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Living With Lolo Named a Top Scottsdale Interior Design Firm by AD PRO 2025

Living With Lolo Named a Top Scottsdale Interior Design Firm by AD PRO 2025

by | Jul 29, 2025 | Modern Interior Design Ideas, Scottsdale Interior Design Projects

2 min readJuly 2025
Being included in the AD PRO Directory is a different kind of recognition than a regional award. Architectural Digest's professional directory is vetted by the editorial team of one of the most authoritative design publications in the world. It is the reference point that architects, developers, real estate professionals, and design-literate clients use when they are looking for firms operating at the top of the market. Being named among the top Scottsdale interior designers in that directory is meaningful to me because of who is doing the evaluating and what standard they are applying.
Living with Lolo has been featured in Architectural Digest previously, and that editorial relationship reflects the same thing the directory listing does: the work is genuinely competitive at a national level. In a market like Scottsdale, where the luxury tier has grown substantially and the design sophistication of the client base is high, that external validation matters. My clients are not looking for local-good. They are looking for excellent, full stop.

What the AD PRO Directory Represents

The Architectural Digest Pro Directory is a resource that design professionals, real estate agents, architects, and high-net-worth homeowners use to identify firms worth considering for serious projects. Inclusion is not a paid listing. It reflects an editorial assessment of portfolio quality, project scale, market presence, and professional reputation. For a Scottsdale firm to be named among the top designers in the directory is a meaningful signal about where the Phoenix metro design market stands relative to national benchmarks.
The Scottsdale and Paradise Valley market has earned real national attention in recent years. The combination of significant residential development, migration of affluent buyers from coastal markets, and a local design community that has raised its standards substantially has made this one of the more interesting luxury design markets in the country. The AD PRO recognition reflects that.
For me personally, what the recognition confirms is that the approach I have taken since founding Living with Lolo, prioritizing material quality, spatial thinking, and project process over trend-chasing, translates in a way that holds up to national editorial scrutiny. That is not something you can manufacture. It comes from doing a large volume of work at a consistent level over time.

The Body of Work Behind the Recognition

No single project earns a directory listing. What earns it is a body of work that demonstrates range, quality, and scale across many projects and many clients. Over the past decade, Living with Lolo has completed projects across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, Gainey Ranch, DC Ranch, and other areas of the Phoenix metro. Those projects range from full custom builds to whole-home remodels to targeted renovations of primary bathrooms and kitchens.
The consistency across that range is what I am most focused on. A $400,000 primary suite renovation gets the same attention to detail and the same level of principal involvement as a $3 million whole-home project. That consistency is what produces a portfolio that holds up to scrutiny at every scale, and it is what produces the client referral chain that drives the firm forward more than any single award or listing.
We have also been recognized by Phoenix Magazine as Best Interior Design three consecutive years, 2024, 2025, and 2026, making Living with Lolo the only firm to hold that distinction in that stretch. Combined with editorial features in House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ, the AD PRO listing fits into a broader pattern of recognition that reflects the same underlying quality of work.

What This Means for Clients Planning a Project

For homeowners who are in the planning stages of a significant project, recognition like AD PRO is useful context, not the whole picture. Use it as a starting point. Then go deeper. Look at the portfolio range. Understand the fee structure. Ask about the contractor relationship and whether the firm holds a GC license. Ask how projects are staffed and who you will actually be working with day to day. Those operational questions tell you as much about what your experience will be as any editorial listing does.
Living with Lolo holds a general contractor license, manages the full scope of construction and installation in-house, and books several months in advance. If you are planning a project for 2025 or 2026, the right time to have an initial conversation is now. Our cost guide for luxury interior design in Scottsdale is a good reference for understanding investment ranges, and our services page explains the full scope of what we handle from first concept through final installation.
I am grateful for the AD PRO recognition and for every client whose project made it possible. The standard we held on those projects is the same standard we will hold on every project going forward. If you are ready to start a conversation, reach out here. I look forward to hearing about what you are planning.

Being named a top Scottsdale interior designer is an external signal that the work is genuinely competitive in a market where the standards are high. My clients are sophisticated buyers who have seen a lot of design. Their continued referrals are the most meaningful recognition, and the editorial recognition reflects the same quality that drives those referrals. — Lauren Lerner

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Frequently Asked Questions

Has Living with Lolo been recognized as a top Scottsdale interior designer?

