2023 Reflections

I feel like I say this every year, but seriously, this past year seemed to go by in a blur! The older I get, the faster time seems to fly by. We started 2023 out a little slow, and for the first time in over 10 years, I was worried. The higher interest rates, a hard-hit economy, and a big slow down in new construction had a big impact on the projects we had coming in. We started offering smaller design packages (mini-makeover packages) for clients that just needed a little “refresh”, and we began offering online virtual design services through Intro so that we could expand our services to anywhere in the world. You can click here to learn more about it.

Fortunately, by mid-summer, some wonderful new home construction projects, larger remodeling projects, and some fabulous commercial projects started coming our way! We got really busy, and our work capacity was put to the test with our lead designer, Kierstyn, out on maternity leave from September through the end of the year. We ended the year strong, having completed a record 105 projects in 2023! With 2022 having a total count of 74, maybe that’s why 2023 feels like a blur, ha ha!

PROJECT STATS

Here are the details on the types of projects we worked on (includes projects either started or completed in 2023)

• Total number of projects = 105
• 17 Bathroom remodels
• 16 Kitchen remodels
• 16 Furnishings, art and decorating only 
• 15 Smaller scale remodeling 
• 11 New Home construction/design 
• 9 LL finishing projects
• 8 Large scale remodeling (multiple rooms)
• 7 Commercial projects
• 3 VRBO properties
• 2 Home additions

This past year, we were designing Coast-to-Coast (literally!) Several of our projects were outside of the Twin City area, including:

• North Shore, MN (New construction, client’s 2^nd home)
• Sheboygan, WI (VRBO property)
• Spooner, WI (Resort/VRBO property)
• Hayward, WI (New construction, client’s 2^nd home)
• Pittsburgh, PA (Home refresh)
• Scottsdale, AZ (New construction, client’s 2^nd home)
• Boise, Idaho (commercial project)
• El Dorado Hills, CA (commercial project)
• Indian Rocks Beach, FL (Remodeling and refresh, client’s 2^nd home and VRBO)
• Sarasota, FL (Remodeling and refresh, client’s 2^nd home)
• Ft. Myers, FL (New construction, client’s 2^nd home)
• Naples, FL (Remodeling and refresh, client’s 2^nd home)
• West Palm Beach, FL (commercial project)

If you include the projects that were classified as general “remodeling”, we designed 31 kitchens, 41 bathrooms, and 23 fireplaces. We love the variety of projects we are able to work on – it is a constant inspiration to us!

memorable projects from 2023

• Hastings Hideaway – featured in the Remodeler’s Showcase
• Silver Lake
• Swanson – bathroom
• X-Golf Boise
• X-Golf Apple Valley
• MN Wild Club Level

Awards

• Midwest Home Design awards –
  First Place for Use of Color for our Rivertown Remodel Project
  Third Place for Restaurant/Bar for our X-Golf American Family Field Project
• NARI CoTY awards with Custom One Renovation
  First Place for Best Residential Interior Project over $500,000 for our Hastings Hideaway Project

Press/Publications

• Good Housekeeping featured our Forest Lake remodel bathroom
• Woodbury magazine – Cover and project feature of our Rivertown Remodel
• St. Croix Valley magazine – Project feature of our Modern Hilltop new home
• Midwest Home magazine – Cover and project feature of our Skyline Spectacular condo
• MSP Home magazine – Project feature of our Rivertown Remodel
• We also had multiple online features that you can see here.

Social Media

Reflecting on a spectacular year in the world of Instagram! Reels took center stage, stealing the show with their captivating charm. Our top liked reel? A jaw-dropping Hastings Hideaway project reveal that left our audience in awe! But that’s not all – the other two in the top 3 were fun and fascinating facts about Interior Designers, promising more insightful content in 2024!

With over 14k likes throughout the year and almost 5k comments, we’re beyond grateful for each and every one. Our community continues to grow, with over 20k viewers per month on our posts. Your likes, comments, and shares are the continue to gain us new projects, and we can’t thank you enough for being a part of our incredible journey!

Our Interior Impressions family

2023 brought a few changes. Karah Eisenshenck, our Marketing Director, left at the end of 2022 to pursue a personal opportunity and was replaced by Megan Koren. Also, one of our designers, Maia Kline, decided to stay home and be a full-time mommy (who can blame her?)

Amy, our Founder, kept on her toes all year not just with a heavy workload, but also lots of travel. Personal home projects are always keeping things lively as well. Her travels this past year included Costa Rica, California, Cabo San Lucas, Sarasota Florida, Indian Rocks Beach FL, High Point NC, and most notably – Croatia. The trip to Croatia was a once-in-a-lifetime dream vacation! In her free time, Amy enjoys playing pickleball twice a week, reading, boating in the summertime, and spending lots of time with her family – especially her 3 year-old granddaughter Millie. She is excited for the upcoming arrival of her 2nd granddaughter this month! A sad ending to 2023 was losing her beloved 13 year-old Maltese dog, Jolie, who is missed terribly.

Kierstyn, our Lead Interior Designer, spent time renovating her home (see her bathroom reveal here), and most notably, welcomed her first child, Grayson, into the world! Kierstyn and her husband love camping with their camper in the summertime and playing league volleyball.

Haley, our Interior Designer, attended a record number of 13 weddings and 4 baby showers this past year! When she’s not attending a wedding or baby shower, she enjoys playing league volleyball year-round. Haley also lost her 15 year old Yorkie, Duke, this year. We have 2 more team members with old dogs, so we have formed an unofficial support group here 😊

Danielle, our Business Manager, has been busy juggling all of our furniture orders and selling Hunter Douglas window coverings for our Woodbury Blinds company. In her spare time, she is a competitive bags (cornhole) player. Danielle and her family bought a camper this past year and had a great inaugural camping season. They are looking forward to visiting lots of interesting parks this coming summer and beyond.

Andrea, our Showroom Manager, gets the award for most-traveled this past year. She had 8 trips in 2023. She is enjoying the (almost) empty-nester lifestyle. She loves playing golf in the summertime and snowshoeing in the winter. She is a fabulous cook and we love it when it’s her turn on our Monday soup days!

Megan, our Marketing Director, brings a lot of fun and laughter into our studio, especially when she tries to convince us to film silly videos for social media! She keeps busy with her 4 kids who have lots of sports activities, and plays pickleball for fun. She is fortunate enough to actually have a pickleball court in her yard!

Denise, our accountant, keeps our books and finances in order, as she has since for over 10 years now. In her spare time, Denise loves reading and hiking. She and her husband went on an amazing trip to Iceland in June! 

We are excited for 2024 and can already tell that it’s going to be a wonderful year! We are looking forward to some exciting projects that we have already begun. We will be traveling to Scottsdale, Fort Myers, and Naples for client projects, as well as West Palm Beach, FL for our newest X-Golf location! We are really loving the remote projects, especially vacation homes. We hope to do more and more of these in the coming years.
We are working on some incredible new homes. One is on White Bear Lake, one is on Lake Jane, and one is in a newer development in Mahtomedi. We have several fun remodeling projects on the books. We also have some exciting commercial projects – an indoor private golf lounge social club in California, and the River Centre convention center in St. Paul!

We hope that this year brings you all good health, lots of love and laughter, a warm & cozy home, and many special memories that you will cherish for years to come.

XO,

Amy & The Interior Impressions Team

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