Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Manera. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Emily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Some of our best positives in life have been from taking risks, both personally and business wise. Our biggest one to date, was when we moved to a completely different market and transitioned to making our business a full-time thing. We saw an abundance of opportunity for our industry in the Joshua Tree desert and were ready to move on from LA/Orange County, so we made the leap and called it our new home! At the same time, we were also building a multi-family property that we could reside in and rent out for some income while we got things going. It was a lot of change at one time and we both let go of our consistent income. However, it didn’t take long until we were making connections in our new community and were able to really start expanding our brand and portfolio!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi Everyone! We’re Emily & Vince, the duo behind Studio Collab, a design-build company. We both grew up on the east coast but have been living on the west coast for the last ten years. For me, I don’t know exactly what sparked my love for designing interior spaces, but I do know that I had an early interest in making things and being creative. My dad (a civil engineer) helped me find the right direction for my creativity and interiors felt like the right fit. As for Vince, he grew up in a construction family and pretty much learned how to use tools when he learned to walk. He’s also extremely creative and influences our design practice in very clever and inspiring ways!

We both went to design school in Philadelphia, had our very first design class together, and always seemed to collaborate well together! After school we moved to LA to build our careers. It really all started back in 2016 when we landed our first side project. We’re most proud of a couple things: the fact that we’ve built a strong brand in a short amount of time, and that we built our first home by hand – we did 95% of the construction ourselves, a new build, over the course of a year and a half.

Our studio offers full design and construction management services, from start to finish, for residential, commercial and hospitality projects. In a nutshell, some of the things we help our clients with is determining the full potential of their property, curate a high-level guest experience, address challenges to the function of their home or business and bring joy to how they experience everyday life! Favorite types of projects include custom new builds, small scale hospitality and retail spaces, and vacation rental homes. Our service is different than what others provide because our process is rooted in an architectural foundation with a deep understanding and consideration for the construction process and building systems. We offer a streamlined design-build service to our clients that thrives on an efficient and cohesive experience, with a unique design perspective and master-planning approach.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Our entrepreneurial journey started with a colleague who needed help with a high-end landscape design-build for their LA home. One conversation led to another, and we were ready for the challenge, so we agreed to make it happen. After we completed that project, we were getting requests from neighbors to help renovate their yards. We took on a few more projects in the area but had to turn down a bunch because we just didn’t have enough time and energy. At the time, we were doing the labor and build-out on these renovations in addition to the design, so it was very time consuming and exhausting. We were really excited that we already had a demand for our work, so we started to think about how we could transition to a full-time business and what moves we’d have to make in order to get to that point.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For our industry, a lot of these projects are long-term endeavors with a lot of decisions and challenges. Our favorite part is being able to see these spaces transform and experience the design we created. It’s a great reminder that all the effort and patience it takes to see a project through is really worth it. We also find it rewarding to work with as many artists and creatives as possible on projects. We’ve always had a deep belief of collaboration, hence our business name Studio Collab, and strive to find ways to incorporate other makers, whether it’s contributing to a project in terms of services or goods, but also as clientele. Some of our favorite projects have been for fellow creatives!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.studio-collab.com
• Instagram: @studio__collab
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studio.collab.ca/
• Other: Houzz: https://www.houzz.com/professionals/interior-designers-and-decorators/studio-collab-pfvwus-pf~1765993927

Image Credits

Image 1 & 2 are from Stephan Paul, image 8 is from Mikeal Beland, image 10 is from Mojave Exposure.