Interior Designer in Scarsdale NY

Scarsdale village has 5,576 households averaging 3.22 persons each, according to Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024. We design home interiors for families that size, where one house has to hold dinner, homework, and a full workday. Our renovations use built-in cabinetry, sliding panels, and open plans so each room does more than one job.

Tell us who lives in your Scarsdale house and who works there on a weekday.

Plan a home that fits work and family

Key Highlights

Cityzen Designs is a New York architecture and interior design studio founded by Azin Valy, a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Architecture.
The Colp-Haber Residence is a 2,200 sq ft full interior renovation planned around living and working at home.
One continuous run of birch cabinetry in that home serves as a desk, storage, seating, bookshelves, a vanity, and kitchen seating.
Census figures put 33.4% of Scarsdale village residents are under 18, so family rooms carry heavy daily use.
Permit drawings, where a project needs them, come from a registered architect or licensed engineer, and Cityzen coordinates with that professional.

What you want at homeWhat the design work involvesWho else is involved
A home office you can close off when the workday endsTranslucent sliding panels and a built-in desk, as in the Colp-Haber ResidenceYour general contractor builds it, and we design it and coordinate the work
One open floor from several separate roomsPlanning which walls come down and what defines each area afterward, as in Freedman HouseA registered architect or licensed engineer prepares and seals any permit drawings, and your contractor builds
Storage that also seats people and holds booksOne continuous run of built-in cabinetry that changes height and use from room to roomYour contractor and the cabinet builder they bring in
A plan around furniture and art you already ownPlacing and framing your pieces so the new rooms fit themYou, deciding what stays
New floors, color, and finishesA material and color palette, including refinishing existing wood floors where they can be savedYour contractor and finish trades

What you want at home	What the design work involves	Who else is involved
A home office you can close off when the workday ends	Translucent sliding panels and a built-in desk, as in the Colp-Haber Residence	Your general contractor builds it, and we design it and coordinate the work
One open floor from several separate rooms	Planning which walls come down and what defines each area afterward, as in Freedman House	A registered architect or licensed engineer prepares and seals any permit drawings, and your contractor builds
Storage that also seats people and holds books	One continuous run of built-in cabinetry that changes height and use from room to room	Your contractor and the cabinet builder they bring in
A plan around furniture and art you already own	Placing and framing your pieces so the new rooms fit them	You, deciding what stays
New floors, color, and finishes	A material and color palette, including refinishing existing wood floors where they can be saved	Your contractor and finish trades

Interior design services for Scarsdale homes and households

Our Scarsdale interior design work is for families who plan to stay and want the house to fit how they live now. The Village's own account says the shift from farmland to residential suburb began in 1891, and many homes from the housing boom that followed remain in use today. Houses from that era were laid out with a separate room for each purpose.

Daily life in those rooms looks different now. Census figures show 33.4% of Scarsdale village residents are under 18, and any parent who works from home needs a desk somewhere in the same house. A formal dining room can end up as a homework table by day and a laptop station by night.

Why do Scarsdale families need rooms that do more than one job?

Scarsdale households average 3.22 persons, and a third of residents are children. One house has to absorb meals, homework, calls, and storage for everyone. Rooms built for a single purpose fill up fast. Built-in cabinetry and sliding panels let a living room hold a desk, shelves, and seating, then close up neatly at night.

Interior design service scope at Cityzen

Cityzen's interior design service covers whole-home interior renovations, from the floor plan to the last finish. The work in our residential portfolio shows the range: removing walls to open a plan, designing built-in cabinetry, making custom furniture that doubles as architecture, choosing materials and color, refinishing existing floors, and fitting a home around a client's furniture and art.

At Freedman House in Greenwich, an interior renovation of about 4,000 sq ft, we took out the wall between the sunken living room, the dining room, and the home office. A continuous walnut platform became a step, then a built-in corner sofa, backed by a low bookcase that doubles as a serving surface for the dining room. Existing maple floors were refinished light gray, and new walnut pieces sit beside the family's mid-century furniture.

Can built-in cabinetry replace a wall?

Built-in cabinetry can mark where one activity ends and the next begins, so a room can stay open and still feel organized. In our projects, a low bookcase or a run of cabinets often separates sitting from dining or working. You keep the light of an open plan and gain storage a plain wall lacks.

Home office design in the Colp-Haber Residence

The Colp-Haber Residence shows how we design a home for living and working in the same rooms. The 2,200 sq ft Upper East Side apartment had been a traditionally divided two-bedroom. We opened it into one space built around light, views, and storage.

One continuous band of birch cabinetry, topped in vivid yellow, runs through the home. Along the way it changes height and job: office desk, storage, living-room seating, bookshelves, powder-room vanity, and kitchen seating. The band acts like a spine, one built piece that every activity hangs from.

The home office hides behind translucent sliding panels. Slide them open and the desk joins the living space. Slide them shut and work disappears from view while daylight still passes through. Translucent materials in the powder room let in light and glow when lit.

