Interior Designer in Englewood, NJ
Census estimates put 88.2% of Englewood, New Jersey, residents in the same house they lived in a year earlier. We design full interior renovations for homes their owners plan to keep, with built-in cabinetry, opened floor plans, and palettes that suit the house. Our work starts with how you live and what the house already does well.
Homeowners looking for an interior designer in Englewood, NJ can start with one conversation about the house and the household.
Talk through your Englewood renovation
The consultation is confidential.
Key Highlights
Cityzen Designs handles full interior renovations, including open-plan reconfiguration, custom built-in cabinetry, and material and color palettes.
The lead example is a 2,000 sq ft 1960s house in White Lake, NY, renovated by I-Beam Design for year-round living with its period character kept.
Freedman House in Greenwich, CT won Silver in Interior Design at the 2024 New York Architecture Design Awards.
Founder Azin Valy is a Cooper Union architecture graduate with more than two decades of design and architecture work.
Permit drawings come from a registered architect or licensed engineer, and Cityzen coordinates with them and with your contractor.
Interior design services in Englewood cover the full renovation
Interior design services from Cityzen Designs cover a full interior renovation, from the floor plan to the last built-in shelf. Here is how common goals map to the work, and who else joins the team.
| What you want | What the design work involves | Who else is involved |
|---|---|---|
| Open up closed rooms | Planning which walls come out and using built-in pieces to define each area | A registered architect or licensed engineer prepares and seals any permit drawings; your contractor builds |
| More storage with less clutter | Custom built-in cabinetry and furniture that doubles as seating, shelving, or a desk | Your contractor or cabinetmaker |
| Keep an older house's character | Deciding what stays, such as original floors, a stair, or room proportions, and what changes | Your contractor and refinishing trades |
| Rooms built around pieces you own | Designing layouts and colors around your furniture and art | You, as the owner of the collection |
| A fresh palette | Material and color choices for floors, walls, and cabinetry | Your contractor installs |
| Work outside as well as in | Interior and exterior renovation on some projects | Architect, engineer, and contractor |
Do I need an interior designer or an architect for an Englewood renovation?
Many renovations need both. An interior designer shapes the rooms, built-ins, and finishes, and a registered architect or licensed engineer prepares any drawings the permit office requires. Cityzen coordinates with both and with your contractor. In New Jersey, "certified interior designer" is a protected title, and Cityzen does not use it.
Englewood households stay put, so the design has to hold up
Englewood homes are lived in for long stretches, so a renovation here should hold up to years of daily use. The city counted 11,274 households averaging 2.61 persons each in Census estimates for 2020 to 2024.
Some of the local housing is old enough for national recognition. The John G. Benson House at 60 Grand Avenue is on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the Stone Houses of Bergen County, with periods of significance running from 1750 to 1824.
Renovating a house like that works a lot like tailoring a good coat you already own. You keep the cut and change the fit.
Here is an illustrative case. A couple with two teenagers owns a 1920s Englewood house with a closed kitchen, a formal dining room used twice a year, and a stair they love. A plan could open the kitchen to the dining room, add built-in seating along one wall, and refinish the original oak floors so the stair still leads the eye.
Recommended: Walk your house with a notebook and list three things you would never change and three things that annoy you every day. Bring both lists to the consultation.
The Catskills Mid-Century Chalet shows an older house updated with its character intact
The Catskills Mid-Century Chalet is a 2,000 sq ft 1960s house in White Lake, NY, renovated inside and out by I-Beam Design, the firm Azin Valy co-founded. The goal was year-round living with the original 1960s character kept.
The house is a "Monterey," one of the models built for the White Lake Homes community. I-Beam leaned into playful color and pattern and chose mid-century-inspired furnishings for entertaining. Dwell featured the project.
Englewood has its own stock of older houses, and the same method applies. Decide early what defines the place, protect it, and spend the design effort on how the rooms work today.
Freedman House in Greenwich, CT followed that instinct in a family home of about 4,000 sq ft. Cityzen removed the wall between the sunken living room, dining room, and office, refinished the existing maple floors light gray, and added walnut pieces that sit well with the family's mid-century furniture. The project won Silver in Interior Design at the 2024 New York Architecture Design Awards, as listed on our awards page.
How do you update an older house without erasing its character?
Start by naming what the house does well, such as its proportions, original floors, a stair, or its period details. Keep those, and change the parts that fight daily life, like closed kitchens, dark halls, and thin storage. On the White Lake chalet, the 1960s spirit stayed while the home became livable year-round.