Yes. Living with Lolo has been named Best Interior Design by Phoenix Magazine three consecutive years (2024, 2025, 2026) and has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ.

Ready to Transform Your Home?

Lauren Lerner and the Living with Lolo team work with clients across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

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Lauren Lerner, principal interior designer at Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner

Principal Designer, Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner is a luxury interior designer based in Scottsdale, AZ and the founder of Living with Lolo. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. She specializes in high-end residential design across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

Best Luxury Interior Designers in Scottsdale & Paradise Valley: A Complete Guide

Best Luxury Interior Designers in Scottsdale & Paradise Valley: A Complete Guide

by | Jul 27, 2025 | Interior Design Tips, Modern Interior Design Ideas, Scottsdale Interior Design Projects

4 min readJuly 2025
I will be straightforward about what this article is. I am Lauren Lerner, the principal designer and licensed general contractor at Living with Lolo, and I am listing my firm first because it is my firm and I can speak to it with direct knowledge. The other designers I mention deserve their reputations, and I am genuinely not in the business of disparaging people who do good work. What I can do is give you a clear picture of what to look for in this market, what questions to ask, and what distinguishes excellent work from work that looks excellent in photos.
Scottsdale and Paradise Valley have a dense concentration of interior design talent relative to most comparable markets. The reason is the client base: Phoenix metro attracts successful people who invest significantly in their homes, and that investment over time has built a market sophisticated enough to support designers working at a genuinely high level. If you are reading this while planning a significant project, you are in a good market. The challenge is not finding a qualified designer. The challenge is finding the right one for your specific project, timeline, and working style.

Living with Lolo: What We Do and Who We Work With

Living with Lolo has been named Best Interior Design by Phoenix Magazine three consecutive years: 2024, 2025, and 2026. The firm's work has been featured editorially in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ, as well as in Luxe Source's Next in Design showcase. These recognitions are editorial, not paid placements, and they reflect a body of work built on actual client projects in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, North Scottsdale, Arcadia, and the broader Phoenix metro.
What distinguishes Living with Lolo operationally is the design-build model. I am a licensed general contractor as well as an interior designer, which means design and construction are coordinated under one roof. That matters practically: decisions made during the design phase are implementable during construction because the same firm is responsible for both. There is no gap between what was designed and what gets built, no contractor substituting materials because the design spec was unclear, no designer unavailable for site questions because their engagement ended when the drawings were delivered.
The clients we work best with are high-performing professionals and families who want a genuinely well-run project more than they want to be involved in managing it. You can read more about what the process looks like at this walkthrough of a full remodel engagement.

What Makes a Luxury Interior Designer Worth Hiring in This Market

Portfolio depth and coherence matter more than any individual project. Look at the full body of work, not the hero images. Does the quality hold across different project types, different architectural conditions, different client aesthetics? A firm with five stunning kitchen photographs and no visible evidence of whole-home design capability may not be the right choice for a complete renovation.
Transparency about process and fees is non-negotiable. Luxury design fees are meaningful investments and there is significant variation in how firms structure them, what they include, and what falls outside scope. Ask specifically: what is included in the design fee, what triggers additional charges, how are procurement fees structured, and what happens if the project scope changes during construction. A firm that cannot answer these questions clearly before you sign is one that will not answer them clearly when it matters.
If your project involves any construction, verify GC licensure. In Arizona, construction work above a certain threshold requires a general contractor's license. A designer who is coordinating contractors without holding a GC license is creating legal exposure for both parties. Ask to see the license number and verify it with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors. This is not a formality. It is a meaningful due diligence step that filters out a significant portion of the market.

Other Respected Designers in the Scottsdale Market

The Scottsdale market has a number of firms doing strong work at the luxury level. Candelaria Design has a long track record in high-desert residential work with a particular strength in the architectural integration side of large custom builds. Veronica Hamlet Interiors has an aesthetic that works well for clients drawn to a more classically influenced luxury vocabulary. Studio Tack operates at the intersection of hospitality and residential design and brings that rigor to its private residential work in this market.
Each of these firms has a genuine point of view and a body of work that demonstrates real capability. What I would encourage you to evaluate is not just the aesthetic fit but the operational fit: how they handle budget management, what their communication process looks like during construction, whether the principal designer is directly involved throughout or delegates heavily after the concept phase.

