Summer Recap + LFID Turns Ten 🥹

Friends, this summer was one for the books!

You'll forgive my lack of posting when you hear about all the fun shenanigans I got up to this summer, and then I'll wrap this blog post up by getting a little sentimental...because this month, Lauren Figueroa Interior Design—my little baby business— turns TEN 🥹 Soooo worth of a bit of sentimentality!! LET'S DIVE IN...

Summer started with the largest installation I've ever tackled—the Ridgemont House project—and actually, I'm delivering the last few pieces later this month, so it's really sweet to bookend the summer with the first and last installation of this super fun project! 6,000 square feet of furnishings and decor, and my goodness, it was my smoothest installation yet.

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Just a few days after the installation I headed to NYC for three weeks to meet up with Larry following his semester. We had so many awesome plans scheduled and booked this summer that we dubbed it "the fun vortex" - I told Larry that anytime we got stressed about how busy we were, we had to remind ourselves that WE WANTED THIS!

Our time in NYC started with a roadtrip to DC (ha 😂) where we attended our first ever music festival with one of our NYC people, Scott. My gosh, I wouldn't have expected (as a self-described old lady in the most endearing way) that this would be a scene I'd particularly enjoy, but I was excited to rally and see a sliver of their world.

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BOY WAS I WRONG! We had a BLAST. We felt like kids at play the whole time and we met some of the sweeeeeetest people ever (HI PAT!). And let me tell you, dancing to music with some major bass is suuuuper cathartic! Highly recommend 🪩

After the festival we headed back to the city. Since we were staying on campus and no one was in class, we had a nebulous never ending series of uno games, park walks, broadway shows, food outings, nights out dancing, and movie nights. I haven't had a season like that since college, and gosh, was it fun and refreshing!

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Following NYC, Larry and I parted ways for two weeks. I headed home to Michigan for a couple weeks of jam packed design sessions (WHEW! That was a shock to the system after being so loosey goosey for three weeks 😅), and Larry headed to Durham for a two week summer program at Duke.

During that two weeks I also helped my brother and sister-in-law take down my nieces bunk beds (cry, cry!) so the girls could each have their own rooms. We moved stuff around, organized and reorganized, and re-stacked about 300 stuffies per kid lolll. It was such a sweet thing to get to be a part of 🥰

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Larry and I reconvened at the end of June for my 36th birthday, which included a sweet surprise picnic date, a fun silly hang with the family, and all kinds of special gifts—including a Tiger's game and a new Tiger's hat!—and wishes from the folks I love most. I felt very spoiled 🥰

Early July, I took my mom (for her birthday!), dad, and my mom's best friend to see Westside Story at The Encore theater in Ann Arbor. That was so special to share that with them, and everyone loved it.

The dancing was amazing, which is super impressive for any show that isn't fully professional. Highly recommend checking them out if you haven't heard of this gem (a little known fact is that I used to be way into musical theatre—#vocalmusicmajor—and did a couple shows with this same theatre company wayyy back when!).

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For our next adventure, Larry and I took a last minute trip to Minneapolis for the 4th of July to spend the weekend with Larry's cousins, which was SUCH a blast. We'd all spent time together in different contexts over the years, but we'd never had a specifically intentionally cousins-only hang, and it was so stinking fun.

We played games, went for a hike, visited a winery, and had an adorable "sleepover" where cousin Sammy taught us all about DJing. We'll definitely do it again!!

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The following weekend was another big and special one—my college friend Karly married the love of her life, Justin, and all our college besties were a part of the wedding.

It was the most idyllic venue ever...just look at these photos (bubble shot by Alyssa Wagner DUH!)...and my favorite part of the whole weekend was Larry showing up to the wedding looking super fine in a look he fully styled himself (I did not know he had the fashion bug, and I am so here for it 🥵).

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Following the wedding we had a 24 hour turn around  (FUN VORTEX!) before our friends Sarah and Scott (from NY!) came to visit us in Michigan. We did a one night trip out to Holland to show them our college stomping grounds, Larry's hometown, and lake Michigan (which they hadn't seen before!), and did a nostalgic tour of the Hope College Campus (my and Larry's alma mater).

