Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 86 Affordable Home Transformations with Lara Larko
Imagine transforming your home into a space you genuinely love without breaking the bank. That possibility comes to life in our conversation with Lara Larko, founder of Lara Larko Designs, who's revolutionizing interior design through her affordable, transparent approach.
When most people consider hiring an interior designer, they immediately assume it's a luxury they can't afford. Lara shatters this misconception with her flat-rate package model that eliminates hidden fees and uncertainty. "There's working parents, working moms that just want their home to look nice... and they don't have the time or money," she explains. "So my whole thing is why spend all this money?"
Lara's journey from middle school teacher to sought-after designer began organically in 2017 when family members kept requesting her decorating help. With her husband's encouragement and support from her network of Bergen County moms, her business flourished through word-of-mouth referrals. What started as simple requests—"I just need paint color for the dining room"—often blossomed into whole-house transformations as clients discovered the value and accessibility of her services.
What makes Lara's approach special is her commitment to creating spaces that truly reflect her clients' personalities and preferences. She uses sophisticated visualization tools to create mood boards and digital designs so clients can see exactly what they're getting before making any decisions. "I will tell you what's in style... but at the end of the day, I'm not waking up and staring at it every single day. You have to love it," she emphasizes.
The emotional impact of her work becomes evident when she describes the reaction of triplet girls seeing their newly designed bedroom: "They were like 'Mama, it's beautiful!' One little girl was crying, the other was so happy... hugging me." These moments of connection and transformation are what drive her passion.
Ready to reimagine your space without the designer price tag? Connect with Lara on Instagram @laralarkodesigns or visit her website laralarkodesigns.com to see her portfolio and learn how affordable beautiful design can truly be.
Lara Larko Designs
Lara Larko
(201) 927-9779
raLarkoDesigns@gmail.com
laralarkodesigns.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, Welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. I am Doug Drohan. I'm your host. I am joined today by Lara Larko of Lara Larko Designs, from Bergen County, New Jersey. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'm so glad you're on the show. I love having home improvement. I'll call it that home business owners, because I think we all want to be inspired by what we can and the possibilities of what our home could be, and there are so many things emotionally that go into transforming a room or a home and I'd love to hear you know really more about, like you, like how you got into this business. Did I kind of sum it up properly? And you know your website says affordable design. So I want to dig into that a little bit too, because a lot of the connotation of having an interior designer is that they're expensive, they're only for rich people. So I want to dig into that. But let's talk a little bit about you. What's your journey, your origin story of how you got into this?
Speaker 3:business. So Lara Larco Design started in 2017. It is affordable design. I offer flat rate packages, which a lot of designers charge by the hour, but with my concept it's flat rate packages, so you know exactly kind of what you're getting. There's no hidden charges. I also work on the client's budget shop at affordable stores, all that fun stuff. So I started my journey in 2017. I like to say in my past life, before kids, I was a teacher for middle school and for third grade and I see, where was that? Oh, in Clifton.
Speaker 2:Okay, nice.
Speaker 3:Yes, in Clifton, and then once I had my first child, I was home and then I had my second and I've always been really interested in decorating. My family has always asked me Larry, can you come over and help us? You have such a great eye. My brother in law, waslaw, was redoing his kitchen at the time and I helped him do that and I just I wanted to do more but I knew I couldn't go back to teaching. So my husband kind of motivated me and said you know what, why don't you start this? Why don't you start a Facebook page? You know, kind of post some of your, your work, some of our home, and see where it takes you.
Speaker 3:So I did, and one of my first clients actually was a Bergen County mom who owned her own business as well and she was renovating her home. And I said, listen, you know we can work together. If you like me, great, you know. Just, you know, put me out on Facebook. Whatever you know you can do. And we we worked for months together on her whole entire house and we became friends and it was a great experience and, with her being a Bergen County mom and owner as well, she kind of put me out there on Facebook, which was amazing, and it just kind of took off from there. It was all word of mouth on Facebook, which was great, and I appreciate her every single day for for getting my business going.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Now I often ask people um your success, do you attribute it to luck or hard work? Or maybe it's a combination of both? And you know, I, you know, if you want to get really deep, you could say we're lucky that we were born in America, or we're lucky that we were born with parents that believed in us.
