Lori Malloy | Decorating Den Interiors

“You can make a beautiful room, but you need to make a beautiful room that lives well, that fits the client’s lifestyle.” These words from Lori Malloy perfectly sum up her approach to interior design. Lori Malloy is the owner of Decorating Den Interiors in Bismarck. She opened the business five years ago after working with a designer on her own home remodel. She explains, “The customer service was just not up to par. I was disappointed a lot. My husband was like, why aren’t we doing this ourselves?” The idea of doing this herself appealed to Lori who has been involved in design in one way or another for most of her life. Her husband’s nudge was all she needed, and she decided to buy the franchise and move forward with growing her own design business.

Decorating Den Interiors is different than most interior design businesses because there is no physical location, no employees beyond Lori, and because of this, really no overhead. With this advantage, Lori is able to offer lower, more competitive prices. The décor, furniture, flooring, and other materials she uses she buys from over 150 different suppliers, so she can find her clients just about anything they want.

From the moment she bought Decorating Den Interiors, Lori has focused on customer service, and this project she did for homeowner Jane has been no different. “Lori has been great to work with,” says homeowner Jane. “Even at night I can be paging through a magazine, and I can text her. She might not elaborate, but she’ll aways text back. For me, communication is key… She’s really great about that. And when you ask for something, she’s on it right away. She doesn’t wait for a week. And she brings lots of samples, so you have a lot to choose from and if you don’t get it right the first time, she does it again. It’s been really fun. I’ve enjoyed it a lot.”

The focus of this project for Jane was livability. With two grandchildren who live down the street, Jane’s furniture can become dirty fast, but she did not want to sacrifice time with them for a cleaner bedroom. So, Lori helped her create a bedroom space that was easily cleanable. All the fabrics are washable, and everything zips off, so it can be easily thrown in the wash. The fabric itself is high-performance, so liquids will bead off it instead of soaking in and stains come out without an issue. Everything in the master bedroom is beautiful and practical. “That’s how it should be,” Lori says. “You should be able to live on your furniture.” Lori is a master at creating beautiful spaces that are made for a person’s specific lifestyle, and this home exemplifies this. As Lori put it, this home “photographs well, but it’s going to live well with Jane.”