Case study · Interior design firm
Russ Interiors: a portfolio site that lets the rooms do the talking
An interior design firm is hired on its photographs, and a busy website gets in their way. We built Russ Interior Design a quiet site where the finished rooms do the persuading and a consultation is one tap away.
The results for Russ Interiors
A family design firm with decades of rooms behind it
Russ Interior Design is a family-run, full-service firm that designs residential interiors for homes across Chicago and the North Shore. The work runs from a color consultation or a single room to a complete home renovation, in a style the firm describes as eclectic with a modern twist.
It is a business built on personal relationships. Clients invite a designer into their home for months at a time, so before they call they want two things: proof of taste, and a sense of the people they would be working with.
The challenge: let the rooms speak
People choosing a designer do not read much. They look. They flip through kitchens and living rooms asking one question, whether they could live in a room like that. Every extra banner, slider and block of text on the page competes with the photograph they came to see.
At the same time the firm offers a long list of services, and a homeowner with a small job needs to know that a paint color consultation is as welcome as a whole-house renovation. The site had to say that plainly without turning into a brochure.
What the new site had to do:
- Put finished projects first, in large images that load quickly.
- List every service clearly, from small consultations to full renovations.
- Introduce the designers as people, since clients hire a person.
- Keep the phone number and the consultation offer in reach on every page.
What we built
A restrained, five-page website: home, about, portfolio, services and contact. Nothing on it is there for decoration except the firm's own work.
A portfolio built for looking.
Recent residential projects, from kitchens and living rooms to whole-home renovations, sit in a clean grid. Any image opens larger with a click or a tap, so a visitor can study the details that matter to them.
A layout that stays out of the way.
Plenty of white space, simple type and a muted palette. The site carries no color of its own that could clash with the rooms in the photographs, and the home page opens on a single large interior instead of a slideshow of slogans.
A services page in plain words.
Color consultation, kitchen and bath design, space planning, furniture and fabric selection, window treatments, custom built-ins and lighting are listed one by one, with the offer of a complimentary first consultation at the end.
An About page with faces and history.
Each member of the family firm has a short profile covering their background and what they are known for. A prospective client knows who will answer before they dial.
Contact details everywhere.
The phone number sits at the top of every page and dials on tap, and the studio address, email and a contact page are never more than one step away.
Hosting and care included.
We host the site and handle backups, security updates and content changes, so new project photos go up without the firm touching the software.
How the project ran
Discovery
We talked through the kinds of projects the firm wants more of and how new clients usually find and choose them.
Design
The portfolio layout came first, because every other page takes its lead from it. The home page and services page followed in the same quiet style.
Build and photographs
We developed the site and prepared the project images so they stay sharp on a large monitor and still load quickly on a phone.
Launch and care
The site went live on our hosting, and we have kept it updated and backed up since, adding and changing content on request.
The results
The firm now has a website that behaves like a good portfolio book. It opens to the work, lets a visitor linger on the rooms they like, and offers a conversation when they are ready.
Because the services are spelled out, enquiries arrive better matched. A homeowner who wants help with paint colors and one who is planning a gut renovation can both see that their project fits before they call.
And because hosting and maintenance sit with us, the site does not age the way neglected sites do. The software stays current, the backups run, and the portfolio can grow as new projects are photographed.
Google Lighthouse scores out of 100 for the live site, measured November 12, 2026.
Services on this project
Website Design
Page layouts designed around how this client's customers decide and buy.
Website Development
The build itself: fast, responsive pages and the custom features the project needed.
Hosting & Maintenance
Hosting, backups, security updates and content changes handled for the client.
In the same line of work? See how we build professional services websites.
Frequently Asked Questions
What other designers and creative firms ask us about this project.
Yours. On a site like Russ Interior Design's, our job is to build a frame for the work and then get out of the way. We bring the structure, the speed and the usability, and the look takes its cues from the firm's own projects.
As many as you like, if they are prepared properly. Each image is saved at several sizes so a phone downloads a small file and a desktop gets a large one. The Russ portfolio opens images larger on request instead of loading every full-size file up front.
Yes. The site runs on WordPress, so adding a project is a matter of uploading photos. Many clients would still rather send us the images and have it done, which is part of our hosting and maintenance service.
No. Russ Interior Design's site has five pages. For a firm that sells on its portfolio, a few well-made pages with strong photographs do more than thirty pages of text.
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