Speaker 2:Because we all know, you know I always tell my son, you know you're more fortunate that we weren't, you weren't born in Aleppo or Ukraine or other places where there's such awful, you know, wars and strife going on, but also being born to in a family that loves you, because so many people aren't born into that situation. But I bring that up because you have a spouse that encouraged you and I think that's really important. The same thing happened to me when I went off on my own that if I didn't have the support of my wife to go do this, there's no way I could have succeeded. So I think it's great that you had that support and that encouragement to go do it, especially being a new mom. It's to say I'm going to give up the paycheck and the benefits of a teacher that was steady, that was something you could count on to say, no, I'm going to leave that behind and follow a passion that takes a lot of guts.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:And I think you know your spouse. It takes a lot of guts for your spouse to say do it. You know I believe in you, I support you.
Speaker 3:So he definitely, yeah, he definitely was my motivator, he was my. You know he's still to this day. You know I'll tell him. I got this phone call. I have these clients and he's like tell me about it. You know, let's, let's keep going, you can expand this. And you know, sometimes I'll say like I'm super busy with the kids, and you know he's always like it's fine, you know, we'll figure it out and we have this whole, you know, since 2017, we keep things going.
Speaker 3:My spouse, he travels a lot and it's you know. We just kind of make it work. So it does definitely work to have family that supports you. I come from my father owns his own business as well, so family definitely is a big supporter without them, you know, even having in-laws as babysitters my parents as babysitters, so I can go see clients, you know, and then if they're sick or something, happens, you know it all kind of works out, but it is my passion.
Speaker 3:I absolutely love what I do. I love meeting new people. Some of my clients have become like family and have become really close that I still keep in touch with them years later, which is the part that I love. I love meeting new people. I love making them happy.
Speaker 2:And you only. It's not that you only focus on interior, you also help people with their exterior, with their outdoor living.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've done some outdoor, I've done some backyards, especially around. You know, during covid or after covid, people were putting pools in redoing their backyards.
Speaker 3:I worked on mine as well, kind of used that. So we were in 201 Magazine, which was amazing, so it kind of like took off after that. But yeah, people, especially like I said during COVID, really wanted their backyards done. They wanted, you know, this sanctuary. So I'll go, you know, go help them with that. Since they know that I kind of went through the whole pool process, I'll help them with that, help them with pavers, even furniture outside, so kind of everything. But again, focusing on affordable, I think what happens is people think, like you said, that you need to be wealthy or that you need to be rich. When someone says, oh, I have a decorator, you're thinking oh my god, yeah that's great.
Speaker 3:Um, it kind of too. All started. I was. My sister bought a new home, um, and she's like I have no idea what to do with the paint colors. This is, you know. This is just too overwhelming, it's too insane you hear, I have the kids, I'm focusing. I can't focus on all this stuff. At the time I was teaching and she's like I'm just going to hire a decorator to help me with the paint. She told me how much she spent and she's like I hate the colors.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 3:I hate everything. She told me how much she spent. I'm like I could have done this for you. We, I thought about it. And there's working parents, there's working moms that just want their home to look nice, they want to feel safe, they want this area for their kids and they don't have the time. Or they know what they want, they have a vision, or they don't have the time to go and do it or they don't have the money to go and do it.
Speaker 3:So my whole thing is why? Why spend all this money? If you want to go to home goods, you could go to home goods. I'll just help you, you know, get there and see your vision and kind of put it all together for you.
