Your contractor delivered a beautiful gut-renovated rowhome or a bright new condo, and the rooms still feel cold and unfinished. Julia designs the last twenty percent, for a fixed fee, with a written plan in 48 hours, so a builder-finished shell finally reads as a home.
The gut-renovated rowhome. New kitchen, new floors, walls opened up, and now the open plan feels cavernous and cold. It photographs great and lives like a bright, empty box.
The brand-new condo. Clean finishes, big glass, and zero warmth or personality. It feels like the model unit you toured, not a place that is yours.
Exhausted and stalled. The dust settled months ago and the rooms are still half-furnished. You are decisioned out and cannot face finishing on your own.
Construction and design are two different jobs. A contractor builds what is drawn: walls, floors, kitchen. Furniture scale, lighting layers, color, and how a newly opened city plan actually lives are design decisions, and no contractor makes them for you.
In the city, the gap is sharper. A gut-renovated rowhome now has one long open floor that echoes; a new condo has glass and hard surfaces and no soul. Warming and scaling those spaces is exactly the work a renovation skips.
That is the last twenty percent, the difference between a place that had work done and a home that feels finished. Julia's studio is in Huntingdon Valley, PA, a short drive into the city.
| Service | Cost range | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh Eyes Visit (walkthrough + written plan) | $350 to $500 | 90 min + 48 hr plan |
| Hourly design (Philadelphia average) | $150 to $300 / hour | Varies by scope |
| Single room or open floor (design + sourcing + install) | $3,000 to $16,000 | 4 to 12 weeks |
| Whole rowhome post-reno (multiple floors) | $14,000 and up | 8 to 16 weeks |
Post-renovation work is mostly design and sourcing since the construction is done. Rittenhouse, Society Hill, and Chestnut Hill run higher. Fresh Eyes Visit fee is credited toward any Last 20% Package.
Reno done and the room still isn't? Let's finish it.
Book My Fresh Eyes VisitYes. Finishing rooms after a gut renovation or new build is one of Julia's most common city calls. The shell comes out gorgeous and the rooms feel unfinished and cold. Julia designs the last twenty percent.
Because construction and design are different jobs. A contractor builds what is drawn. Furniture scale, lighting layers, color, and how the new open plan lives are design decisions no contractor makes.
It starts with a fixed-price Fresh Eyes Visit at $350 to $500 and a written plan in 48 hours. Full room design runs $3,000 to $16,000 including sourcing and placement. See the local cost guide.
Yes, constantly. New city condos and gut-renovated rowhomes come out clean, bright, and impersonal. Warm materials, right-scaled furniture, and layered light turn a builder-finished shell into a home. See Rittenhouse interior design.
Julia usually comes in after the construction is done, but she is glad to coordinate on finishes and lighting while a project is still underway. See interior decorator in Philadelphia.
90 minutes in your renovated home. A written plan in 48 hours. One room, $350 to $500. The last twenty percent that makes a shell a home. Clarity, or you don't pay.
Book My Fresh Eyes Visit (267) 789-1428