Imagine Design

Imagine Design I am an interior designer that works towards creating casual, elegant rooms that are visually intere and Northern Virginia area.

Although Imagine Design is a full-service design company, our specialty is working with renovation or new construction. I love the building aspect of design and believe getting scale, flow and function right from the beginning helps everything fall into place. Being able to assess these elements from a set of blueprints or floor plans is essential, and is one of my favorite parts of the process. F

or 10 years prior to launching Imagine Design, I was a top-ranking real estate agent in the Washington, D.C. This experience provided valuable exposure to what impacts home value, and an understanding of which improvement would ultimately provide the best return on a client’s investment. I work towards creating casual, elegant, rooms that are visually interesting but also comfortable and inviting. It is the subtle coordination of fabric, color, layering, and unique accessories that really brings a home to life. My approach is tailored to each client’s individual needs, lifestyle and budget, but the formula based on comfort and elegance is always the same. Imagine Design is available for service from project management for a full-scale renovation/new build project to simple consultations on how to work with existing furnishings.

I so often find myself wishing the builder had called us first! Of course, that would have been difficult since the hous...
09/11/2026

I so often find myself wishing the builder had called us first! Of course, that would have been difficult since the house was built 20 years ago, but still…

This living room had wonderful light and generous proportions. But the one small glass door leading to the deck, however, felt completely out of scale with the space.

Replacing it with double French doors made an immediate difference. The new doors bring in more light, create a much stronger connection to the outdoors, and give that end of the room the sense of openness it was missing.

While we were at it, we gave the fireplace the presence it deserved with a beautifully veined marble surround. The piano and fireplace now create two strong architectural anchors, with the new French doors centered between them.

From there, we kept the furnishings warm and inviting: brown upholstery, and reupholstered an antique chair with special meaning to the homeowners, and a simple geometric rug that allows the architecture, art, and piano to take center stage.

Swipe to see where we began. It’s amazing what two thoughtful architectural changes can do for an entire room and they feel like they should always have been there.

And one completely irrelevant little aside: if you look closely at the bottom of the before photo, you can spot my shoes. That picture was taken six months ago, and by complete coincidence, I was wearing the exact same shoes today. Apparently I have a very consistent site-visit uniform

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer Imagine Design
Photos: John Cole

Apparently, all it takes is spotting one little pumpkin at the front door while flipping through old project photos, and...
09/09/2026

Apparently, all it takes is spotting one little pumpkin at the front door while flipping through old project photos, and suddenly we’re having a fall house tour.

This Falls Church, Virginia home is especially fun to revisit because we were involved in the project from the very beginning, when it was still just a set of building plans and an empty lot. We worked through the floorplans, cabinetry, lighting, and finishes, and then stayed to furnish and layer the rooms with art, antiques, pattern, and color.

I especially love the way the rooms flow into one another. The table between the kitchen and family room creates a natural bridge between the two spaces, while the stair hall gives you glimpses into the spaces beyond. Nothing is overly matched, but the warm woods, collected pieces, and repeated colors quietly tie it all together.

Longtime followers may recognize a few rooms, but I tucked in some new angles and details too.

And, of course, if you swipe to the end, the little pumpkin that started it all.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer Imagine Design
Photos: Molly Smith Watson

CollectedInteriors

I have shared this living room before, but it is such a great example of how we integrate art into a room and mix contem...
09/06/2026

I have shared this living room before, but it is such a great example of how we integrate art into a room and mix contemporary pieces with antiques. Because so many of you have said you enjoy seeing more complete views of our projects, today I wanted to widen the lens and show how this room relates to the more casual spaces beyond it.

The living room is grounded by a beautiful antique rug and layered with contemporary abstracts, traditional oil paintings, warm wood, and quiet upholstery. It feels collected and refined, but still very comfortable.

The adjoining family room, with its generous sectional, was designed for everyday life. The kitchen area includes another, more intimate sitting space with a leather sofa, woven cane chairs, and a wonderfully sculptural burl wood coffee table. At the kitchen table, the warm wood tones and natural textures continue, with light pouring in from the surrounding windows.