Speaker 2:Somebody asked me once like what is your time worth? So what is it? What do you make a year? What do you make a month? Divide that by X, x amount of hours, and now, how many hours are you going to spend trying to decide on a paint color? Or I mean, at the end of the day, you can suggest something, but, like you said, your sister-in-law hated the paint. I think the challenge that I've run into is my wife and I don't always agree on the paint I see a lot of fun, and we definitely have.
Speaker 2:We definitely have different tastes when it comes to wall art, like well, I want to buy this. I was like I like it. No, that's too. That's too like abstract, that's you know, like now, but it's something cool, you know. So you know, and then you end up getting nowhere.
Speaker 2:But the other point you made is there's a psychological, or might have been sociological, term called the paradox of choice, and there's been books written on how, when human beings are faced with too many choices, it increases our anxiety level, and that there's a saying. This is a confused mind says no, so you just kind of I can't decide, just throw my hands up, I'll push this off, I can't deal with it right now. I got kids, I got this, I got that. So you know, I'd imagine where you come in is to help them make that choice, to narrow it down. Talk to them about you know, what are your goals here, like, what do you want for this room? And I'm sure a lot of it is like, well, I saw this on, you know, in this magazine, or I saw this on HGTV, or so does on Instagram. Is this possible within my budget? Is this possible within my room dimensions, and I'm assuming that's where you come in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes, it's always. It's definitely always possible. People give me a budget. I tell them you know what stores I go to. I kind of feel them out on their style. I like to see the style of their home, but it happens all the time that they come in and they're like I need a bathroom. I like to see the style of their home, but it happens all the time that they come in and they're like I need a bathroom, I need my family room, I need my playroom. So I always say, okay, let's take it one step at a time.
Speaker 1:Let's take it one room at a time, because it does.
Speaker 3:it definitely does get overwhelming for people. So it's nice also to have I always say, like another eye instead of your husband's eyes Sometimes, if you don't see eye to eye with them that's when I come in and say well, lara says this and I always tell my clients too. I will tell you, you know what's in style. I will tell you what I like, but at the end of the day, I'm not waking up and staring at it every single day.
Speaker 3:You have to love it, cause so many times I have clients come to me and say I yeah, you have to love it because so many times I have clients come to me and say I've worked with a designer and I hate what she did, and I'll say you know, sometimes it's because you just go with what they recommend and you think it's like the cool thing and the you know updated, but in the end, looking at it every single day, you're like I hate this, this isn't, this isn't me.
Speaker 3:So I wanted to be them within their budget. I want to walk away with them being happy with their space.
Speaker 2:Now my big thing is I need to visualize it. You could tell me, oh, we could do this, we could do that, but then if I can't actually see, get an idea what the end product is going to be, it's tough for me to make that decision. Do you offer design services.
Speaker 3:So I do. So I use a program that I will put together a mood board of what they're looking for, whether it's pink colors, furniture, accessories. So I'll put together a mood board and then I also create design, sometimes within their room, so they could visualize it a little bit better. With that program it's amazing because you click on the actual furniture, the actual pieces, and it brings you directly to the website so that you can view it yourself.
Speaker 3:I always tell clients too they can purchase on their own, I could purchase for them. It's kind of whatever works for that client, whether they're busy with work and they're like can you run to the store and go get these items for me and then bring it and style it for me, which I've done in the past, um, and more than happy to do that as well. So that's part of my services, but it's a really great program. Um, they could even write back to me back and forth, the clients and we kind of work through that. I do typically up to three full designs, so if they're not happy with the first design or they want to, change something they go back, do another design until we, kind of you know, narrow it down, which usually narrows it down within three designs that's great.
Speaker 2:That's great. Yeah, I mean that's. That's really important from where I stand. That's to to see the design and get an idea of what the end product is is really important for me, and that, and that way you avoid the comment oh I hate what my designer did you room, do you find? You have clients where they hire you to do one room and then six months later, a year later, you're back doing another room All the time.