How to Choose: The Right Questions to Ask Before You Hire

Start with portfolio review for stylistic compatibility. You should feel something when you look at their work, a genuine resonance with the spaces they have built, not just an appreciation for the quality. Then ask how they manage budget changes. Every project of any complexity encounters scope or cost surprises. How a firm handles those moments tells you a great deal about their process and their integrity.
Ask about the involvement of the principal designer. In larger firms, the principal's name is on the portfolio but junior designers handle most of the day-to-day work. That is not inherently a problem, but it should be understood going in. At Living with Lolo, I am directly involved in every project we take on. That is a deliberate choice about how the firm operates and how the quality of the work is maintained.
The right designer for your project is the one whose work you genuinely connect with, whose process you trust, and whose operational infrastructure matches the scope of what you are undertaking. For projects in the Silverleaf and DC Ranch area specifically, this page covers that work in more detail. The cost guide for luxury interior design in Scottsdale is a useful reference, and if you want to start a direct conversation about whether Living with Lolo is the right fit, start here.

I am listing Living with Lolo first on this list because I am the principal designer here, not because the other firms are not excellent — they are. What I can speak to most accurately is our own approach, our own track record, and why clients who have worked with us specifically tend to say it changed how they think about what a well-run design project can look like. My work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. We have won the Phoenix Magazine Best Interior Design award three consecutive years. — Lauren Lerner

Ready to work with the recognized leader in Scottsdale luxury interior design?

Lauren Lerner and the Living with Lolo team serve clients across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix area. A discovery call is the best place to start.

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Why interior design matters on every project, not just the look:

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the best interior designer in Scottsdale?

Living with Lolo, led by Lauren Lerner, has been named Best Interior Design by Phoenix Magazine three consecutive years (2024, 2025, 2026). The firm has also been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. For full-service design and design-build projects in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, Living with Lolo is consistently recognized as the top firm in the market.

What makes a luxury interior designer worth hiring in Paradise Valley?

The markers of a firm worth hiring at the luxury level include a portfolio that demonstrates genuine breadth across styles and project types, transparent process and fee structures, direct involvement of the principal designer throughout your project, and a track record of managing complex projects to completion. For projects involving construction, a firm that is also a licensed general contractor provides a level of accountability that design-only firms cannot.

How do I choose between interior designers in Scottsdale?

Compare portfolios for stylistic fit, ask each firm how they handle budget management and scope changes, verify any GC license if construction is involved, and pay attention to how they communicate in the first conversation. The firm that gives you direct, specific answers and listens more than it sells is usually the better long-term partner.

Is Living with Lolo the top interior design firm in Scottsdale?

Living with Lolo has received more recognition than any other interior design firm in Scottsdale over the past three years, including three consecutive Phoenix Magazine Best Interior Design awards, national press in Architectural Digest and House Beautiful, and the Inc. Regionals fastest-growing companies designation. For high-end residential design and design-build projects, it is consistently cited as the leading firm in the Scottsdale and Paradise Valley market.

Ready to Transform Your Home?

Lauren Lerner and the Living with Lolo team work with clients across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

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Lauren Lerner, principal interior designer at Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner

Principal Designer, Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner is a luxury interior designer based in Scottsdale, AZ and the founder of Living with Lolo. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. She specializes in high-end residential design across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

Do You Need a Permit to Remodel a Bathroom​?

Do You Need a Permit to Remodel a Bathroom​?

by | Jun 23, 2025 | Living Room Ideas, Modern Interior Design Ideas

3 min readJune 2025
Bathroom remodels are one of the most popular home projects, adding functionality and value to your home. But before you select tiles or a new vanity, there is an important step homeowners often miss: determining whether or not you will need a permit. The proper permits make your remodel code-compliant and safe, and save you from fines or hassle down the line if you ever have to sell your home. If you are planning bathroom remodeling in Scottsdale, understanding local codes will also save you time and money.