The client relationship runs deep. R.C-H. wrote on our testimonials page that she has worked with Azin on and off for 25 years, through every one of her design projects. She also wrote, "She has literally brought light into our lived experience."

Here is a sample case for a Scarsdale house, for illustration only. Two parents each work from home two days a week, and two children do homework at the dining table. A Colp-Haber approach would line one wall of the family room with built-in cabinetry that holds a desk for each parent, shelves for school supplies, and a window seat, with sliding panels that close the desks off once dinner starts.

Can a home office share space with the living room?

A home office can share the living room when the furniture and doors are designed for both uses. In the Colp-Haber Residence, the desk is part of a built-in cabinetry band, and translucent sliding panels close it off after work. The office takes no extra bedroom, and the living room still looks like a living room at night.

Ready to sort out where work happens in your house?

Plan your home office with our studio

How a Cityzen interior design project runs

A Cityzen project starts with a confidential consultation about your home, your household, and what you want to change. From there, our work follows the three ideas in our design approach:

Context comes first, starting with how you live, what you value, and the character of the house and place.
Flexibility guides the plan, with rooms and built-in pieces that change with you and serve more than one purpose.
Imagination and discovery push the design, as we encourage clients to dream past convention.

For a Scarsdale family, context means the age of the house, the size of the household, and who needs a quiet desk on which days.

On a renovation that needs permits, a registered architect or licensed engineer prepares and seals the drawings. We coordinate with that professional and with your contractor so the interior design carries through construction. Clients who live away from the house can still decide from a distance. One couple based in Europe wrote that they needed to travel only on a few occasions to make decisions.

Recommended: Bring a short list to the consultation of who works from home, on which days, and what has to be put away each night.

What happens at the first consultation?

The first consultation is a confidential conversation about your home and goals. Cityzen invites projects in a newly purchased home or an existing residence. You describe how your household lives, what frustrates you about the current rooms, and what you hope to add.

Azin Valy leads Cityzen's design work

Azin Valy founded Cityzen Designs and leads its design work, drawing on more than two decades in design, interiors, and architectural projects. She is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Architecture and a former partner and co-founder of I-Beam Design, an award-winning architecture firm in New York. Her projects have ranged from 250 sf of refugee housing to 250,000 sf of international headquarters.

Azin has served as a guest critic at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, Columbia University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Ball State University, and City College of NY. Freedman House earned a 2024 New York Architecture Design Awards Silver in Interior Design. Portfolio projects have also appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Dwell, as listed on the studio's press page.

Why does an architecture background matter for interiors?

Architecture training shapes how a designer reads walls, stairs, light, and structure. Azin's projects treat cabinetry and furniture as part of the building. At Freedman House, a stair wall was lowered and replaced with a cable railing. At Colp-Haber, cabinetry took the place of walls. Interior choices come from the plan outward, beyond picking finishes alone.

Commercial and hospitality interior design for Scarsdale

Cityzen Designs also designs offices, showrooms, and restaurants, so a Scarsdale professional can plan a workplace with the same studio that plans a home office.

Our workplace and commercial interiors 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 interiors 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.

The movable workstations at Andrew Davidson and the hideaway home office at the Colp-Haber Residence come from one idea: a workspace that changes with the day.

Key Takeaways

Scarsdale village has 5,576 households with an average of 3.22 persons, so rooms in a family house carry several jobs a day.
Cityzen's service covers whole-home interior renovations: wall removal, built-in cabinetry, custom furniture, materials, color, and floor refinishing.
The Colp-Haber Residence hides a home office behind translucent sliding panels inside one 2,200 sq ft open space.
R.C-H. has worked with Azin Valy on and off for 25 years.
Permit drawings come from a registered architect or licensed engineer, and Cityzen coordinates with them and your contractor.

Want a house in Scarsdale where work has a place to go at the end of the day?

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FAQ

Interior designers generally study how a space will be used, sketch layouts, specify materials and furnishings, and coordinate with building contractors, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. At Cityzen, that work includes planning which walls come down, designing built-in cabinetry, and choosing color and finishes for the whole home.
Many renovations need both. An interior designer shapes how rooms work, look, and store things. When a project changes structure or needs permit drawings, a registered architect or licensed engineer prepares and seals those drawings. Cityzen leads the interior design and coordinates with the architect, the engineer, and your contractor so the plan holds together.
Yes. In the Colp-Haber Residence, a home office sits inside an open 2,200 sq ft apartment and closes off behind translucent sliding panels. The desk is one part of a continuous run of built-in cabinetry that also serves as storage, seating, and shelves. Work stays close by and drops out of sight after hours.
Yes. Several Cityzen projects were planned around a client's existing pieces. At Freedman House, new walnut furnishings complement the family's mid-century furniture, and blue, the client's favorite color, appears as an accent throughout. Tell us at the consultation which pieces you want to keep, and the plan can start from them.
The Cityzen portfolio shows full interior renovations, and the studio invites projects in a newly purchased home or an existing residence. A single room, such as a home office or family room, is a scope question to raise at the consultation. We can talk through what you want to change and what the work involves.