Speaker 3:So I'll tell you about one client that I absolutely love. During COVID they moved from New York, had like a newborn baby and like a two-year-old at the time, bought a house in Glen Rock and came. I came in and she's like I just need paint color for the dining room, can you help me with that? I said, fine, no problem, gave her the paint color and then, okay, I just need paint color for the living room, can you help me with that? Which then in turn turned to every single room in the house, literally every room all the bedrooms, bathroom renovation, outdoor renovation.
Speaker 2:I mean literally.
Speaker 3:I mean it went on the kitchen renovation. It went on for like two or three years that I was with her and I mean we became, you know, really close, one of my favorite families. But it was amazing. That's what happens is. You know? A lot of clients say like can we start with this one room, see if we kind of like mesh, see if you know what we're going for, and then it just expands. Well, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, this was really affordable. Can we maybe do like this room? I'm thinking about doing this room, so maybe projects that have been put off for a year now kind of push forward because they realize, wow, I can do this on my budget, I can work with Lara. This is great, which is what I love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you mentioned helping them understand the trends. So what are some of the trends you're seeing? Let's go by room. Let's go by kitchen. It was the white kitchen for so many years. Is that still?
Speaker 3:it changes all the time white, you know, is always classic, changes all the time um what are you saying?
Speaker 2:what we did was we have a white kitchen, but we did a blue island.
Speaker 3:Right, I was gonna say, people now are mixing um, mixing the colors. Some are doing uppers in a different color from lower. You know, from the lower cabinets. Some people are doing the island different. Um, we're also seeing uh different, like with slatting, with the slats, um, all kind of different kinds. What do they?
Speaker 2:call that on one of those shows um ship. What is it called well?
Speaker 3:yeah, you, I mean there's shiplap you could do yeah there's, I mean there's. There's all different, but with the kitchens.
Speaker 2:That's a big waco texas thing.
Speaker 3:Man, that fixer-upper they always do shiplap yeah, especially too with the different areas, right, everybody kind of sees, you know a lot of people are are getting, I think, away from like that super, super modern um I don't see a lot of that. It's kind of like the in between. They just want it like updated um accents of black you know, pops of black everywhere now um especially like with the kitchen. Um, there's little pops of black somewhere even in, like the windows oh yeah, um, a lot of people are doing that as well too.
Speaker 3:Um with the doors going a little bit lighter, bigger slack right, right.
Speaker 2:So the engineer would help them do that. The nine inch and more, yeah yeah, I noticed like exterior, you see, like the mixed use of colors and materials, so they have maybe a modern farmhouse, but then I call it the modern ski chalet because it looks and they'll use like natural woods or fabrications of it for arches and columns and things like that. So it looks, you know, it's not all one color, which I love that. It's funny that the shiplap when I grew up it was paneling, but I guess they can't call it paneling.
Speaker 3:Well, now it's like the reading where it's the lines that you see going straight with the reading. That's kind of like the inside.
Speaker 2:We call it paneling. Go back to the Brady bunch, and that's when I grew up. All over Oranges and browns and things like that.
Speaker 3:Hey, you know what Pink, they said, is coming back too for bathrooms. I told my grandma, she's 98. Her bathroom's coming back in style.
Speaker 2:Her bathroom is back in style, true.
Speaker 3:The pink is coming back too.
Speaker 2:Our first house, we had a pink bathroom that we got rid of very quickly.
Speaker 3:It's back in. My dad owns a plumbing business and he's like I'm seeing the pink toilets coming back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, that's funny.
Speaker 3:It goes full circle. But even outside with the gutters, you know people are changing with their gutters. They want instead of white. They're doing you know copper, or they're doing black kind of to have it pop a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is eye catching for sure. That's cool. So I mean, you kind of got across what you love about what you do. No-transcript. I mentioned the beginning of our show that there's an inspiration and a transformation that is an emotional. It's as emotional as it is tangible, right? All right, I redid my floors, I redid my wall color, but what do you see? And you see these with the big reveals on TV, with the tears. But have you had moments like that, where, where and how does that make you feel Like from the emotional part of what you do?