Each space has its own purpose and personality, but the repeated materials, colors, and mix of old and new allow them to flow naturally into one another.

That is always the goal in a connected home: not rooms that match, but rooms that belong together.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer Imagine Design
Photo: Molly Smith Watson


I don’t typically begin sharing a new project with a bathroom. But then again, this isn’t a typical bathroom.This is the...
09/04/2026

I don’t typically begin sharing a new project with a bathroom. But then again, this isn’t a typical bathroom.

This is the first little glimpse of a Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City that we have been working on for nearly two years for longtime clients, a young, fun couple who wanted every surface of their home to be beautiful.

And they meant every surface.

We first worked with them on their Georgetown home, so being asked to join them for this next chapter was especially meaningful. We also had the very great pleasure of working alongside the extraordinary team at Douglas Wright Architects and a truly top-notch builder, Donadic. The result is one of those homes I can hardly wait to share.

This is one of three bathrooms in the apartment, and color was a priority throughout. Because this one is often used by guests, we gave it a little extra drama with fluted green tile, richly veined marble, unlacquered brass and those sculptural globe sconces. It feels fresh and unexpected, while still completely at home in a classic New York City apartment.

There is so much more to come. Just wait until you see the kitchen. For now, consider this bathroom the smallest of previews.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer
Photos:
Architect: Douglas C. Wright
Build: S. Donadic, Inc.

A little look behind the scenes: this is the home of one of our team members, who is also a terrific artist.And who unde...
09/02/2026

A little look behind the scenes: this is the home of one of our team members, who is also a terrific artist.

And who understands what art can bring to a room better than an artist who works in interior design?

Her own paintings appear throughout the house alongside pieces collected over time, setting the mood in every room and connecting spaces that each have a distinct personality. The living room is bright and sun-filled, while the dark sitting room feels intimate and enveloping. The dining room and kitchen have moods of their own, but the art, vintage furniture, natural materials, and sculptural forms create a thread that runs through the entire home.

Much of the furniture is vintage, including the extra-long, low-profile sofa from the 1960s, which was fully restored and reupholstered in a fabric. Paired with the Barcelona chairs and large abstract painting, it gives the room an authentic midcentury foundation. A small dining table was cut down to become a side table, while the vintage coffee table was refinished with a hand-rubbed black finish.

I often talk about the character that older pieces bring to a home, but this house also shows just how much art adds. It does not simply fill a wall. It introduces color, emotion, scale, and personality in a way that very few other things can.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer Imagine Design
Photography: John Cole
Art: Tiffany Steele McAvoy

interiordesign

For quite a while, I have been meaning to share more complete house tours here, so you can see not only the individual r...
08/30/2026

For quite a while, I have been meaning to share more complete house tours here, so you can see not only the individual rooms, but how they relate to one another in this completed project.

I thought I would begin with this beautiful 1920s stone house on a horse property in Middleburg, Virginia.

A Northern Virginia family purchased the house and had partially furnished it themselves, but it had never quite come together in the way they had hoped. We were brought in to help finish what they had started by adding the layers that would make it feel settled, comfortable, and truly theirs.

As the design developed, the house naturally took on a bit of an English country feeling that seemed especially suited to the old stone architecture and its setting in Virginia horse country. We mixed new upholstery with patterned fabrics, botanical wallpaper, deep colors, art, and quite a few antiques gathered from the many wonderful antique shops around Loudoun County.

In the foyer, an antique rug and center table gave the generous space a sense of purpose and created a proper welcome. From there, the mix continues throughout the house. The living room is lighter and quieter, while the family room is grounded by a pair of deep blue sofas and plum-colored club chairs.

The greatest transformation was the back sunroom. The stone wall had originally been part of the exterior of the 1920s house before it was expanded decades later. We replaced the flooring with slate, paneled the ceiling, and painted the entire space a deep hunter green. The new color ties the room much more closely to the old stone and makes the later addition feel like a natural part of the original house.

In the room beyond, botanical wallpaper adds another layer of English country-house charm (a nod to the homeowners roots) and provides a softer counterpoint to the stone and dark green next door.

