Journal
The EMD Journal
Design thinking, renovation guidance and style notes from the studio.
Ellie’s Home Musings
Insights into your pressing NJ home questions
October 2, 2026
Spec Homes Versus Custom Homes in NJ: Our Take
A spec home is built by a builder and then sold; a custom home is built for the household that hires the builder. That one difference drives the floor plan, the trim and the materials, and three Westfield builds show exactly where.
September 24, 2026
Luxury Home Wish List Low-Down: Wine Bars, Golf Simulators, Saunas, Cabanas, Theaters
Every project now has a wish list attached to it. Here is the order we would build them in, what each one actually costs you in square footage and mechanicals, and why they stopped being indulgent.
September 22, 2026
How to Use Color and Pattern So It Still Looks Right in Ten Years
Most people are not afraid of color. They are afraid of choosing wrong in a way that is expensive and visible. Here is how we make color and pattern decisions that outlive the trend that started them.
September 17, 2026
What's All This About Ralph Lauren Meets Nancy Meyers?
Two names come up more than any others when clients describe what they want. Here is what each one actually teaches, where they overlap, and why the best rooms end up being neither.
September 17, 2026
Accessorizing for the Seasons: How to Refresh a Room Without Redecorating
Four times a year you get to change your mind about your own house for the price of a few pillows. Here is what we actually swap, what we leave alone, and why editing comes before shopping.
September 16, 2026
First-Time Homeowner’s Furnishing Guide: Which Rooms to Do First, and How to Phase the Rest
You do not have to furnish the whole house, and you should not try. Which rooms earn phase one, what a furnished room actually covers, and how long a phase takes.
September 14, 2026
Designing a Luxury Family Home: 10 Decisions That Make a Home Beautiful AND Livable
A sophisticated home should support the way you actually live. Ten decisions where beauty and real family life either meet or come apart — and which way to settle each one.
September 14, 2026
How to Make a New Home Feel Collected, Not “Decorated”
A collected home is not an old one — it is one where nothing arrived as a set. How mixing makers, customizing pieces and styling in one pass makes a house look edited rather than ordered.
September 14, 2026
Renovating or Building a Home? When Should You Hire an Interior Designer?
Before the walls go up. Most homeowners assume a designer arrives to choose sofas; by then the decisions that shape how a house feels have already been made by someone else.
September 8, 2026
Making Your Home a Wellness Sanctuary: Gyms, Saunas, Steam and the Spa Bathroom
The room clients ask about now is one almost nobody asked about ten years ago. What we are seeing in home gyms, saunas, steam rooms, cold plunges and spa bathrooms — and the decision that keeps them from reading as equipment storage.
August 26, 2026
Historic Home Renovation in Westfield and Summit, NJ: Preserving Character While Modernizing Layout
In an older house the floor plan matters more than the finishes. What a 1905 Westfield home and a Summit exterior renovation teach about adding what a modern family needs without the additions announcing themselves.
August 19, 2026
Quartz, Quartzite, Marble or Porcelain? How We Help You Choose
Want the look of marble and never want to think about it? That is quartz or porcelain. Love marble and accept a patina? That is marble. The reasoning behind each of the four, including the quartzite that often is not quartzite.
August 12, 2026
Designer Material Choices for Busy NJ Families
Choose the material for the traffic it will take, then make it beautiful. Floors, fabrics, finishes and the utility rooms that decide whether a family house actually works.
August 5, 2026
Exterior Design for the New Jersey Seasons: Durable, Elegant Indoor/Outdoor Living
In New Jersey you are buying for four seasons, not for summer. The frame material and the fabric are the two decisions that matter, and a roof over the space buys you months.
July 29, 2026
Rugs, Windows and Wallpaper: How We Work With Expert NJ Trades
These three decide whether a room looks finished or nearly finished, and all three are measured and made rather than bought. How the workroom process runs, and the order to do it in.
September 10, 2025
What Modern Traditional Really Means
A traditional house with the fuss taken out: classic bones, simpler furniture, and one light fixture that plainly belongs to this century.
September 5, 2025
How Do I Know What My Design Style Is?
Almost nobody can name their design style, and almost everybody recognizes it on sight. Here is how we get there — starting with a Pinterest board, a couple of unhurried weeks, and a look at what your house is already telling you.
September 1, 2025
How to Not Lose Sleep During a Major Renovation
What keeps people awake is not the dust. It is the decision that arrives by text at four o'clock. Here is how a designer alongside the builder takes that away.
September 25, 2026
Mudrooms: The Hardest-Working Spot in NJ Homes, and the Most Overlooked
One locker per person, plus one. How we size, store and finish the room every New Jersey family actually lives through — dog wash included.
September 28, 2026
Curb Appeal Tips: Design, Materials and All the Lil' Things
Cedar, trellises, symmetry and a three-color palette — how we approach a New Jersey exterior, with before and afters from a whole-home renovation.