nicola, founder & lead designer
Nicola is a Cape Town-born Interior designer who has spent the last 4.5 years working in London. She has had the pleasure of working for some of the top names in the design industry, including spending just under two years on the in-house design team for Soho House. Her project experience includes residential, commercial and hospitality projects throughout the UK and Europe. Her favourite part of any project is sourcing unique vintage pieces to bring a timeless personality to the space.
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"Studio Nova has been a dream of mine for many years. We strive to design spaces with eclectic personality and nuanced attention to detail that feel liveable and unique to our clients. We endeavour to keep sustainability in mind throughout the design process through materiality, reimagining pre-loved vintage pieces and designing for longevity and adaptability of spaces." - Nicola
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" Nicola is one of the hardest working people in the industry and is extremely diligent, passionate and dedicated; she constantly goes above and beyond on every project she works on. Nothing phases her and every challenge is addressed head on, consistently exceeding expectations in delivering what is required. "
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Rachel Carr
FFE Procurement Director
Soho House
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Our Design Process
Studio Nova is a boutique design studio specialising in residential and hospitality projects. Our services can be tailored to fit your needs and your budget with our flexible design packages and process. We can accompany you on as much of your design journey as you need us to, as well as assist remotely on a consultancy basis if you'd like to run with most of the project yourselves.
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We offer three typical design packages, all of which are customisable to each project's requirements:
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FUNDAMENTALS DESIGN PACKAGE
Our fundamentals package is our version of the interior designer starter pack. We will give you the initial concept guidance and sketch-level floorplan proposals to kick-start your design journey. If you are looking for some help with initial ideas and spatial planning but ultimately want to run with the project yourself, this is the package for you.
*This package does not include any site-visits and is mostly performed remotely, aside from one kick-off meeting with the client.
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MID-RANGE DESIGN PACKAGE
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Our mid-range package offers a slightly more involved design process. This package includes a kick-off site visit to your property to walk through your space with you and hear your ideas before we launch into the concept phase. We will produce a more detailed concept presentation with individual room proposals, as well as an itemised FF&E estimate schedule listing each item you will need for each room and giving you a holistic estimate of overall FF&E costs. Furthermore, we will produce a detailed scope of works document for you to bid out to contractors. This package essentially gives you the concept, the shopping list and the contractor scope of works to run with the project yourselves.
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FULL DESIGN PACKAGE
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Our full design package is our most comprehensive package. We will take you through the entire design journey from initial concept through to installation and styling. This package includes:
- Multiple site visits (qty TBC on project requirements)
- A detailed concept stage that includes design direction for any custom joinery, furniture and lighting
- A project feasibility stage that help you get holistic project costs early on in the process to help you make the most of your budget
- A full technical package of floorplans, elevations and joinery drawings (TBC depending on project requirements)
- Architectural specification schedules (finishes, sanitaryware and ironmongery) and fully sourced FF&E specification schedules (furniture, lighting, accessories and window treatments) with product links for purchasing
- Onsite project installation and styling
- An agreed amount of third party contractor liaison
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PROCUREMENT
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No matter which of our design packages you choose, Studio Nova offers a procurement service that is designed to take the hassle of purchasing and delivery logistics off your shoulders. We will charge a small fee to cover our time spent negotiating trade prices, purchasing your FF&E, organising delivery and checking product quality on arrival.
