Full Service · Vermont · 2024
Vermont A-Frame
A weekend house that had been holding its breath.
View project →Interior Design in New England
Interior Design Across New England
Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine — we travel for the right project.
Curio Studio Interiors is a Hudson Valley and Berkshires studio that travels for the right New England project. From our base in Kerhonkson, NY, we have worked on Vermont farmhouses, Connecticut colonials, and coastal residences in Rhode Island and Maine. New England is travel work, premium scope — not the studio's center of gravity, and we are honest about that.
New England is a region with a distinct material culture and a deep design tradition. Its homes carry history in their bones — the wide-plank floors, the low beams, the proportions that predate central heating and had to earn their warmth through design rather than technology. Working in New England means understanding that tradition well enough to know when to honor it and when to depart from it. We've designed in Vermont farmhouses, Connecticut colonials, and coastal properties in Rhode Island and Maine. If the project is right, we travel.
New England light is a particular education. Vermont winter light off the Green Mountains, the long coastal evenings at Watch Hill, the cold-honest mornings on the midcoast of Maine — each carries its own argument for how a house should be designed. The houses that work here are the houses that respond to the specificity of where they actually sit, not to a flattened "New England" idea sold in catalogs. We design for wide-plank floors that breathe with a Vermont winter. For shingle-style envelopes that hold a Rhode Island salt wind. For the proportions of a low-beamed Connecticut colonial that predate central heating and had to earn their warmth through design. Materiality, here, is regional history made readable.
What we know about New England homes is that the regional vocabulary is wider than the brochure version allows. A Vermont farmhouse outside Manchester or Woodstock is not the same project as a Burlington-area contemporary; a Litchfield County colonial is not the same project as a Fairfield County coastal; a Rhode Island shingle-style at Watch Hill is not the same project as a midcoast Maine cape outside Camden. The honest move is to treat the particular house on the terms of its particular site rather than apply a regional costume. The grammar shifts by state and by sub-region — and the design conversation shifts with it.
We work New England as a list of sub-regions, not states. In Vermont: Manchester, Woodstock, and the Burlington area, with regular cross-border conversation into the Berkshire County, VT line. In Connecticut: Litchfield County in the northwest and the Fairfield County coastal corridor. In Rhode Island: Newport and the Watch Hill coastal projects. In Maine: Portland, Kennebunkport, Camden, and the midcoast. The studio is not based in any of these places — we are based in Kerhonkson, NY — and we are honest with clients about what travel means for a project, before the first invoice rather than after.
Our trade network in New England is selective and earned. We do not pretend to hold the deep, day-by-day local trade relationships in every sub-region that we hold across the Hudson Valley and Berkshires. What we do hold is a real regional design practice, a set of trusted craftspeople we have worked with on past New England projects, and the willingness to coordinate honestly with the architect, builder, and local trades a client has already in conversation. For the right project — full home, full renovation, new construction interiors — that combination of design rigor and humble local coordination has, over the years, made the drive from Kerhonkson worth it. For a single room, it almost never does.
We serve clients throughout New England for projects that warrant the scope. Inquire to discuss your specific location.
How a project unfolds
The shape of the work.
Drive time and scope
Kerhonkson is not in New England — and we are honest about that. Litchfield County, CT is roughly two hours from the studio; southern Vermont through Manchester and Woodstock is two and a half to three; Newport and Watch Hill in Rhode Island are three and a half to four; the Maine midcoast and Kennebunkport are five to six. We plan trips around real time on the property, often combined with Berkshires work on the way. The scope that makes the drive make sense is broader than a single room: full home, full renovation, new construction interiors, or a furnishings engagement on a primary or significant second residence. We turn down work where the scope cannot honestly carry the travel.
How we work in this region
Every New England project begins with an honest first conversation about whether the scope warrants the drive. If it does, the work moves the way our Hudson Valley and Berkshires projects move — a slow walk through the house in the light it actually lives in, an early meeting with the local architect and contractor, specifications layered in: envelope, structure, materiality, light, and then the moveable life of the rooms. We hold the design intent. We coordinate openly with the local trades the client has already in conversation. Decisions land in writing. The cadence is steady.
Recent project descriptors
A Vermont farmhouse near Manchester, rethought as a year-round home — new envelope, locally-milled white oak, a quieter palette than the regional default, materials chosen for how they read against a winter sky off the Green Mountains. A Rhode Island coastal residence in the shingle-style tradition, designed for a family that splits time between New York and the coast — where the design question was how to honor the regional grammar without flattening it. Both took longer than the clients first imagined. Both came out, in their words, like the house they had always meant to be.
Common questions
New England questions.
How much does interior design cost in New England?
Curio prices its New England work the same way it prices everywhere else — transparently, scoped to the home. Consulting is $150 per hour, principal-led. Procurement engagements start at $25,000 in design fees. Full Service residential projects begin at $50,000, with furnishings, construction, and specialty trades budgeted separately. Travel costs for projects outside the Hudson Valley and Berkshires regional radius are itemized in the proposal and discussed openly before the work begins. For industry context, the ASID 2024 Compensation & Benefits Report (https://www.asid.org/resources/research) places median residential designer billing at $150 per hour nationally — New England work tracks at or slightly above that because of the travel and the historic stock. We price in writing, in a defined scope, before any work begins.
What is the typical timeline for a New England project?