I hope you enjoy walking through this one with me. Let me know if you would like to see more complete house tours here.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer
Photos: Molly Smith Watson

Twenty years can be an awkward age for a house. It isn’t old enough to have the inherent character of a historic home, ...
08/27/2026

Twenty years can be an awkward age for a house. It isn’t old enough to have the inherent character of a historic home, but it is old enough to begin showing its age, especially when the builder leaned heavily into the design trends of the time.

That was exactly the case in this Arlington, Virginia family room. The floor-to-ceiling stacked stone, oversized raised hearth, low soffits, floating shelves, and blue cabinets all felt very specific to the early 2000s. There was a lot happening on this wall, but none of it felt especially connected or architectural.

So we redesigned the entire fireplace wall.

We raised the soffits and replaced the blue cabinets and floating shelves with true custom white oak cabinetry and bookcases. They added warmth and character, but also an enormous amount of storage, which is always a good thing in a family room.

We removed all of the busy stone veneer and simplified the fireplace with a plaster surround and stone hearth. By reshaping the chimney breast above the mantel, we gave the whole wall better proportions and finally created a natural place for art.

Once that architectural foundation was right, the rest of the family room came together fairly easily. We reused and reupholstered several pieces the clients already owned, added new ones, and layered in lighting, textiles, books, and collected objects.

I think the room now feels as though it belongs to the house, only warmer, more settled, and with the kind of character that will carry it through its next twenty or more years.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer
Cabinets: Master Design Cabinetry
Build: LG RENOVATIONS INC
Photography: John Cole

More project photos:

FamilyRoomRemodel CustomCabinetry WhiteOakCabinetry FireplaceRenovation FireplaceDesign BeforeAndAfter InteriorRenovation n VirginiaInteriorDesigner

I find that in every project, there is one room that sets the tone for the rest of the home. In this house, it was the d...
08/25/2026

I find that in every project, there is one room that sets the tone for the rest of the home. In this house, it was the dining room.

It sits at the center of a 25-year-old builder-grade home that we shepherded through a full remodel. The goal was to give the house the character it had always been missing while greatly improving its flow and functionality along the way.

The dining room connects a color-drenched music room, where the custom cabinetry, trim, and ceiling are all painted a deep mossy green, with a newly renovated kitchen filled with natural wood and stone. We wanted it to bridge the two, carrying the depth and color of the music room into the warmer, more natural palette of the kitchen.

We had the table custom made so our clients could gather as many family and friends around it as possible. The moody landscape mural wraps the room in an almost otherworldly calm, while the cloud-like chandelier brings in just the right amount of lightness and contrast.

It is immersive and inviting, and it became both the physical and visual center of the home we set out to create.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer Imagine Design
Photography: John Cole
Build: Golden Rule Builders

I’ve decorated this Arlington family room three times, for two different owners. That’s probably the best argument I can...
08/22/2026

I’ve decorated this Arlington family room three times, for two different owners. That’s probably the best argument I can make for choosing your neutrals carefully.

We toss that word around a lot in interior design. But when I say neutral, I don’t necessarily mean white, beige or even particularly light.

When I walk into a home for the first time, the problem is often that everything has been kept a little too safe. Every surface is a similar tone and everything carries the same visual weight. The room may be quiet, but it’s also a little anonymous. There’s nowhere for your eye to land and not much warmth or depth.

To me, a neutral is simply a color that provides a good foundation and works easily with everything around it, without dictating what the rest of the room has to be.

In this room, the deep blue sofas do exactly that. They have plenty of color and presence, but blue is remarkably flexible. It works with the existing ivory drapery from an earlier version of the room, the warm wood, the plaster fireplace and the smaller notes of rust, blush and green in the art and accessories.

That flexibility is why the room has been able to evolve through three different versions without requiring us to start over each time.

So, if you’re choosing an investment piece like a sofa, don’t assume the safest choice is beige. Instead, ask what else the color can live with. Could you change the rug, pillows, art or even the wall color without having to replace it?

A room doesn’t have to be loud to have a point of view. And sometimes the most useful neutral in the room doesn’t look neutral at all.

Design: Liz Mearns Interior Designer Imagine Design
Photo: Molly Smith Watson

More project photos:

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