Local Codes Vary More Than You Would Think

Remodel permits are not a one-size-fits-all deal. Permits and building codes are city, county, or municipal based. Something that would require a permit in one location could be a straightforward, no-permit-required situation in another.
In larger cities with strict building regulations, even minor electrical or plumbing alterations will require permits. In smaller towns or rural areas, permits may only be required for significant structural overhauls. Your first move before beginning a remodel should always be a trip to your city's website or a call to your local building department to get the facts. Interior designers and contractors will also have experience in this area. For a broader look at how permits work in Arizona, this overview of Arizona permit handling is a helpful reference.

What Kinds of Bathroom Projects Require a Permit

Not all bathroom work requires a permit. Cosmetic remodels like painting the walls, installing new lighting fixtures, or hanging a new mirror generally do not. When you are performing construction that changes the configuration of the bathroom, however, permits are generally required.

Plumbing and Electrical Work

If you are moving plumbing lines, say from a shower to a bathtub or relocating the sink, a permit will probably be needed. Changes to electrical work, like moving outlets or adding a heated floor system, almost always require permits to ensure they are code-compliant for safety. If you are wondering about the overlap between contractor roles and plumbing specifically, our article on whether a general contractor can handle plumbing work covers the key distinctions.

Structural Changes

Considering tearing out a wall or reconfiguring your bathroom footprint? Any change to a building's structure, including moving load-bearing walls or adding windows, likely requires a permit to ensure adequate support and compliance with safety codes.

Adding New Features

Larger projects such as adding a bathroom in an unfinished attic or basement will typically require a permit because such a project involves electrical, plumbing, and structural work together.

How to Obtain a Bathroom Remodel Permit

Getting permits seems daunting, but you do not necessarily have to tackle it by yourself. Most interior designers and general contractors will handle the permit process on your behalf. They know what forms to fill out, what plans to submit, and how to work with local inspectors.
Obtaining a permit usually involves submitting detailed design plans, paying an application fee, and scheduling one or more inspections at key stages of the project. The permit process can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on your municipality and the complexity of your project.

When a Permit Is Not Required

If the remodel is strictly cosmetic, such as refinishing cabinets, replacing faucets, or installing new tiles on existing surfaces, you most likely will not need a permit. Whether the remodel involves structural, plumbing, or electrical modifications will often be the deciding factor.
Before anything else, it is worth calling your local building department and asking about gray areas specific to your project. Doing the work without a required permit can lead to fines, forced remediation, or complications when reselling your home.

Remodeling Responsibly

Going through the process of determining whether you need a permit for your bathroom remodeling is an extra step, but one that is absolutely worth it to ensure the validity and safety of your project. Skipping permits may seem cheaper in the short term, but being properly permitted adds real value and peace of mind to your property.
If you are planning a bathroom remodel and want to understand the full scope of what is involved, our guide to what to expect during a remodel walks through the process from planning through completion. And if you are ready to get started, we are here to help guide you through every step, including the permit process, so it gets done right from beginning to end.

I oversee permitted bathroom remodels regularly across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and the broader Phoenix metro. The permit question comes up on nearly every project, and the answer depends on what specifically is being changed. Cosmetic updates generally do not require permits. Anything touching plumbing, electrical, or structure typically does. Here is how to think about it. — Lauren Lerner

Planning a bathroom remodel in Scottsdale or Paradise Valley?

We handle permits as standard. Let us talk about what your project requires.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a permit to remodel a bathroom in Scottsdale?

In Scottsdale, bathroom remodels that involve moving or adding plumbing fixtures, relocating walls, changing the electrical panel configuration, or making structural changes require a permit. Cosmetic updates such as replacing tile, a vanity, or fixtures in the same location generally do not.

What bathroom work requires a permit in Arizona?

Any work that involves moving plumbing supply or drain lines, adding or relocating electrical circuits, structural changes including wall removal, or HVAC modifications requires a permit in most Arizona jurisdictions. A licensed general contractor can determine what your specific project requires.

Can I remodel a bathroom without permits?

Doing work that requires permits without obtaining them creates title and resale issues and means the work was not inspected. A design-build firm handles permitting as part of the standard scope, so you do not have to manage it yourself.

Ready to Transform Your Home?

