It's More Than Drapes | Lori Gentile Interior Design
There's a persistent myth about interior designers: that they show up after the construction is done, pick some throw pillows, hang the drapes, and send you a bill. It's a charming image. It's also almost entirely wrong. The real work of a seasoned interior designer happens long before a single nail goes into a wall — and when that work is skipped, homeowners find out the hard way just how expensive improvisation can be.
Jenna and Kemper Whaley of Oceanside, California found this out firsthand during a renovation that started as "let's add a bedroom" and became one of the most important decisions of their lives. Their story is a clear-eyed look at what interior designers actually do — and what it costs when you try to go it alone.
The Seduction of DIY Design
It has never been easier to feel like your own designer. Pinterest boards, Instagram saves, Google image searches, YouTube renovation channels — the inspiration is infinite. You can build entire mood boards for every room in your house without talking to a single professional.
That's exactly what Jenna did. And she's the first to admit it almost cost her.
"If you end up designing your house to what Pinterest says your house should be, it's just going to be super trendy. You'll end up using a lot of gold hardware, everything will look the same, and you'll wonder in five years why it already feels dated."
— Jenna Whaley, Oceanside CA
The problem with digital inspiration isn't the quantity of ideas — it's the lack of context. Pinterest doesn't know your house. It doesn't know your floor plan, your light exposure, the undertones of your existing stone, or how the finishes you love in a photograph will read in a 10-foot-by-12-foot room with east-facing windows.
A professional interior designer does.
What Interior Designers Actually Do
When Jenna and Kemper's architect plans weren't working — the layout felt awkward, the kitchen was still cramped, nothing had a clear flow — they reached out to Lori Gentile, a San Diego-based interior designer with over 25 years of experience. What Lori did next surprised them.
She didn't talk about furniture. She pulled out a roll of draft paper and reimagined the entire floor plan.
"Lori took our whole plan set, put a piece of draft paper over it, and said: we need to dream bigger. That changed our whole trajectory."
— Jenna Whaley
Interior architecture — the way spaces connect, how rooms flow into each other, where walls belong and where they don't — is where the value of a great designer is most invisible to the untrained eye, and most consequential to the finished product. Get it wrong and you'll spend the life of the home working around it. Get it right and the house feels effortless.
Paint: The Hardest Decision in Any Home
There are not a few shades of white. There are hundreds. And the difference between the right white and the wrong white — on your walls, your trim, your exterior siding — is visible to everyone who walks through your front door.
"Paint is the hardest thing we do. The nuances of undertones make an enormous difference when you paint a large area. I've been honing my paint skills for years."
— Lori Gentile
Before Lori stepped in, Jenna had 10 to 15 exterior paint swatches on the house. Neighbors were asking when she'd decide. One conversation with Lori — definitive direction, clear rationale — and the house was transformed. The neighborhood agreed immediately.
That's not luck. That's decades of understanding how natural light interacts with pigment, how undertones shift across seasons, and how exterior color has to relate to everything around it: the plants, the hardscape, the neighboring homes.
Hardware, Finishes, and the Decisions That Haunt You
Gold or chrome? Matte black or brushed nickel? Square or round? Knob or pull? These decisions seem small. They are not.
Hardware is one of the most expensive things to change after the fact, and one of the easiest to get wrong when choosing pieces in isolation from a catalog. Jenna was leaning toward gold — it's everywhere on mid-century Pinterest boards. Lori redirected her to chrome.
"Chrome is beautiful. It's easy to maintain, great near the ocean, and it's going to look stunning for years to come. For a mid-century modern home, it's the right finish."
— Lori Gentile
She also helped select square faucet profiles for the bathrooms, determined where the bathtub filler should be positioned — corner, not wall, a detail that changes the entire feel of the space — and ensured that every finish in the home related to every other finish. That kind of cohesion is almost impossible to achieve through individual decisions made in isolation.
The Floor Plan: Where Most Renovations Go Wrong
Contractors need decisions. They need them early, and they need them to be final. Every time a homeowner changes their mind mid-project — moves an island, relocates a faucet, decides the bathroom layout isn't working after all — it's a change order. Change orders cost money. They also cost time.
"If I'd hired Lori from the beginning, we would have had all of this completed. Fewer change orders. And we probably could have moved in a couple of months earlier."
— Jenna Whaley
An interior designer doesn't just make things look good. They front-load the decision-making so the construction phase runs smoother, faster, and with fewer expensive surprises.
The Experience Gap: Why Years Matter
"Design has changed a lot in the last five to ten years. But what has it done in the last 20 years? That's where Lori comes in. She's seen trends go in and out."
— Jenna Whaley
A designer who has been practicing through multiple cycles of design trends — who has seen what lasts and what doesn't, what photographs beautifully and what wears well, what clients are still grateful for a decade later — brings something qualitatively different to a project than one who has only ever worked in the current moment.
Lori Gentile describes her goal simply: she wants every client to love their home not just at move-in, but years later. Her roster of repeat clients — many of whom have worked with her for two decades — suggests she's achieving it.
The Bottom Line: It Pays for Itself
Interior design fees feel like an added cost. In practice, for a renovation of any meaningful scale, they function as insurance — against wrong decisions, against change orders, against the subtle but cumulative cost of a home that doesn't quite work.
"Take a little bit more time to save the money to afford an interior designer. It's going to save you so much money in the end."
— Jenna Whaley
And that's before you account for the less tangible things: the confidence of knowing your choices are right, the clarity of having someone else hold the vision when you're exhausted and overwhelmed, the peace of mind that comes from working with someone who has done this hundreds of times before.
Drapes are the easy part. It's everything that comes before them that determines whether your home is just renovated — or truly transformed.
Lori Gentile Interior Design is a boutique luxury design firm based in Encinitas, California, serving clients throughout San Diego County and beyond. With over 25 years of experience, Lori and her team specialize in high-style, timeless interiors crafted with quality and integrity.
Ready to get your renovation right from the start?