About Us

Meet Brian Marquis

My name is Brian Marquis. I am the founder and principal designer at Design Marquis, where we offer a range of services and products encompassing interior design, furniture transformation, and decorative and fine art objects…often within a comprehensive solution that integrates all three. Our curated interior design services are delivered under the Marquis Home Design brand, while both the furniture transformation and decorative and fine arts components are offered through the Marquis Design Studio brand.

I remember my first interior design project. I was 11 years old when I teamed up with my mother to re-do my bedroom with paint, secondhand furniture, and new bedding and lighting. We didn't know we were ahead of our time (lol) when we painted two adjoining walls in yellow, the opposite adjoining walls in blue…with two non-matching but similar-sized bureaus painted in yellow with red drawer fronts, and two simple metal school desks painted in red. The final touch was new red, white, and blue bedding purchased at a discount store (alas, we couldn't find anything in red, blue, and yellow) and inexpensive red plastic mushroom lamps. The room was cheery and colorful, and I loved spending time in it.

Related to this burgeoning design affinity was my keen interest in the built environment. I created both fanciful and practical structures (e.g. houses with stairs and working doors and windows) with my plastic brick sets while thinking about becoming an architect, even though I probably didn't really know what that entailed. In high school my creative talents manifested in drafting and fine arts classes, where I focused on drawing and painting. My formal design education culminated at Yale, where I majored in architecture with a fine arts minor.

Immediately after college I completed what I consider to be my first legitimate furniture transformations. One was the stripping and refinishing of one of the bureaus I had painted 10 years prior; the other was rescuing an antique oak library table that my father had used for years as his basement workbench. Needless to say, that project involved some significant wood repair. Forty years later, by the way, both pieces are still in use.

While my focus shifted early on toward a career in corporate marketing, I continued to engage in projects that enabled me to utilize my architecture and design DNA. These included major house renovations where walls were knocked down or added, stairs needed to be moved, flooring was removed and relaid, lead paint had to be abated, cabinetry and woodwork were installed, decorative paint techniques were applied, and furniture was created. And of course there was the selection of furnishings, fittings, and decor that followed in order to complete the spaces. Both my leadership and labor underpinned most of these categories, and through decades of design projects my skills and creative sensibilities evolved.

Today, following my retirement from corporate life, I am focusing my day-to-day energy on creating beautiful interiors, furnishings, and decor…ideally in engagements that encompass all three. Looking back I can easily see how beneficial it was to be grounded in both architecture and fine arts. The latter drives the creative process while the former ensures that the details will be executed effectively.

Whether it's room design, furniture transformation, or creation of an art piece, the solution you get from Design Marquis will reflect an obsession with quality, mastery of details, respect for everyday materials, out-of-the-box thinking, and active consideration of all possibilities. When these align, you will have something that is unique, will delight and even surprise, and will spur conversation. Most important, we guarantee it will be a successful response to your specific design challenge.

The Design Marquis Team

The Design Marquis team comprises three other family members who make important contributions to our design challenges. My brother Paul Marquis is a technical expert nonpareil, able to provide detailed guidance on everything from construction techniques to the best finish to use on antique veneers. He actually is a jack-of-all-trades, thanks to his varied career as a woodworker, home inspector, licensed builder, and green-building consultant. Lisa Marquis is a sourcing, utilization, and organization expert who strips projects down to their core essentials as part of the solutioning process. She's also a kitchen layout pro. My partner Clay Walker rounds out the team by playing the role of devil's advocate, identifying places where a tweak here and there can make a difference, and readily picking up a paint roller or hammer as needed, even sitting down at the sewing machine if that's what the job calls for.

We encourage you to spend some time viewing our project videos and before-and-after stories, both here on our website and via our social media presence. We think you'll be inspired to think about what's possible in your own home and consider reaching out to us to discuss how we can bring our skills to bear to help you achieve your design goals.