Lauren Lerner and the Living with Lolo team work with clients across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

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Lauren Lerner, principal interior designer at Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner

Principal Designer, Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner is a luxury interior designer based in Scottsdale, AZ and the founder of Living with Lolo. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. She specializes in high-end residential design across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

Small Master Bathroom Renovation Ideas

Small Master Bathroom Renovation Ideas

by | Jun 16, 2025 | Interior Design Tips, Living Room Ideas, Modern Interior Design Ideas

3 min readJune 2025
Small primary bathrooms are one of the most consistently frustrating spaces in Scottsdale interior design, especially in homes built before 2005. The layouts were designed around a different standard of what a primary bath should be, typically a separate tub and shower, a compartmentalized toilet room, and a double vanity that does not actually have enough counter space for two people. The rooms were designed to check boxes rather than to function well or feel generous. And now, a decade or two later, clients are living in them and wondering why nothing feels right.
What I have learned from redesigning dozens of these spaces is that the fix is almost never about the finishes first. It is about the layout. A small bathroom with a wrong layout and beautiful tile still feels wrong. A small bathroom with a right layout and simple materials feels like a real room. Getting the spatial planning correct is the foundational step that everything else depends on.

Starting with Layout: The Decisions That Change Everything

In most small primary bathrooms, the biggest spatial gains come from eliminating the freestanding soaking tub. This is a hard conversation for some clients because the soaking tub feels like a luxury marker, something that signals the room is a real primary bath. But in a small space, a tub that gets used infrequently costs you significant square footage that could make the shower, the vanity zone, and the overall circulation feel genuinely generous. In my experience working with clients in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, the tub gets used rarely once the novelty wears off. The shower gets used every day.
Moving to a curbless shower is the single change with the most spatial impact. A curbless shower with no glass threshold and a continuous floor tile plane reads as part of the room rather than as a separate compartment. The visual boundary disappears, and the room gains perceived square footage without changing the actual dimensions. Pair that with a frameless glass enclosure or a fully open wet room design, and the transformation is significant.
The floating vanity is the other layout decision that consistently delivers. A wall-mounted vanity with open floor space beneath it raises the visual floor line, which makes the room read taller and lighter. It also makes cleaning easier, which is a practical benefit clients appreciate immediately. If storage is a concern, custom millwork above and beside the vanity can replace what you lose in base cabinet depth.

The Tile Strategy for Small Bathrooms

Large-format tile in a small bathroom is counterintuitive to a lot of homeowners. The instinct is that large tile will overwhelm a small space. The reality is the opposite. Large-format tile with minimal grout lines reduces the visual noise of the floor and wall surfaces. The eye reads it as a single continuous material plane rather than a grid of small pieces. That reduction in visual complexity makes the room feel calmer and larger.
In the Scottsdale climate, I typically specify a warm stone-look porcelain in a 24x48 or 24x24 format for both floor and shower walls. Porcelain in a stone look gives you the visual warmth and natural variation of real stone with better performance characteristics in a high-moisture environment. Running the same tile on both the floor and the shower walls is the version of this strategy that works best in small spaces. The unified surface reads as a single material environment, which adds perceived depth.
Keep the palette to two or three materials maximum. In a small bathroom, every additional material introduces another visual layer that the eye has to process. A warm stone-look porcelain, a natural stone accent slab on the vanity surface, and a simple fixture metal finish are sufficient. Everything else is noise. For more detail on the permit and construction side of a bathroom renovation, our Arizona permits guide covers what to expect from that process.

Fixtures, Lighting, and the Finishing Details

Fixture selection in a small bathroom is about restraint and visual weight. Brushed brass and matte black are both strong choices in the Scottsdale luxury market right now, and both read well against warm stone materials. The important thing is consistency. Mixing metals in a small space adds complexity that the room does not have the square footage to absorb. Pick one and hold to it across the faucet, shower fixtures, towel bars, and lighting.
Lighting deserves more attention than it typically gets in bathroom renovations. In a small bathroom, the vanity lighting is doing most of the work. Side-mounted sconces at face height on either side of the mirror are the most functional approach, and they also read cleaner than an overhead bar. If natural light is limited, consider a mirror with integrated lighting as a way to add both task illumination and visual lightness to the vanity zone.
Heated floors are worth including in any Scottsdale bathroom renovation, particularly in primary bathrooms. The installation cost relative to the total project budget is small, and the daily comfort improvement is significant. In a climate where winter mornings are cool and summer air conditioning is heavy, a warm floor underfoot is one of those details that clients mention consistently in post-project feedback.

