Stuart Nordin has been designing and decorating homes on both the east and west coasts since 2006. In 2012, she opened her eponymous interior design firm & Retail boutique in her home town of Alexandria, Virginia and expanded to include a Richmond, Virginia design studio in 2016. In 2018, Stuart was chosen as “a one to watch” in the field of interior design by home & Design Magazine and was also given the honor of being named “one of the top ten designers in Virginia” by The LuxPad. in 2020, she was named a “Best Home Expert” for interior design by northern Virginia Magazine and for the last five years (and counting!) she has been recognized as one of Virginia’s Top Interior Designers by Virginia Living Magazine .

Stuart and her team accommodate all levels of design requests including construction consulting for NEW custom homes, renovations and additions, as well as full room interior decorating. They work closely with architects, builders, and the finest tradespeople to create beautiful and unique homes that reflect their clients’ personal tastes and life stories.

Stuart’s work has been featured in many notable publications ranging from Southern Home Magazine to the Irish times in ireland. Please visit our press page to learn more about our most popular projects. In these articles, you will find that The BEAUTIFULLY LAYERED, DYNAMIC AND PERSONALIZED SPACES stuart creates ARE AS LIVABLE AS THEY ARE LOVELY.

To inquire about design services, please contact Stuart to find out how she can help create a home you adore & spaces you love to live in.

Q & A with Stuart:

Tell us about your name. Why did your parents name you stuart? Did they want a boy?

I’m named after my great aunt, Agnes Stuart. she was a brilliant mathematician who was recruited by nasa during the “space race” to calculate and integrate rocket trajectories by hand. (hidden figures is a fabulous book, and movie, about some of the remarkable women who did this work. Unfortunately, I did not inherit my aunt’s math genes in case anyone is wondering.) My Last Name, Nordin, is my husband’s family name and is pronounced “nor-deeeeen.”

how did you get into design?

I have always loved art and design. i grew up with a mother, grandmother and seven aunts who were artists and/or lovers of the arts. I was a studio art and art history major in college and worked in fashion for a bit in new york after i graduated. interior design is how my artistic expression evolved as a professional adult (but started in childhood when i was constantly rearranging my room and sponge painting the walls (ahh, the 80s!)). i have always obsessed over space, proportion, scale, balance, color, texture, light, etc. and with interior design i get to create environments that are made up of all of those elements coming together in the most perfect way for each individual client.

What is your greatest Accomplishment To DATE?

Professionally, it has been so nice to be recognized for my work. All of the awards i have been given so far are based on reader and editor votes and were the happiest surprises. also, opening my store, which was something I had always wanted to do, felt like a major accomplishment after dreaming about it for so many years. Personally, my greatest accomplishment has been having and raising my three boys while also running my business. i love that they have memories of sitting under my desk in the shop and playing in the secret play-nook we set up in the back when my oldest son was only six months old. we also moved to richmond when i was nine months pregnant with my third son because my husband was starting a second career in medicine after ten years in the air force. the fact that i got us moved, had a baby, opened a second office and held it all together (for the most part!) makes me feel pretty proud. i didn’t do it by myself though, my in-laws and family in Richmond were so incredibly generous and helpful. I am definitely the most proud of my family. I can’t take credit for them, I’m just so lucky to have them (parents, siblings, in-laws, aunts, nieces, cousins- every single one is amazing).

what do you like to do in your spare time?

Spare time? what’s that? i don’t have too much spare time between my business and my three boys. they’re still quite young and organized sports are just beginning so Spare Time is really family time and we all just love being together whenever we can. We love being outside. we love music and art and food and traveling and adventures big and small. my husband is an avid fisherman and outdoorsman so his love of nature fuels most of the activities we do as a family. as the boys get older and i find spare time for myself, i’ll make more art. i have a small studio at the house that is starting to get some love again. i had a really wonderful commission over the holidays that was a lot of fun to make.

where do you see yourself in ten years?

hopefully looking out on the atlantic from a house that i designed for our family on the coast of maine with everyone in the kitchen laughing and talking about how great life is and how lucky we are while we eat a lobster paella that my husband made from lobsters that the boys caught right before dinner. we spend every summer in maine and it is one of our most favorite places on earth.