Lori Morris Design, based in Toronto, Canada, stands as a globally recognized leader in luxury residential and commercial interior design. Under the masterful leadership of Lori Morris, the firm has cultivated an illustrious reputation for unparalleled craftsmanship and extraordinary attention to detail. Their ethos revolves around the creation of opulent interiors that encapsulate each client’s distinctive vision and lifestyle, all while adhering to a meticulously streamlined process for every project.

Lori is a “no rules” artist who parlays a unique and unyielding take on sumptuous interior design, with a sexy, distinctive edge. A creative tour-de-force that embraces a forward-thinking philosophy delivering original designs and an unparalleled luxury experience for their clients. Lori Morris challenges the boundaries of traditional design firms. Transforming the ultimate design dreams into a fully finished space, the LMD process creates a truly original work of art. Every Lori Morris creation is an original painting, a vision that transcends mainstream rules of interior design resulting in a style with a sophisticated, avant-garde edge and a finely tuned approach. This award-winning design studio is distinguished by a world-class in-house team of designers, decorators,
project managers, and support staff, each contributing to their legacy of excellence.

1. Could you tell us how your journey into interior design started?

I’ve always been a creative person. I’ve always looked through the lens of life from a very creative approach but I didn’t actually know what that was when I was young because it just seemed very normal to me. Whether it be loving to doodle or to redecorate my room with my mother or be interested in vintage things and things that maybe other people weren’t interested in, I took that for granted that everybody would be interested in it too because this is how my brain worked.  As I traveled through school and was taking all kinds of different classes that had nothing to do with the artistic, creative flair of what was in my DNA, finally, after graduating from university, I  realized, I wanted to create a career.  

I started in the industry when I was very young, and I looked very young. I was very naive and I  had no business experience, and I didn’t understand business, or the interior design industry or  anything for that matter.  At that time there was no HGTV or social media and the interior design movement and  industry was very small and very specialized so getting in it as a woman over 40 years ago was  something pioneer orientated, and I guess I was very fearless, and I didn’t really realize how  fearless I was.  I think the best thing was that I was so young and so naïve, I think if I would have known what I  know now maybe I wouldn’t have done it because I would have been scared. But having no fear at that time is what got me to where I went, and I literally just went through the whole process of screaming and crying and being upset and trying to get through milestones and every hurdle that an entrepreneur business person goes through. My journey was no different than anybody else’s, it was extremely hard, extremely challenging but then at every 10 year mark in my career I got to a different milestone that sent me to another place and got me to another level.  And here we are.

2. Do you think there has been a defining moment in your career?

I think there has been many defining moments in my career. I’ve been doing this for almost 40  years so you can’t exactly pinpoint one element. I would say that there would be many  milestones or pivotal points throughout my career that has helped shape who we are today. Whether it be getting to a certain level of house or level of client or size of a project that you’re  designing, or just getting your reputation and your brand globally recognized. 

But I think what mostly it could be is that the recognition and the understanding that I’ve  always been true for our design, and I’ve always been true for our originality, and I’ve always  been true to being extremely creative and taking an artistic no rules approach to what it is that  I do. I think the commitment to that philosophy has made my brand very strong and has  allowed people to understand that there’s a very large bandwidth to which Lori Morris Design  can do.

3. What do you think is the key to a successful interior design? And in your business in general?

The most important thing is you have to listen to your clients. I mean, in the end it’s their  house, and they’re living there with their family in the manner of the lifestyle that they choose  to live, and you have to recognize all of those details, because that in itself is what you’re  designing. Some people may get caught up on what they may want it to look like or feel or may  have a different agenda, but for us, we’ve always taken the approach that it’s your house. How  many kids do you have? How do you live? What’s the functionality? What is the end game that  you want to do there? and we’ll work backwards and go from there. I think that is extremely  important. 

We meet the client first, and usually the client has a vision of what they want their home or  their commercial space to look like. That is the most important thing, to find out exactly what  your client wants because, in essence, it’s their project that you are going to facilitate. 

On occasion a client may not know what they want, then you help them get to that by showing  them all kinds of things and eliminating. Once you establish what the client wants and how  they live in the functionality of the space, then we just go to town, and we’re experts in that.

5. How would you define your signature style? Do you have “a mantra” that encapsulates your taste in design?

No rules and anything you can dream up that you can build and design. 

6.  Could you tell us about one of the favorite projects that you worked on?

There are too many favorite projects, and I wouldn’t single them out because every project has  an element, a room, a style, a piece of the project that is my favorite, so if you come see my  house, it’s a piece of everybody’s project, my favorite parts of everybody’s house.

7. What are your 3 favorite pieces from the Philia Collection?

8. What would be your advice to beginner interior designers?

Just understanding what it is that you are doing, don’t pretend you know something that you  don’t. Ask for help, ask for advice. Always be honest, always be fair.  I’m an extremely honest, fair person, and I think I’ve always run my company this way which  I’m sure guided and helped me grow.  Be fearless in terms of your design, be fearless in terms of your creativity, but be structured in  terms of the business and if you have that combination together and you’re prepared to work  extremely hard then it will work out.

9. What was one of the hardest learned lessons in your journey?

Managing your clients’ expectations is one of the hardest things because there’s a lot of things  that you may take for granted that your clients understand, because they’re so intelligent,  because they’re so successful, because they’re so worldly. You assume that they understand  the process of interior design but in essence, there’s a lot of things behind the scenes that the  client definitely doesn’t know because why should they it’s not what they’re doing.  What I’ve learned the most over all these years is managing the client’s expectations right from  the get go, in terms of budget, in terms of timing, in terms of milestones, in terms of what’s  expected, in terms of understanding functionality of certain pieces, and in terms of how to take care of things. There’s a manual that’s required, but after all these years I’d like to think that I know well over  90% of what to anticipate. Now we’re very educated, very confident and very experienced to explain this to the clients so that their expectations are managed and when you manage a client’s expectation right from the get go, it allows for success for both parties.

10. If you could pick one interior design tip that is important to you, what would it be?

One tip from many would be proportion. It is very, very, very important in an overall finished space to capture proportion properly. 

11. Finally, what are your upcoming projects? Anything you’d like to share or add to the interview?

Wait and see there is lots coming.

Thank you so much Lori, for your beautiful answers!

All photos © Brandon Barre