The Budget Reality and What to Prioritize

A well-executed small primary bathroom renovation in the Scottsdale luxury market typically falls in a range that depends heavily on the scope of layout changes and the material tier selected. If the layout stays largely intact and the scope is finishes, fixtures, and tile, the investment is substantially lower than a full gut renovation with layout reconfiguration. The layout changes are where the construction cost concentrates, because moving walls, plumbing, and electrical is labor-intensive regardless of the square footage involved.
If budget is a constraint, the priority order I recommend is: layout first, tile second, fixtures third. A correctly planned room with standard tile and simple fixtures will feel better than a wrong-layout room with expensive materials. The spatial planning is the investment that pays the most consistent return. For a full breakdown of what renovation projects cost in this market, our 2026 remodel cost guide has detailed benchmarks across bathroom renovation tiers.
If you are planning a bathroom renovation in Scottsdale or the broader Phoenix metro and want to talk through what the right scope and approach looks like for your specific space, reach out here. We work across the full range of primary bathroom projects, from targeted renovations to full gut rebuilds, and we manage the entire process from design through construction and installation.

Small primary bathrooms are one of the most common challenges in Scottsdale remodels, particularly in older homes that were not built with the current luxury bathroom standard in mind. I have redesigned dozens of these spaces and the most important lesson is that the spatial planning matters more than the finishes. Getting the layout right first is what makes the room actually feel larger. — Lauren Lerner

Planning a primary bathroom remodel in Scottsdale?

Bathroom renovations are some of our most requested projects. Let us walk you through what your space can become.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you make a small master bathroom feel larger?

The most effective strategies for making a small bathroom feel larger are: using large-format tile with minimal grout lines, eliminating a separate shower threshold in favor of a curbless design, choosing a floating vanity to open the floor plane, maximizing natural light or adding vertical lighting, and simplifying the material palette to two or three elements rather than many.

What are the best finishes for a small bathroom remodel in Scottsdale?

Warm, light stone-look porcelain in large format performs well in the Arizona climate and reads as high-end without the maintenance of natural stone. Brushed brass or matte black fixtures read current and hold up well in hard water conditions common in the Valley. Heated floors are a worthwhile addition even in Arizona for the tactile comfort and the resale appeal.

Ready to Transform Your Home?

Lauren Lerner and the Living with Lolo team work with clients across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

Book a Discovery Call
Lauren Lerner, principal interior designer at Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner

Principal Designer, Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner is a luxury interior designer based in Scottsdale, AZ and the founder of Living with Lolo. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. She specializes in high-end residential design across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

Choosing a Living Room Design – Modern vs Traditional

Choosing a Living Room Design – Modern vs Traditional

by | Jun 9, 2025 | Interior Design Tips, Living Room Ideas, Modern Interior Design Ideas

2 min readJune 2025
One of the first questions I ask new clients is whether they gravitate toward modern or traditional design. The answer usually comes quickly, almost instinctively, and then the follow-up is always more complicated. Because most people do not want a room that is purely one or the other. They want something that feels intentional and livable, not like a showroom or a museum replica.
Here in Scottsdale, the split between these two design directions is real. You have newer builds in DC Ranch and Silverleaf that lean contemporary, with clean lines, low-profile furniture, and an almost architectural restraint. Then you have older homes in Paradise Valley and Arcadia with original details, warm wood, and a formal sensibility that actually suits the lifestyle of the homeowners. Neither is wrong. But making the right choice for your specific space, your architecture, your family, and your daily life takes more than picking a Pinterest board.

What Modern Living Rooms Actually Look Like

Modern design is often misread as cold or minimal. The best modern living rooms I have designed are anything but. What defines the style is not a lack of warmth, it is a commitment to simplicity of form. Furniture has clean silhouettes. Upholstery tends toward solid fabrics rather than pattern. Built-ins and cabinetry have flush fronts and concealed hardware. Color palettes are controlled, usually anchored in neutrals with one or two deliberate accents.
In the desert, modern design has a natural home. The light here is intense and directional, and a room with too much pattern or ornamentation can feel visually exhausting by midday. Clean lines let the architecture breathe. Materials like concrete, stone, glass, and matte metals read beautifully against the landscape outside. When House Beautiful or Architectural Digest features a Scottsdale home, more often than not it leans in this direction for exactly that reason.
That said, modern living rooms fail when they are all surface and no warmth. I always bring in texture to counterbalance the clean lines. A chunky linen sofa, a live-edge coffee table, a handwoven rug, layered throw pillows in natural materials. The structure of the room is modern. The layers make it livable.