Speaker 3:I absolutely love it, especially when you do a child's bedroom. Those are kind of like one of my favorites because they have this vision in their head and you know, sometimes I'll work with them. You know teenagers or even little ones and I'll say, do you like this, do you like this color? Yeah, I want you know. Sometimes I'll work with them. You know teenagers or even little ones and I'll say, do you like this, do you like this color? Yeah, I want you know a superhero room. Or yeah, I just want like a teen hangout and to have them actually see it and see it like come to life there. I mean it's like the best feeling ever I'll never forget I had.
Speaker 3:It was triplet girls. They're one of my favorite families too, triplet girls. She's like I need to do this room. I feel like you know there's nothing on the walls. I need to really update it for them. And we actually did a reveal for them. They came home from school, from preschool, and we had the camera rolling and they walked in. They were like mama, it's beautiful. It's like one girl, girl, little girl, was crying. The other was so happy it was like big hugs to me.
Speaker 3:You know hugging me. It was just. It's such a amazing feeling and I think like, just like teaching, you get that rewarding feeling right it's the rewarding feeling after, whether it's, you know, know, a three year old or a 50 year old, it's still, you know, just making their vision come to life within budget that it is possible instead of spending, you know, thousands.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Now you say you had it on video. Do you have that on your Instagram somewhere?
Speaker 3:I think I do. I think I might have posted it on my Instagram. It was a few years ago.
Speaker 2:OK, yeah, well, let's, let's get into that. So where would people find you on Instagram?
Speaker 3:So laralarcodesigns on Instagram, I'm on Facebook and then I also have a website, laralarcodesigns. com, that they could see all of my work, see my portfolio, read some reviews of what people said to me. Sometimes I, you know, post different things that I see, different trends, mood boards that I'm working on. But if anyone is interested, they could either email me my emails on there or they could go fill out a contact form on my website and they could view all of my pictures before and afters, because everyone loves to see the before and afters exactly, and and a couple of things I also want to mention, is that, um, on your instagram I think you do have an example of design you did for a shower and bathroom, um, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:But I also one other question I forgot to ask you, so I see the before and after. Is you know, rooms being, rooms being gutted, rooms being redone? You're not actually doing the work right, you're not. So you help the homeowner choose the contractor, or do you have a team that you recommend that comes with you know that you bring in, or how does that work?
Speaker 3:So I do have some contractors that I always recommend that I've worked with in the past. I always say I never recommend somebody unless I've used them and I know how their work is. Right before our call I just got off the phone with somebody that I recommended for a bathroom and she called me to tell me how absolutely amazing they were. So it's always through work that I've done in the past. Sometimes clients will ask me do you have a handyman? The past. Sometimes, you know clients will ask me do you have a handyman? You know I do have a handyman. I can recommend them. But other times people just have their own people that they want to use, which is completely fine as well. But I do, you know, usually typically have recommendations for everybody.
Speaker 3:But sometimes I come in when they're gutting in the middle of it and they're like I didn't think I would need a decorator. Here's where I'm at, like I need help now.
Speaker 2:So and they pay those contractors directly.
Speaker 3:They don't pay you, yes, no, yeah, they pay them all directly right, right, very cool.
Speaker 2:Now this is. This is um, you know, it's nice to know there's an affordable way of making your life easier and and creating a space in your home that you know you fall in love with, and there's a lot of peace that comes with, you know, an organized room and things being, you know, aesthetically in the right place. I guess you could say whether it's feng shui or however you want to say it, yeah, and yeah, I listen you. You sold me. So, yeah, exactly. So this is fantastic. I really appreciate you joining us today.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh, we'll be you and I'll be right back after Chuck. Uh has a few words.
Speaker 3:Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you.