A full renovation or new-build project in New England typically runs twelve to twenty-four months from first conversation to install. Site visits are clustered into multi-day trips rather than a quick stop, which shapes the rhythm. Design and procurement run through the year in parallel; on-site construction tracks the local builder schedule and the regional build season — which in Vermont and Maine means working around winter and mud season. We are honest about timing from the first call. The drive does not get shorter, so we plan around it rather than against it.
Do you work with my architect or general contractor?
Yes — and on New England projects we genuinely rely on it. The strongest projects this far from the studio come out of a real conversation between the local architect, the local builder, and our studio from the earliest sketch. We hold the design intent and the materials rigor; the local team brings the trade relationships, the permitting knowledge, and the day-by-day on-site coordination. We coordinate openly, share drawings openly, and stay in the conversation through punch list.
Do you work on weekend homes or primary residences?
Both. A meaningful share of our New England work is second-home or seasonal — the Watch Hill house, the Vermont farmhouse used heavily on weekends, the Camden midcoast cottage. Primary residences in New England show up more in Litchfield, Fairfield, and the Burlington area. The architectural respect is the same. The textile and storage logic shifts. We design for how the house is actually lived in, not the brochure version.
What style suits a New England home?
It depends on the sub-region and the particular house. A Vermont farmhouse wants honest joinery and locally-milled timber. A Connecticut colonial wants a vocabulary that respects its proportions — plaster, millwork, depth of color, generous restraint. A Rhode Island shingle-style wants to engage the salt air and the long coastal light. A Maine midcoast cape wants restraint and real materials. There is no single New England style, and the flattened catalog version is rarely what the particular house is asking for.
We are in Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, or Rhode Island — would Curio actually take this project?
Honest answer: yes, if the scope warrants the travel. We are a Hudson Valley and Berkshires studio that travels for the right project, and a meaningful share of our work happens across New England. The scope that makes the drive make sense is broader than a single room — full home, full renovation, new construction interiors, or a serious furnishings engagement on a primary or significant second residence. The first conversation is the place to decide whether the project is the right fit for us, geographically and otherwise. We turn down work where the scope cannot honestly carry the travel, and we say so directly rather than over-promise.
What kind of New England project makes the drive from Kerhonkson make sense?
Full home, full renovation, new construction interiors, or a serious furnishings engagement. The work that makes the drive worth it is the work that asks for a coherent point of view applied across the whole house, over a long enough arc that the studio can be genuinely present for the moments that matter — the early walk-through, the architect meeting, the materials review, the install. A single room almost never carries that. A second-home build that the family will live in for thirty years almost always does.
How We Work
Find your path.
Full Service
You're not managing this — we are. From first concept to final installation: every vendor conversation, every site visit, every decision that needs making. You show up for the moments that matter. We carry the rest. Projects starting from $50,000.
Full Home or Per RoomSee what's included →
Procurement
The bones are good. What's missing is the layer that makes it yours — furniture, textiles, lighting, the objects you actually live with. We source, specify, and coordinate the whole furnishing. You don't place a single order. Projects starting from $25,000.
Full Home or Per RoomSee what's included →
Spec Book
The full design plan, in your hands — every finish, every fixture, every spec, drawn clearly enough that your contractor can build it without us in the room. You handle the ordering. We handle the thinking. $1 per square foot, $500 minimum per room.
Full Home or Per RoomSee what's included →
Guidebook
A clear direction for every room — paint, materials, furniture references, how the space wants to be arranged. You source it yourself, on your own time. We hand you a plan worth following. $1 per square foot, $500 minimum per room.
Per RoomSee what's included →
Consulting
An hour with Savannah. Bring your floor plans, your samples, your questions — and your uncertainty. We work through it together. $150 per hour.
HourlySee what's included →
Meet your designer
Savannah is a Hudson Valley and Berkshires designer who travels for the right New England project — not a New England designer who lives elsewhere. That distinction matters. The work she does in Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine is built on the same regional rigor she brings to her home territory, with honest coordination with the local trades and the willingness to plan around the drive rather than pretend it does not exist.
CEO & Principal Designer
Savannah Dodge
Savannah Dodge is the Chief Executive Officer and Principal Designer of Curio Studio. She earned her BFA in Interior Design from the New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University and brings over a decade of experience designing thoughtful, layered homes. Her work spans full-service residential projects, renovations, investment properties, and country homes throughout the Hudson Valley and New England. Originally from the Berkshires, Savannah maintains a deep connection to the cultural and natural landscape of the Northeast, along with a strong regional network of architects, craftspeople, and trades. She leads every stage of the design process, from initial concept and construction documentation to FF&E selection, procurement, and final installation.
At the heart of Savannah's work is the belief that great design restores the relationship between people, place, and planet. She approaches each project as a living ecosystem, considering how architecture, interiors, and landscape work together to shape the experience of home. Drawing on color theory, restoration, and principles of human ecology, she creates spaces that transform the energy of a home to support the people who live within it. For Savannah, sustainability is not a trend or aesthetic but a foundation for thoughtful, enduring design that allows a home to feel both deeply personal and connected to its surroundings.
Also serving
Other regions.
Hudson Valley
Rooted in the landscape. Designed for how you live here.
Berkshires
Where the landscape sets the brief.
Saratoga Springs
Historic character. Contemporary living.
Catskills
The mountains, designed with intention.
Capital Region
Albany, Troy, Schenectady — designed for real life.
Lake Placid
Mountain homes that earn their setting.
Western Massachusetts
Pioneer Valley and beyond.
Working on something in New England?