We then had lots of low key time at home watching movies, chit-chatting (our favorite activity!), taking ruby on walks, and making meals together.

We also took them on the "tour of Lauren's childhood" lol, driving them around White Lake and showing them all the random but significant places from growing up out here, and we wrapped up our week together by meeting up with some friends for the pride celebration in Flint 🌈 It was super special and sweet to host them 🥲 and also soooo kind of them to drive all the way to Michigan to visit us!

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The next couple weeks were less jam packed, but still so fun, and included day visits to my family's campsite, some day trips, a bit of housekeeping stuff, and lots of movies at home.

Larry flew to LA for a long weekend to visit his brother and I got to host a couple of my besties at Stonewall for the first time, which was soooo special. We also hosted some of Larry's cousins, which was also so sweet since we'd just seen them the month prior.

We ended our time in Michigan with a roadtrip to Pittsburgh (ha 😂) to attend our SECOND ever music festival, where we celebrated our 11th anniversary with the most fun festival crew (same crew from the first festival!). Throughout the night, Larry surprised me with eleven friendship bracelets with all different memories from the last 11 years 🥲 🥲 🥲 it was so speciallll 🥰

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This festival was partially in the woods and it was soooo magical and creative—everyone was dressed in bright costumes and there was tons of art and creative installations. What I loved most about the experience was that at every turn, you'd be surprised with something unexpected and delightful ✨ ✨ ✨

And thennnn, we headed back to NYC to spend a couple weeks with our friends there together before the school year went back in full swing. This trip included a fantastic slumber party style birthday party for Scott, park walks, a visit to a turkish bathhouse, meeting the new students on our floor, coffee dates, movie nights, and a fantastic rooftop experience with the very best view.

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Truly, friends, this has been the summer of a lifetime—SO full of fun, new, exciting, challenging, growing, and special, special memories. I feel so lucky and so thankful 🥹

And truly, the thing that has allowed me to have a summer like this is all of you 💖 💖

I started this little bitty business 10 years ago this month. I was just married, just moved to a new city where I knew nobody aside from Larry, and I was working three part-time jobs. It was a big transition and truly such a challenging season of life for me!

But my goodness, recapping the amazing summer we just had (all while continuing to work with clients both in person and virtually) reminds me how much this business has grown and evolved to support such a unique and beautiful life—one with so much variety, freedom, creativity, and beauty.

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Over the years Larry has said to me many times, "Not everyone gets to live their dreams the way we do. And you made that happen." Surly I take it for granted, because you only know the reality you live in, but I really am so full of gratitude to the folks who have trusted me to partner in making their spaces something special.

And also, I'm thankful to my 26 year old self who had the courage and creativity to try something totally new and unknown, to iterate and reiterate every step of the way (even when it was realllllly hard and scary), to seek out mentors and coaches, and to always be open to learning new and different ways of being and doing.

There she is 👇👇👇 looking all cute and way-more-professional than I try to appear now 🥲

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She'd be so excited (though, maybe not surprised - I think she had the vision) to see where we're at today. I'm so proud of that girl 🥲

And so—THANK YOU, thank you, for being along for the ride, whether from the beginning, for a season, or if you're just now getting to know me.

I'm so thankful for all of you and for the homes and spaces we've been able to create together, and here's to the the many, many more spaces we'll get to create together in the future 💗 💗 💗

XOXO and so much love,

Lauren 💖

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Work with Lauren Figueroa Interior Design

Lauren Figueroa is an interior designer working with folks in West + Southeast Michigan and NYC, known especially for her unique and speedy Designed in a Day service.

LFID works with clients from Detroit to Clarkston, and all the way to Grand Rapids, Holland and Traverse City, and most recently, NYC. I pride myself on creating bespoke, people-centered spaces—because after all, the people you love is what this life is all about!

If you have a project on the horizon, get started by telling me about your vision here, and you can view past projects here.

Thanks for stopping by!