Photo Credit: Sensi Casa
Awarded Best of Houzz 2020 & 2021, Sensi Casa isn’t like other design firms. Their elevated approach offers what only very few firms can: turnkey homes in record time. Sensi Casa’s mission is to assist clients in achieving a high-end aesthetic through detail-oriented curation that fills a space with luxurious furniture and accessories.
Principal Owner Diego Guarderas joined Haute Design for a conversation about Sensi Casa's company philosophies and what sets them apart.
Haute Design: What do you believe to be the most valuable service that Sensi Casa provides to its clients?
Diego Guarderas: In terms of interior design services, I would say that our Presto Design service is our most interesting offer because it is what makes us unique and sets us apart from other interior designers. With Presto Design, we are able to offer turnkey solutions and turnkey homes in record time. So, this is something quite interesting for many clients who are actually looking to move to other houses in a timely fashion. This way, the client does not have to go through the headache of visiting 10 to 15 stores and exploring numerous options just to pick out one sofa.
I would definitely say that the ability to offer a turnkey, fully furnished property in record time, within the client's budget, would be the most appealing service that we currently offer.
Photo Credit: Sensi Casa
HD: Would you be able to explain how this Presto Design Service, which you do so well, came about?
DG: Well, as you know, we do home-staging as well. So, because of our staging experience, we have learned to move pretty fast while doing interior design projects. We are taking all of the know-how of staging properties but offering much more leeway to the customer.
Because when staging a house, the realtor or the broker or the developer does not have much of an opinion on what we do other than telling us what type of style they want. So it's not like we can ask them whether they like this chair or whether they prefer this table over another. They will simply tell us, "I want a modern look," or "I want an Italian look," etc. And, of course, we just follow their orders. However, when it comes to Presto Design we combine the speed of our work along with a detail-oriented and customer-collaborative approach. For example, would they prefer an easy-to-clean sofa because they have children in their home? Would they prefer a King or Queen-sized bed in the master bedroom? Would they like sectionals in the family room or are they okay with three-seaters?
We certainly ask a lot of questions throughout the process with our customers. We begin with presenting options for what we feel would look best in each room and go from there. We completely avoid what other companies do sometimes which is to present a showroom-look.
Photo Credit: Sensi Casa
For example, there is a well-known furniture store in Miami that is probably the biggest home stager in the city right now. This store has been able to create a great brand and following, and people love their furniture. So of course, since they have their own inventory in each of their stores, it's pretty easy for them to furnish an entire home within a week because they own the inventory. So for them, it would be super simple to just pick a bed, a sofa, and armchair or what ever they have in stock. The downside to this, is that each home will look exactly like the one next door and exactly like their showroom in Aventura.
They have a great business model and it's a great solution for clients who may not care about their home's design as much. They have great-looking furniture but some clients prefer something unique and different even though that may normally take longer. That's where our ability to offer a unique look in record-time becomes very interesting.
Photo Credit: Sensi Casa
HD: You mentioned your home staging experience. What would you say are three key factors that go into your thought process when staging a home?
DG: The first thing we do when we home stage a property is to ask the owner, developer, or realtor if they are facing problems while showing the house. If you're showing a property and every time, someone says, "I don't know about this bedroom, it looks pretty small." So then of course, we try to make that problem disappear. In this case, we could showcase the room with a king bed, two night stands, a credenza and a rug or another furniture that could make the room look bigger.
In other words, the problem is that empty rooms look smaller than rooms which are fully furnished. People can have a hard time imagining how they could all their possessions into that room.
The first thing we do is to ask the client if there is any area in which they would like us to devote more attention toward. This helps us ensure that the client's house is sold as quickly as possible, which is our main goal. Not only will we help you sell the property as quickly as possible, but we will be able to do so while applying beautiful design. This is what sets us apart from other home stagers.
We also try to mainly use branded furniture so that we match the properties we stage with the same quality of furniture. Often times, in these three, four, five-million-dollar- homes, are staged with furniture that does not match the property. So what happens is, they have only tried to fill the home's space, rather than enhancing the house to make the property look better. Of course, by doing so, you would make the property sell faster.
Photo Credit: Sensi Casa
HD: Correct us if we're wrong, but do you find there is a misconception regarding your design approach? Because Sensi Casa turns projects around so quickly, one might imagine for you guys to overlook some of the details but that could not be further from the truth, correct?
DG: Exactly! We see Sensi Casa as a boutique firm. We have been growing and accepting more and more projects at the same time. That said, we would never overbook ourselves.
We prefer to schedule less projects because we are so detail-oriented. In fact, one of our other key offerings is how well we accessorize properties. We have even been hired by interior designers in the past just because they love how we accessorize homes. There have been instances where designers have done all the furnishing of a home but they will contract us to work exclusively on accessorizing.
What people may not notice is that it's often-times the accessories that place the cherry on top of the cake for a home. It's what makes the final touches so special, you know? The final rug or that final art piece is what gives that extra touch.
By the way, we do our own art in-house and of course we also partner with art galleries so we will hang pieces from well-known artists within our homes. However, most of the time, we use our own products and people have loved our art pieces so now we are growing our inventory in art pieces as well and clients are buying our art now, even though that was not the idea initially.
Because of all these varied services we offer, we are only adding more solutions in order to help our clients with better options for specific items. We have also begun our own Sensi Casa rug line. We are now providing bespoke rugs, hand-made in India. Customers can ask for any size they need and we offer custom sizes and, of course, all in record time (less than a month).
Photo Credit: Sensi Casa
HD: Is this a service that is available right now, as we speak?
DG: Yes, it is available as we speak. We have an instagram account besides our original page (@sensicasadesign) that is called @sensicasa.
That is the account we are using to showcase are rugs of all different kinds of materials. We are not doing colorful rugs. We are more favorable to the organic look because that is what we have been doing the most. That said, we will still honor any request.
If a client chooses a very colorful rug, filled with lines or patterns, we will do it because it's a custom order. What you will most likely be seeing on that instagram page is more organic, natural or neutral colors. The same applies to our linens we are currently working on as well. We are no working on bed spreads, pillow covers, bed sets and throws. Currently, linen is very fun en vogue and clients are in love with a specific hotel-look, especially here in Miami.
So we get a lot of clients asking more and more for this linen look which we are now offering.
If you wish to get in contact with the Sensi Casa team or learn more about them, CLICK HERE.
