Of the three elements, for me, color is King. How an interior designer selects colors is a combination of their experience; sensitivity to a client’s wants, needs, and aesthetic; the era in which the building was erected; and the environment surrounding it.

How much and how often a client is exposed to good design people influences their feelings about color. But, geography has a significant impact, as well. From waterfront to suburb, to village, and, of course, urban – our area is filled with many different kinds of environments.

Reflecting a geographic location is an essential element in the color palettes we create for our projects. But equally important is the era during which a building was built. The color palette for a pre-war will be much different from that of a white brick from the 60s, for example. How an interior designer in my firm selects colors is based upon customization for each building and its residents. No cookie-cutter design comes out of my office!

That’s one of the first questions we’re asked when I meet with a new client. I’ve developed a tried-and-true approach which is one of the outcomes of many years of being the go-to lobby and hallway designer for coop and condo lobbies and hallways. We listen. We listen to the board, listen to the design committee if there is one, listen to the residents, and even listen to the building staff. Everyone feels they have a voice in these critical decisions. It’s impossible to make perfectly happy, but our approach has been proven repeatedly to reduce friction among stakeholders and easily gain consensus. Plus, residents and staff sometimes present excellent ideas and solutions that a board or committee would never have thought of themselves.

Getting back to color, most of our clients ask for a combination of neutrals as the basis for the color palette for their new hallways or lobbies. “Neutral” once meant just beiges and taupes, but today neutrals are in the greys and grey-green families. If you’ve ever had to select paint colors for your home, you’ll agree that it can be an exercise in futility. You’re at the paint store, where you see literally hundreds of shades of every color imaginable. You fall in love with a color and bring home a paint chip. Or even buy a sample can and apply it to a small area in the room. All’s great until you paint the entire room and, to your dismay, realize the color looks a lot different than what you had envisioned.

That’s why so many people choose an interior designer to select colors. And, it’s where design talent comes into play. When an interior designer selects colors, we’re looking to create the mood every person who walks into the space will feel. That requires expertise.

If you’re in charge of a large project or just painting the entire interior of your home, it’s wise to bring in a professional interior designer to help you select colors. At my firm, we rely on our color experience to create lobbies and hallways that make everyone happy. It requires knowledge, expertise, patience, and, especially, listening.

My job is challenging – but it’s gratifying. My work increases the value of my clients’ properties and makes them feel good every time they come home. When I observe the looks on their faces when they first walk into their finished lobby or hallways, my heart just sings.

Check out our projects gallery here.

When I founded my interior design firm over 35 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined the quantity and scale of new residential development in New York City today. Fueled by a population boom that was never expected to end (the city gained 629,000 new residents between 2010 and 2019), real estate developers and speculators went on a construction spree that has completely altered the iconic skyline and increased the number of available condo units by more than 7,727 in Manhattan alone.

Even before Covid put the brakes on this growth, nearly half of all new condos were still unsold. So, developers are pulling out all the stops to attract the dwindling amount of qualified buyers, and they start with branding their buildings. The use names and logos designed to entice buyers with the promise of a unique urban lifestyle. Examples are the super cool Lantern House in Chelsea and the soaring VuNewYork in Kips Bay.

Every new development has its own website, too. The website lures buyers by helping them visualize what it is like to live there without having to be inside the building. Right now, if you go to online real estate sites such as StreetEasy and Zillow and click on a listing in a new building, you’ll find a link to the building’s website. Developers know that 97% of home buyers start their search online and are taking full advantage of that.

And this is leaving the older, established condos and coops in the city at a severe disadvantage. 90% of them don’t have a brand or a website.

I’m extremely proud that Sygrove Associates is New York’s number one lobby and hallway interior designers for established condos and coops. We’ve worked hard to get here and our reputation is stellar.

Our interior design work involves developing color palettes, selecting fonts for signage, and sourcing furnishings, materials, and artwork for our clients. Boards, committees and management companies hire us to give their buildings a new, fresh and elegant look to preserve and increase the value of their units.

It was during a meeting a few months ago with my marketing and website team, that something hit me over the head like a ton of bricks.

I decided to find out for myself what a buyer finds out about a building when they’re looking for a condo or coop on StreetEasy, the most popular site in New York. So, I jumped on and clicked on a listing that was in a new structure on the same block as a project we recently completed. In the listing was a link that took me to the building’s website and I was floored (no pun intended).

The website was gorgeous. Everything made this building irresistible. The name, the logo, exterior and interior photos, the virtual tour, and the copy that supported made me want to sell our place and move there!

Then I clicked on a listing for the building nearby; the one we worked on. The apartment photos were beautiful, but that’s no surprise. The first thing a broker must do to list a unit is get it professionally photographed. But, information about the building? Nothing except exterior shot (that looked like a cellphone photo) and a Google map.