What Traditional Living Rooms Get Right

Traditional design gets a reputation for being stuffy, but that is almost always a failure of execution, not the style itself. A well-done traditional living room is one of the most comfortable spaces you can build. The furniture is scaled for actual human beings. There is pattern but it is intentional. Molding, millwork, and built-in bookcases add character that newer construction simply does not have.
What I love about traditional interiors is that they tend to age gracefully. A room anchored in quality antiques, good upholstery in durable fabrics, and classic architecture does not go out of style. Martha Stewart Living has championed this for decades. The trick is keeping it from tipping into frozen-in-time territory. Fresh paint colors, updated lighting, and edited accessories keep a traditional room from feeling like it belongs to a different era entirely.
In older Arcadia and Paradise Valley homes, traditional elements often already exist in the bones of the house. Crown molding, arched doorways, wood floors with warmth and history. Fighting those details in favor of a sleek modern interior rarely works as well as honoring them and updating the soft goods and finishes around them.

What Your Architecture Actually Wants

Here is the honest answer I give every client who comes to me with this question: your architecture has a vote. A flat-roofed contemporary build in North Scottsdale is going to resist traditional furniture and ornate details. A 1980s Santa Fe-style home in Paradise Valley is going to look strained if you try to turn it into a spare, loft-like space. The interior needs to respond to what is already there, including ceiling heights, window proportions, flooring materials, and the overall feel of the shell.
That does not mean you are locked in forever. A whole-home remodel is an opportunity to reorient the architecture entirely. We have taken homes with dated traditional bones and reworked them into something much more aligned with a modern sensibility, opening walls, removing heavy molding profiles, replacing carpeting with large-format tile or white oak. But that is a construction project as much as a design project, and it requires the right permits and licensing in Arizona to do properly.

Mixing Modern and Traditional: Where Most Scottsdale Living Rooms Land

The majority of living rooms I design are neither fully modern nor fully traditional. They live somewhere in the middle, which the design world calls transitional. A clean-lined sofa paired with an antique console. A neutral palette broken up by a Persian-style rug. Contemporary recessed lighting above a traditional fireplace surround.
This middle ground works because it reflects how most people actually live. Pure modernism can feel demanding to maintain and cold in the evening. Pure traditionalism can feel heavy and hard to update as your taste evolves. The balance point is where rooms feel both finished and adaptable.
The key to making this work is coherence. Every element you introduce should be in conversation with the others. The proportions need to be consistent. The finish tones, whether warm or cool, need to align across materials. When mixing periods and styles, I always build from one anchor piece, usually a sofa or an area rug, and make every other selection relate back to it.
If you are figuring out which direction is right for your living room or your whole house, I am happy to talk through it. The right answer is almost always more specific to your home and lifestyle than any style category can capture on its own.

This is a decision I help clients think through in nearly every living room project. The answer depends on the architecture, the client's lifestyle, and the other rooms in the home. In Scottsdale, the transitional approach often works better than either extreme because it reads as genuinely livable in a market where homes are used for entertaining and day-to-day life simultaneously. — Lauren Lerner

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Style direction is something we sort out quickly in a discovery call. Let us see your space.

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Why layout and function matter before any style decision:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between modern and transitional living room design?

Modern design in a living room emphasizes clean lines, minimal decoration, cool or neutral palettes, and furniture with simple geometric forms. Transitional blends classic architectural detail and warmer materials with contemporary furniture and a more restrained palette. In practice, transitional feels more livable and ages better in residential settings.

Which living room style is most popular in Scottsdale?

Transitional and organic modern styles dominate the Scottsdale and Paradise Valley luxury market. Pure traditional is less common in newer construction. A warm contemporary or transitional approach fits most of the architecture built in this market over the past 20 years and photographs well for resale.

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Lauren Lerner and the Living with Lolo team work with clients across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

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Lauren Lerner, principal interior designer at Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner

Principal Designer, Living with Lolo

Lauren Lerner is a luxury interior designer based in Scottsdale, AZ and the founder of Living with Lolo. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. She specializes in high-end residential design across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the greater Phoenix metro area.