Phoenix Magazine Best Interior Design Award 2026

What This Award Means for Clients Searching for a Designer

When you are comparing options for an interior designer Scottsdale AZ homeowners actually trust, the number of firms competing for your attention can be overwhelming. Awards like this one give you a credible, third-party signal that a firm has a demonstrated track record, not just a well-produced portfolio.

Phoenix Magazine's Best Of awards are reader-driven and editorial, which means they reflect the opinions of real people across this community, not a paid placement or a single judge's opinion. Three consecutive wins means that year after year, people across Scottsdale and the Valley keep coming back to Living with Lolo as the answer to who does this best here.

We do not take that lightly. It drives how we hire, how we run projects, and how we think about every decision from the first walkthrough to the final installation day.

Three Consecutive Wins: What 2024, 2025, and 2026 Have in Common

Living with Lolo first won the Phoenix Magazine Best Interior Design Award in 2024. We won again in 2025. Winning a third time in 2026 is what separates a firm that had one great year from a firm that has built something repeatable.

Each of those three years included a different mix of projects: whole-home renovations, new construction collaborations, and full furnishing packages across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Arcadia. The common thread was not a single design style. It was the process, and the fact that Lauren Lerner and the same core team touched every one of those projects from concept through installation.

If you want a sense of what that process looks like in dollars and timeline, our guide to kitchen remodel costs in Scottsdale breaks down what a single room renovation typically involves. Whole-home projects scale from there.

Award-Winning Interior Design in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Arcadia

Our work is concentrated in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arcadia, and the broader Phoenix metro area, including Silverleaf and DC Ranch. These are markets where the standards are high, the homes are exceptional, and clients know the difference between design that looks good in a photo and design that actually works for how people live.

That distinction is at the core of everything we do at Living with Lolo. We are a full-service interior design and licensed general contracting firm, which means we handle both the design and the construction under one contract. Most of our projects are whole-home renovations, new construction collaborations, or significant remodels that require both disciplines to move in lock step. Having both under one roof removes the friction that tends to derail timelines and budgets when a designer and a separate contractor are pointing fingers at each other.

This is a significant part of why our clients' projects turn out the way they do. The design is not handed off to a contractor who interprets it differently on-site. The people who designed it see it through to the final day.

Why a Licensed General Contractor Credential Changes the Client Experience

Living with Lolo holds an active Arizona general contractor license, ROC #347577, in addition to our interior design credentials. That license is not a formality. It means we can pull permits, manage structural changes, and take legal responsibility for construction quality on the same project we designed, instead of stepping aside once the drawings are finished.

Most interior design firms in Scottsdale hand a finished design off to a separate general contractor, and the client becomes the go-between when the two do not agree on a detail. With Living with Lolo, there is one point of contact and one team accountable for the outcome from the first sketch to the final walkthrough. Clients who have worked with a design-only firm and a separate GC on a previous project tend to notice this difference immediately.

You can see the range of finished work this produces in our portfolio, spanning whole-home renovations, new builds, and full furnishing projects across the Valley.

What Sets Living with Lolo Apart

Every firm that wins this award has something that sets it apart. For us, it comes down to a few things we are not willing to compromise on.

We work on a limited number of projects at a time. This is intentional. Taking on too much volume is the fastest way to dilute the quality of what we produce. Our clients get direct attention from Lauren and the core team throughout the entire project, not a handoff to a junior designer after the first meeting.

We also believe luxury interior design has to work for the people who live in it. A house that photographs beautifully but creates daily friction is not a successful project. We spend time upfront understanding how our clients actually live, what matters to them, what they hate about their current space, and what they cannot live without. That research drives every decision that follows.

Finally, we hold the construction side to the same standard as the design. The finishes, the installation quality, and the attention to detail on the build side reflect on the design. We are responsible for all of it, and we treat it that way.

Recognition Beyond Phoenix Magazine

The Phoenix Magazine award sits alongside other recognition Living with Lolo has earned. Our work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, and GQ. In 2026, Living with Lolo was also named to the Inc. Regionals list of fastest-growing companies in the Southwest.

None of that recognition changes how we approach a single project. But it does mean that when you hire Living with Lolo, you are hiring a firm that a wide range of independent publications, editors, and now three consecutive years of Phoenix Magazine readers have all pointed to as one of the best in this market.

What to Look for When Comparing Interior Design Firms in Scottsdale

An award is a useful signal, but it should not be the only thing you weigh when hiring a designer for a significant renovation. A few questions tend to separate a firm that will deliver from one that will not.

Ask whether the firm is licensed to manage construction, not just design it. A design-only firm will hand your project to a general contractor you have to vet separately, and you become responsible for coordinating between the two. A firm with an active general contractor license, like Living with Lolo's ROC #347577, can manage both under one contract and one point of accountability.

Ask to see completed work at the scale of your project. A firm that specializes in single rooms may not be the right fit for a whole-home renovation, and the reverse is also true. Review a portfolio of similar projects before you commit.

Ask how the firm structures fees, and get it in writing before signing anything. Understanding our design and construction process upfront, including how decisions get made and how change orders are handled, prevents surprises later. And ask how many active projects the team is running at once. A firm juggling too many clients cannot give any single project the attention a luxury renovation requires.

These are the same standards we hold ourselves to, and they are part of why Phoenix Magazine readers have named Living with Lolo the best interior design firm in the Valley three years running.