“Beauty is not so much what you see as what you dream.”
-Walloon Proverbs

From a young age, Danielle Balanis has been dreaming about beauty and its possibilities. Not always content with what she saw in the pages of her mother’s glossy design and fashion magazines, she sought to reimage things to her liking—discerning how a room or ensemble could be more daring or compelling, and ultimately unforgettable. And she has been exploring those concepts ever since—as an avid fashion devotee, interior design major, fledging designer learning from a seasoned mentor, and now with her own design firm.

To rekindle her creative juices after a hiatus from her passions, Danielle used her newly renovated personal residence as a blank canvas to put her theories about beauty into play. The result speaks volumes about her aesthetic. She operates on the principle that beauty is found through balance and the “in between” spaces—darkness and light, jagged and smooth, whispers to a clamor.

She is soundly in Karl Lagerfeld’s camp believing that the imperfect, strange, obscure, and even surreal can join together to create a symphony for a life not in a haze of gray, but one full of color, joy, and intrigue.

Danielle eschews formulas, instead making up the rules as she goes along—organic and original, steeped in the novel, but with a firm grasp on classic design principles. She’s like an alchemist transforming spaces by finding that obscure piece that will make a room and mixing unusual and arresting colors often gleaned from the fashion world. She finds the creative process thrilling and will go to any and all lengths to accomplish her vision through the lens of her clients.

“I always want my designs to be a marriage of the runway and reality. I crave layered, luxe, maximalist looks. I believe a home should have a soul—old, new, clean, and crusty—it all works perfectly together when thoughtfully curated. I seek obscurity in beauty with thought- provoking and strong executions. I want my clients to love where they live—to be surrounded by alluring and comfortable spaces, meaningful collections, quirky yet classic pieces, and to always be inspired by their home.”
– Written by Alice Welsh Doyle