These Pennsylvanians Brought Their Personal Style into Their Home Renovations—And Ended Up with Unique, Exciting Spaces

You’ve heard of spring cleaning—and while detoxing your home of clutter can feel rejuvenating, the spring can also be a great time to give your home a fuller refresh. With the stressors (and extra costs) of the holiday season in the rearview and the warmer months ahead, homeowners around Pennsylvania choose the spring to revive the appearance and function of their homes.

“During the holidays and through the winter, folks are less likely to want to begin any big projects,” explains Shana Isadora, founder of Ritual Interiors, a Pennsylvania-based home remodeling company. While there’s never a bad time to give your home some TLC, the warmth and renewed energy of the spring presents an ideal moment for larger undertakings that go beyond just addressing wear-and-tear.

Embracing a remodel can mean infusing your personal flair into your space, both in terms of meeting your practical needs and celebrating your style. So, when you’re ready to take that step, it’s important to work with a team that’ll deliver on both of those promises: giving you a functional upgrade that also showcases your aesthetic preferences. And if you aren’t sure what exactly your vision is or what style you’re looking to achieve, it’s also important you seek out a company who will collaborate with you on a design process and refine what you’re looking for—so that ultimately, you end up with a space that’s as unique as you.

For some added inspiration, take a look at these recent Philly-area renovations—and learn more about how these homeowners ended up with stunning transformations.

What to Know About the Remodeling Process

When you call a renovation company, you don’t have to have all the answers—in fact, it can be exciting to develop your concept with professionals who can help you create a cohesive and stylish space. For clients at Ritual Interiors, the design process can be as elaborate as they want it to be, and Isadora’s team acts as a collaborator.

“When we work with a customer, we bounce ideas off of each other and get creative,” says Isadora. That might include several conversations about a customer’s aesthetic and preferences, vision boards that help curate an idea, and then a polished design rendering.

From there, Isadora’s team finds the right materials, executes the renovation and brings in in-house contractors for any additional concerns, like plumbing. Not all remodeling companies will take that comprehensive one-stop-shop approach, which is another reason why working with an agency you connect with and can trust is so critical—and why so many Pennsylvanians are deciding that small businesses are the way to go. Smaller companies can give you personalized attention and a commitment to quality that might slip through the cracks when you work with a larger enterprise. With a local company, the same team who does your walk-through and design process will be the team doing the renovation—which means there’s less room for miscommunication and errors. It also means that you can find unique local products to use for your renovation.

“We don’t settle. We will always find what it is that a homeowner wants, even if that means driving across the state to pick up a certain product ourselves,” says Isadora. That diligence pays off: For customers throughout Pennsylvania, Ritual Interiors has created one-of-a-kind spaces (and often, completed them on a tighter timeline and at a better cost than larger companies).

Terry’s Whimsy-Inspired Bathroom

Some 20 years before she called Ritual Interiors, Terry gutted her bathroom with the intention of remodeling it someday—so when she first connected with Isadora’s team, her space was a blank page. She had an idea of her style and was inspired by her love for nature, but she didn’t have a concrete vision. When she met with Isadora, they shared samples, vision boards and more to help create a custom look that Terry would be excited about.

The next step was finding the materials to bring that vision to life. After about 25 samples of tiles, stones and stone sills, Isadora found Travella quartz from Cambria—which Terry instantly loved. After that back-and-forth, actually acquiring enough stone sills to get started on the construction proved challenging: The quartz were sold out at many distributors. But, not letting that stop her, Isadora tracked down the stones at a stone yard in Allentown, PA, drove all the way there and ended up getting the right product from a local distributor at a great price.

“It was so worth all the extra effort because she was so happy with the result,” says Isadora.

That wasn’t the only personal touch in Terry’s bathroom. One of her and Isadora’s favorite pieces of the room’s design are the robe hooks: small dragonfly pieces that celebrate Terry’s interest in nature, placed at angles that suggest the dragonflies are flying and add a whimsical flair to the room.

“Why can’t we get creative in life and find things that are both functional and beautiful?” asks Isadora. Her work in Terry’s bathroom is proof that maximizing a space’s practical use doesn’t mean there can’t be elements of fun and play.

Rob and Hope’s Farmhouse Ceiling

A friend of Hope’s had recently done a farmhouse-inspired remodel to their home—and that aesthetic inspired Hope to take on a similar project in her own home. When she and Rob called Ritual Interiors, they were looking to take their flawed and basic ceiling to a well-constructed and interesting one, following a unique and farmhouse-inspired design.

After the first part of Isadora’s process—refining the client’s vision—she tackled the next challenge, which was addressing the dysfunction of the current ceiling to replace it with custom-made pieces to not only match Rob and Hope’s style, but to provide a long-lasting quality.

Where the drywall of the original ceiling was beginning to crack, Isadora’s team put blocking reinforcements between the rafters to safely mount the new, hand-crafted beams they created for the space. In that way, Ritual Interiors upgraded the space’s look and function alike. And because the clients and Isadora’s team aligned on the vision so quickly, the effort was so streamlined and efficient it only took days to finish.

“We had so much fun with this project, making a regular, plain space into a whole experience,” says Isadora. “We were excited to be able to offer a specialty project and to be in and out so quickly, leaving them with a totally new and refreshed space.”

This execution made Rob and Hope so pleased that, just a week or so later, they called Ritual Interiors again for a bathroom renovation—to transform another piece of their home into something that reflects their spirit.

Dave’s Elegant Bathroom

Usually, Ritual Interiors takes on a customer’s entire process, starting from the design renderings—but when Dave reached out to Isadora’s team, he had already collaborated with a designer to create pieces for his bathroom. He partnered with a well-established interior designer based in New York City to find pieces that reflected his elegant and artistic tastes, and the designer sourced one-of-a-kind, hand-painted Turkish tiles.

As specialists, Ritual Interiors handled these fragile, irreplacable tiles and inlays delicately and professionally. They were able to install these delicate pieces with an attention to detail and precise placement, ensuring that the beauty of the artwork was properly celebrated in the room, and that there were no issues with preserving the artwork.

“The designer did a really exquisite job,” Isadora says. With that refined design, luxurious shower space, and walls and flooring, Isadora’s team brought Dave’s aesthetic to life—and made sure that the renovation went just as smoothly and beautifully as the appearance.

To learn more about Ritual Interiors and get started on your own home remodel today, click here.

This is a paid partnership between Ritual Interiors and Philadelphia Magazine