Decorist:
The first interior design platform
The easiest way to design a beautiful home. Professional online interior design for your home, always for a low flat fee.
company
Decorist (startup)
role
Founding creative lead ·. Product designer · Development manager · Marketing designer
deliverables
Platform UX/UI photo shoot art direction · Social media and email campaign strategy · Execution
outcome
Bought by Bed Bath & Beyond
My roles: product designer, art director, development manager
As the product design lead, I was responsible for the complete user experience — from initial customer UX and CX research through platform launch and iteration. I owned the end-to-end design process while collaborating closely with our co-founders and managing distributed development teams.
As we gained momentum, I also art directed photo shoots for site and marketing content. All of these required continually balancing user needs, business goals, and technical constraints while building and scaling a platform from concept to acquisition.
How Decorist works: the customer journey (CX)
We developed a three-step process that balanced ease-of-use with design quality, ensuring customers felt supported throughout their journey while designers had the information they needed to create exceptional work.
Pick a date and time
The platform matched customers with designers across three experience levels — Classic, Elite, and Celebrity — with pricing varying by designer level. This tiered approach made professional design accessible at multiple price points while showcasing designer talent and expertise.
Pick a designer
Shop and decorate
Design process
Compelling design transformations as seen in the before-and-after images below demonstrated the platform’s value and built customer confidence in the remote design process.
Before
Design
After
Customer reviews: proving the model works
Celebrity endorsements!
4.9 stars by 3000 customers
“Nailed it! When I saw these magical 3D renderings of my space, I sort of lost my mind... during this entire process I’ve really trusted Jessica to create an amazing space... Jessica (and Decorist) really nailed it with the materials and balance of light and dark for my space. I cannot wait to begin working on this room!”
— Joanna H.
“Can’t wait to use it again Decorist was the best decision I made while redecorating my room. Hiring an interior designer was completely out of the question for me... For $299, I was able to get paired with a super talented designer named Amanda Foster. The final concept was exactly the unique, eclectic style I envisioned.”
— Elena O.
“Great service! We were a challenge in that we have no clue as to what we wanted, liked or examples of inspiration. After one designer was pulled off of the project, likely because we were so challenging, the Decorist team came up with a new designer, Amanda Foster. She was beyond patient with us and came up with such great ideas.”
— Barbara P. 
Success: from startup to acquisition
Winner of Architectural Digest’s Innovation of the Year award
Featured in Vogue, Dwell, Architectural Digest, HGTV, PopSugar
Acquired by Bed Bath & Beyond in 2 years
Key learnings: building products that scale
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Testing the MVP with target users before full development revealed critical insights about customer expectations, designer needs, and platform usability. This investment in research saved months of post-launch iteration and ensured we built the right product from the start.
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Coordinating two 24/7 development teams across Iran and San Francisco taught me that successful remote collaboration requires crystal-clear product specifications, consistent communication rhythms, and cultural sensitivity. The product vision had to be so well-articulated that developers in different time zones could work independently while staying aligned.
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Designing for both customers and designers meant every feature needed to serve dual purposes. The questionnaire had to be easy for customers while providing designers with sufficient information. The review process had to feel empowering to customers while being efficient for designers. Balancing these competing needs required constant iteration and feedback from both sides.
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Getting people to pay for design services from someone they'd never met, for a room transformation they couldn't fully visualize, required building trust at every touchpoint. Designer portfolios, customer testimonials, before-and-after showcases, and the tiered pricing model all worked together to build confidence in the platform and process.
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The customer journey included the questionnaire, designer matching, collaboration tools, visualization, and shopping experience. Success required designing the entire service ecosystem—not just making screens look good. This holistic approach to product design is what created a genuinely differentiated experience.
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Winning Architectural Digest's "Innovation of the Year" award wasn't just prestigious—it validated that we'd actually changed how interior design worked. This recognition opened doors, attracted customers and designers, and ultimately contributed to the acquisition by Bed Bath & Beyond.
Most importantly, this experience taught me that successful digital products don't replace human expertise—they amplify it. The best technology makes talented people more accessible, more efficient, and more impactful. That principle has guided my approach to experience design ever since.
The Outcome
We sold Decorist to Bed Bath & Beyond