Rinat Lavi of Marais Home

Rinat Lavi brings considerable knowledge and style to every project, approaching the process more like an editor than author – she helps clients polish their personal taste to a professional shine. Expert in the art of mixing, she'll take a client’s favorite vanity mirror from an old apartment, match it with a reflective custom console and a bold print to create a pocket symphony of proportion, texture and visual rhyme. Given carte blanche and space to play, her style is a comfortable take on modern, with indulgences made from unique materials (Lavi's bathrooms, in particular, are sparkling jewelboxes). Generally however, interiors are portraits of the client–“when someone expresses their personality in a home, it’s never wrong.” Born in Tel Aviv, Lavi moved to the states as a teenager and has the affect of a fully fledged New Yorker. However, she retains both an affection for the clean-lined architecture of her hometown and a transplant's appreciation for the decorative filigrees of the Upper West Side (Bauhaus meets Beaux-Arts). After completing a BFA in Interior Design at NYIT and continuing graduate studies in Decorative Arts at NYU, Lavi spent nine years in the shop of a high-end residential decorator before opening her own studio in 2004. She has been featured in a number of publications, including House Beautiful, NYCandG, and New York Spaces.