I thought about all the planning, the meetings, the construction, and the investment our clients made to update this building and it made me sick that a bad photo and a Google map was all that they saw.

It turns out, branded residences command an average uplift of 31% compared to equivalent nonbranded schemes. Along with other advantages such as being found on the internet and the pride factor for residents, I became convinced that branding your older, existing condo or coop building is the most economical and effective way to compete with new developments for qualified buyers. So, I opened a new division!

Sygrove Branding Services provides your established building the power to attract buyers that are passing you by right now. It gives your building the opportunity to compete on a level playing field with new construction and win. We will brand your building.

If you don’t have a name, we will work with you to develop it. We’ll design a memorable logo you can use on everything, including your awning, weather mats, and staff uniforms. Our photographer will shoot your exterior and interior common areas so you’ll have high-resolution photos for marketing and brochures.

And finally, we will build you a stunning website with mobile-first design and best practices for search engines supported by expert copywriting designed to charm ideal buyers. Want a virtual tour? Done! Want to display floorplans and details of available units and broker information? No problem! Need a link for residents to log into HOA software? Of course.

My branding team consists of professional brand identity experts, website designers, photographers and copywriters. They have experience with real estate and they’re fully vetted. I’ve worked with them all on branding and website projects for my firm.

And, We Work In Harmony With Boards and Committees

My company is the region’s top lobby and hallway renovation/interior design firm not only because we are extraordinary designers. It is our ability to work in harmony with all stakeholders and gain consensus that makes us so sought-after. When you hire Sygrove to brand your building, you can expect the same.

I launched Sygrove Branding Services because I want to help established condos and coops compete with new construction on a level playing field and I believe branding and websites are the key. But, frankly, I was worried it would be difficult to convince boards and committees that it is a wise investment. Boy, was I wrong! In just one week of telling some former and current clients about it, we have a branding project ready to begin and four more in the proposal stage. They get it!

If you live in an older building with unsold units or you want to protect the value of your property in the future, I encourage you to jump on StreetEasy, search your building’s address, then put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. If you don’t like what you see, give me a call to discuss branding your building.

(Note: you do not have to be a Sygrove client to use our branding services.)

Marilyn

References:

• New York Times – New York City adds 629,000 people, defying predictions of its decline.
• Knight Frank Research – Branded Developments: The impact of branding on luxury residential developments
• National Association of Realtors® – 2021 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report

Since the day I hung out my shingle over thirty years ago, any notion that design meetings and presentations could be conducted other than in-person would have sounded ridiculous. But, Covid taught me something about my interior design business that I never saw coming: design meetings can be conducted virtually!

I always believed that face-to-face design meetings were the only way to build the atmosphere of trust so critical to the success of our projects. Our clients are primarily condo and coop boards and committees that hire us to renovate and redecorate their lobbies and hallways. It’s a complex process involving many different players and crucial decisions.

When the lock-down hit, I was, understandably, in a bit of a panic. How would my firm be able to meet with our clients who were already under contract? And, how on earth could we present to prospective clients if we could not be in the same room with them? (Surprisingly, we were still receiving inquiries during lock-down.)

I needed to figure out a way to conduct design meetings virtually. My staff had been using Zoom for supplier and vendor meetings for several years. But, we had zero experience using it with clients who need to see colors, touch materials, and view renderings. We were determined to figure out a way to make it work.

Today, virtual design meetings are a vital tool in working with our clients – and they love it. Gone is the stress of getting a board or committee together on the same day at the same time in the same room. My staff loves it, too. No more stress trying to get to a meeting when you’re stuck in traffic or on a delayed train.

And, here’s a big silver lining: Zoom allows my firm to accept projects outside the NYC region for the first time, and that has always been my dream!

Our website, Sygrove.com, is well-planned, well-written, carefully curated, and easily found on Google. When someone searches for a condo or coop lobby and hallway interior designer, we come up. Consequently, we receive inquiries from out-of-state condo communities all the time. They can see from our website that we have the expertise they’re looking for, and the fact that we’re based in NYC, we’re good at managing boards and contractors. I have almost always had to turn down those projects because, as the lead designer for the firm, I simply can’t be in two places at one time.

But thanks to Zoom, we now work with clients around the country. Now that it’s safe to travel, I can visit properties, meet the players in person, carefully vet a boots-on-the-ground team, and bid contractors. Then I come back to New York, and my team and I can run everything from our NYC office.

I pray we never again have to experience the trauma of another pandemic. However, Covid taught me how to make my interior design business more resilient. Our carefully thought-out virtual design meeting process turns out to be wonderful for our clients, incredible for my staff and is giving us the ability to reach my dream of accepting projects around the United States.

What’s next? The World!!