Frequently Asked Questions

If you want one continuous design vision from the architecture through interiors, furnishings, and move-in, Full Custom Home is our most comprehensive service.

Architecture services can be engaged independently when you already have an interior designer or want to assemble your own project team. Interior design is available for new homes and renovations where the architecture is already established. Furnishing services complete an existing or newly designed home through furniture, textiles, art, and styling. Pre-Designed Homes offer an alternative for clients who connect with our architectural point of view but do not need a fully custom commission.

Not sure where your project fits? Begin with a consultation. We can help determine the right scope from there.

No. Alexandra Marie Studio is an architecture and design practice rather than a general contractor.

When it is time to build, we can help guide the selection of the best contractor for the project and remain closely involved throughout construction, coordinating with the builder and project team to help carry the design intent through completion.

Our Pre-Designed Homes are architect-designed house plans created as a considered alternative to beginning entirely from scratch.

Each design carries the studio's architectural point of view, thoughtful space planning, and attention to how a home is experienced, while offering a more defined starting point for design, timeline, and investment than a fully custom commission.

Absolutely! If you would like to modify a pre-designed home to adapt to your site, HOA, or any environmental contexts, please fill out an inquiry form.

Absolutely! We find that 3D visualization is integral in the design process (and happens to be very fun).

Renderings allow clients to understand scale, proportion, material relationships, lighting, and architectural decisions before they are built. They also create a shared visual language between the client, architect, interior designer, and builder, making decisions easier to understand and communicate.

We are drawn to homes with a singular point of view: modern without feeling cold, restrained without feeling empty, and expressive without relying on excess.

Our work explores sculptural form, natural light, honest materials, rich texture, considered color, and moments of play. Rather than beginning with a prescribed style, we look to the site, the people who will inhabit it, and the rituals of their everyday lives to shape a home that feels distinctly their own.

Alexandra Marie Studio primarily provides residential architecture and interior design services in California and Texas. Interior design, furnishing, visualization, and select consulting services may also be available for projects outside those areas.

Contact the studio with your project location and scope, and we can determine the appropriate way to work together.

Yes. Our Full Custom Home service was created for clients who want one continuous design vision from the earliest architectural decisions through move-in.

Architecture and interiors are developed together rather than sequentially, allowing the proportions of a room, cabinetry, stone, lighting, plumbing fixtures, finishes, furnishings, and art to relate to the larger architectural idea.

Absolutely. Have an interior designer you love? We are eager to collaborate.

While many clients choose our integrated architecture and interiors service, we're equally happy to work alongside your interior designer to ensure a unified vision from the earliest stages of design.

Yes. If you already have a builder you trust, we are happy to collaborate with them.

Early communication between architect and contractor can be particularly valuable, allowing questions of construction, detailing, schedule, and budget to inform the project while the design is still being developed.

Yes. Our Interiors service can be engaged independently for new homes, renovations, and remodels.

We can collaborate with another architect, builder, or existing project team to develop the interior architecture, including space planning, custom millwork, kitchens and baths, lighting, fixtures, finishes, and 3D visualization.

Yes. Our architecture and interior design services are available for substantial renovations, additions, and transformations of existing homes.

Existing homes often present a different kind of design opportunity: determining what deserves to remain, what is limiting the way the home functions, and where a carefully considered intervention can fundamentally change how it is experienced.

Yes. We can help guide contractor selection based on the location, scope, complexity, and character of the project.

When appropriate, we can also coordinate with prospective builders during the design process so that constructability, budget, and architectural intent can be discussed before anybody ever swings a hammer.

Yes. Our involvement does not have to end when the construction drawings are complete.

Construction support can include answering builder questions, reviewing submittals and shop drawings where applicable, visiting the project, reviewing design-related decisions, and coordinating with the contractor and consultants as the home takes shape.

The goal is continuity between what was designed and what ultimately gets built.

Architectural fees vary based on the size, complexity, location, scope of services, and level of involvement required.

Some clients engage us for architecture alone, while others choose an integrated scope encompassing architecture, interiors, construction support, furnishing, and styling. After an initial conversation about your project, we can recommend the appropriate scope and provide a clear fee proposal.

Construction costs vary substantially based on location, square footage, site conditions, structural complexity, material selections, level of customization, and market conditions at the time of construction.

Rather than designing independently of the budget, we believe the investment should be part of the conversation from the beginning. Your contractor and project team ultimately provide construction pricing, while we use the established budget to help guide design decisions and priorities.

The timeline varies considerably based on the size and complexity of the home, property conditions, permitting jurisdiction, consultant coordination, contractor availability, and construction method.

Rather than treating design, permitting, and construction as isolated events, we establish the anticipated project sequence early so clients understand what happens next and where major decisions will occur.

An architect considers the home as a whole: how it sits on the land, how rooms relate to one another, how natural light moves through the space, how the exterior and interior connect, and ultimately how those ideas can be documented and built.

Our role extends from early design and space planning through permitting, construction documents, builder coordination, and construction support. Depending on the scope of your project, we can also carry that vision through interior architecture, finishes, fixtures, furnishings, and styling.

Architecture generally addresses the structure, organization, exterior, permitting, and construction documentation of the home. Interior design focuses more closely on the experience within it.

At Alexandra Marie Studio, those disciplines overlap intentionally. Our interior design services include space planning, kitchens and baths, custom millwork, lighting, fixtures, finishes, and other permanent elements of the home.

Clients may engage us for architecture, interiors, or both.

We think of Interiors as the permanent layer of the home and Furnishing as the layer that makes it distinctly yours.

Interior design can include kitchens, bathrooms, cabinetry, millwork, stone, tile, flooring, lighting, plumbing fixtures, hardware, and other elements incorporated into construction.

Furnishing begins with the pieces that inhabit those spaces: furniture, textiles, window treatments, art, installation, and styling.

Clients can engage us for either service or carry the same design vision through both.

If you are building a one-of-a-kind home, involving an architect early allows decisions about the site, floor plan, exterior, interiors, budget, and construction to be considered together rather than solved independently later.

An architect also translates the design into a comprehensive set of drawings that can be coordinated with consultants, submitted for permitting, priced by contractors, and used to construct the home.

That was the long answer. The short answer is 100% YES!

The best time to hire an architect is ideally, before major decisions about the project have been made. AKA as soon as possible.

For a new custom home, we can become involved while you are evaluating land or as soon as you have secured a property. For a renovation or addition, bringing us in before establishing the construction scope allows us to evaluate the existing home and identify opportunities that may not be apparent at first.

The earlier architecture, budget, site constraints, and project goals can be considered together, the more intentional the process can be.