Areas Served

Interior Designer in Durham, North Carolina

House of Maevie is a design-led renovation studio working throughout Durham and the greater Triangle. We design historic renovations, additions, new construction, and complete furnishings. Durham’s heritage architecture and timeworn materials shape all of it, and the finished house feels personal and built to last.

Designing in Durham

The widest range of houses we work in

Durham has more architectural range than anywhere else in the Triangle, and it isn’t close. Four distinct eras sit within a few miles of each other. Each one is a genuinely different project.

The mill cottages

Old West Durham, Pearl Mill, Durham Cotton Mills. Built between roughly 1905 and the 1920s for mill workers, and they exist nowhere else in our service area. Small, plain, well-proportioned, and the problem is almost always the same one: there isn’t enough house.

The work here is spatial before it’s decorative. Where can a wall come out? Where does an addition make sense without swallowing the cottage? And how do you get storage into a floor plan that never had any? Get that right and the simplicity becomes the appeal rather than the limitation.

The 1920s and 1930s neighborhoods

Duke Park, Trinity Park, Forest Hills. Bungalows, Tudors, Colonial Revival, Queen Anne. Bigger and more detailed than the mill houses, and the balance is the familiar one: opening up a closed plan without stripping out the reason you bought it. New millwork has to be convincing enough to disappear.

The postwar ranches and split-levels

Walltown, Old North Durham and further out. These are the houses people underestimate. A good mid-century ranch already has what everyone is currently trying to build. Open plan, low horizontal lines, a real connection to the outside.

The mistake is renovating one as though it were a traditional house. Heavy trim, ornate cabinetry and small divided rooms fight everything the house is doing. Usually the right move is to lean into it: keep the horizontality, keep the sightlines, and update materials and light rather than the language. Our Mid-Century Modern Durham project is exactly that.

Which means the first question is always the same

Not what style do you like, but what is this house already trying to be. Working with it is nearly always cheaper and better than working against it, and it’s why we settle layout and scope before finishes. Thoughtful design takes time for exactly this reason.

Why House of Maevie

Why Durham clients choose us

Planning before products

The hard decisions come first: layout, structure, scope, and budget. You choose what shapes your Durham home with a clear head, and you do it long before construction starts.

Character, not trends

A house that feels collected and personal, and that sits with how you live. Not with the trend of the moment.

Guidance through complexity

From concept through installation, we run the details and the trades, so nothing arrives on you at the wrong moment.

What We Work On

Renovations, new homes, and complete furnishings in Durham

Renovations & Additions

We design whole-home and multi-room renovations and additions across Durham and the Triangle. Early space planning, construction, installation: we’re in it the whole way. Creative direction, technical drawings, selections and trade coordination: we run all of it.

Investment: $40,000 is roughly where a single-space bathroom renovation starts. A kitchen renovation reaches $150,000+. Design fees run $6,000 to $22,500.

New Construction Homes

For new builds we’re in early, working next to your architect and builder. We settle layouts, finishes and the full technical drawing set before ground breaks. The earlier we’re at the table, the more we protect your vision and your budget.

Investment: design fees start at $15,000 and rise with the size and complexity of the home.

Furnishing & Interiors

Complete furnishing for a whole house or a single room. The standard is identical either way: layouts, custom pieces, sourcing, and styling installed end to end. One room or every room, we design for the way you actually live.

Investment: full-service furnishing runs around $25,000 a room, and design fees start at $4,000.

Our Process

Clear at every step

Inquiry

Send us the outline of your project. Then a short call about the house, your goals and your timeline.

Consultation

We come and see the house. Priorities, investment and direction first, then scope.

Concept

Layouts first. We make the big decisions before detailed design starts.

Development

Nothing goes to site half-decided. We settle selections, drawings and visualizations first.

Execution

Procurement, coordination, installation: we stay on it from start to finish.

Frequently Asked

The questions we hear most in Durham

Can a Durham mill cottage be made bigger without ruining it?

Usually, and the trick is where you put the addition rather than how large it is. Mill cottages are small and simple by design, so anything bolted onto the front reads immediately as wrong. Put the addition at the rear, and keep it subordinate in height and roofline. The original house then keeps its proportions.

Before adding, it’s worth checking what the existing footprint can do. These houses often have more usable space than the floor plan suggests once a wall or two comes out.

What does an interior design project with House of Maevie cost?

It depends on scope, so here are the starting points. Design fees begin at $3,500. Furnishing a room in full typically begins at $25,000. A bathroom renovation starts at $40,000. A kitchen runs to $150,000 and up, with design fees between $6,000 and $22,500. New construction and whole-home projects start at $15,000 in design fees. We go through all of it on the complimentary call, before you commit to anything.

How should I update a mid-century ranch?

By working with it rather than over it. Ranches and split-levels already have open plan, long horizontal lines and a good connection to the outside. That’s what most new houses are trying to achieve.

Dropping traditional detailing into one fights all of that. I’d keep the sightlines and the horizontality, and update materials, cabinetry and lighting instead. The house usually needs refreshing, not rewriting.

Where Else We Work

Starting a project in Durham?

It all starts with a conversation. Tell us about your Durham house and what you want it to do. We’ll suggest the right next step.