Your house may have a stair, a fireplace, or a set of windows you already love. Bring photos and a wish list to the first meeting.
Ask about updating your older home
A Cityzen renovation starts with context
A Cityzen project starts with how you live, what you value, and the character of the place, which is the first principle of our approach. From there, the studio looks for rooms and built-in pieces that serve more than one purpose and can change as your household does.
Clients are also encouraged to dream past the usual answers. A step can become a sofa. A bookcase can double as a serving surface, as it does at Freedman House.
In practice, the work moves from a confidential consultation to a plan shaped around your rooms and belongings. Coordination with your architect, engineer, and contractor continues through construction.
Past clients describe the experience in their own words on our testimonials page. One wrote that a renovation grew larger and longer than planned and was handled with diligence. Another called the team great collaborators who pay careful attention to detail.
Red flags:
A designer who proposes a full plan without asking how your household uses the house.
A designer who claims to seal permit drawings without holding an architect's or engineer's license.
Will the design work with furniture and art I already own?
Yes. Several projects in our residential portfolio start from what the client owns. The Lazzaro Residence was planned around a collection of Eames furniture, and the McFarland Residence, an I-Beam Design project, turned a cherished red and pink painting into a cabinet wall and a concealed door. Bring a list of pieces you plan to keep.
Azin Valy leads the design work
Azin Valy, founder of Cityzen Designs, leads the design of each project. She is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Architecture and the co-founder of I-Beam Design, an award-winning architecture firm in New York, and her work across more than two decades runs from 250,000 sf of international headquarters to 250 sf of refugee housing.
She has served as a guest critic at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, Columbia University, City College of NY, and other schools. Projects from the studio and from her I-Beam years have appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, and Dwell, collected on our press page.
Commercial and hospitality interior design in Englewood
Cityzen Designs designs workplaces, showrooms, and restaurants as well as homes, so an Englewood business can work with the same studio.
Our commercial interior design projects include the 7,000 sq ft Andrew Davidson & Co. offices, which I-Beam Design, the practice Azin Valy co-founded, planned around a circular conference room inside Louis Sullivan's Bayard-Condict Building. Inc. and Architizer named the space one of the World's Coolest Offices in 2011.
Our hospitality projects include the Macao Trading Co. restaurant in Tribeca, a 4,000 sq ft I-Beam Design project with an 82-seat dining room under a mezzanine. Salvaged teak lattice screens divide the room into smaller zones, and custom light fixtures reuse antique bicycles, boats, and rickshaws.
Keeping a building's character while changing how it works is the common thread, the same goal behind updating an older Englewood house.
Key Takeaways
Cityzen Designs plans full interior renovations for Englewood homes, including opened floor plans, custom built-in cabinetry, and color and material palettes.
Census estimates show 88.2% of Englewood residents in the same house as a year earlier, so designs here are built for long use.
The Catskills Mid-Century Chalet, a 2,000 sq ft 1960s house renovated by I-Beam Design, kept its period character while gaining year-round use.
A registered architect or licensed engineer prepares permit drawings, and Cityzen coordinates with them and with your contractor.
Bring photos, any existing plans, and your questions to a conversation with the studio.
Frequently asked questions
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, interior designers generally set goals with the client, sketch plans including partition and electrical layouts, specify materials and fixtures, and coordinate with contractors. At Cityzen, the work centers on floor plans, built-in cabinetry, and palettes, with permit drawings prepared by a registered architect or engineer.
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Our published projects are full interior renovations, some with exterior work as well. The contact page invites inquiries about a newly purchased home, an existing residence, or a commercial or hospitality project. If you have one room in mind, describe it at the consultation, and we will talk through whether the scope fits.
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The first step is a confidential consultation. Expect to talk about how your household lives, what you value in the house, and what is getting in the way. Photos, a rough wish list, and any existing plans help. We also talk through who else the project needs, such as an architect or contractor.
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Often, yes. At Freedman House in Greenwich, the existing maple floors were refinished light gray and kept in place, and new walnut pieces were chosen to sit with the family's mid-century furniture. Keeping sound original materials helps an older house hold on to its character. Which finishes stay is decided room by room, once their condition is known.
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The schedule follows the scope. A renovation with reconfigured rooms and new built-ins takes longer than refinishing and furnishing, and permit review adds time where your local building office requires it. We set a timeline once the project is defined after the consultation, so the plan reflects your house and its condition.