Burr Ridge, Illinois
Dara Agruss Design is a full-service interior design studio working on whole-home projects, gut renovations and new construction in Burr Ridge and across Chicago's western suburbs.
We take on a small number of projects each year so they get our full attention: millwork drawn to the inch, fabrics chosen in person, and an install day when the whole house comes together.
Recent work
A studio in Elmhurst working on whole-home projects, gut renovations and new construction throughout DuPage and western Cook County.
Before & after
Custom houses come with a previous owner's decisions built in. Reworking the joinery you inherit — refinishing, restyling, changing what it is for — is often the fastest way to make a house feel like yours.
What we do
Most of our Burr Ridge clients come to us for the whole house, not a single room. Full-service means we carry the project from the first floor plan to the day the last lamp is placed:
You make the decisions that matter to you. We handle the several hundred that don't.
How we work
The same process for every Burr Ridge project, whether it's one room or an entire new build.
A short conversation about your home, your timeline and the scope you have in mind. We tell you honestly whether we're the right studio for it.
We walk your home, measure, photograph and talk through how each room actually needs to work for the people in it.
Floor plans, elevations, renderings, finishes and a complete furniture plan, presented together, room by room, in one sitting.
We place every order, track every lead time, receive and inspect every piece, and coordinate directly with your builder and trades.
Everything arrives, gets placed and gets styled. You leave in the morning and come home to a finished house.
Burr Ridge houses
Burr Ridge grew from farmland into a village of custom houses, and most of its larger homes sit in named developments on generous, private lots, with gated entries, mature planting and architecture ranging from contemporary to classic Midwestern.
Custom houses have a particular design challenge: they were built to one family's brief, and the next family inherits decisions that no longer fit. A good deal of our work here is re-planning rooms that were designed around someone else's life, without losing the quality of what is already built.
Full-service means we handle the entire project: space planning, custom millwork and cabinetry, furniture, upholstery, window treatments, finishes, lighting, art and accessories, plus ordering, receiving, delivery coordination and installation. You make the decisions that matter to you; we manage everything behind them.
We work through trade-only showrooms, workrooms and artisans that aren't open to the public, which is where most of the character in a project comes from. See everything included in our services →
Yes, and it is one of the most common briefs we get in Burr Ridge. Custom houses are built to one family's specific requirements, and the rooms that mattered most to them are often the ones that fit the next owner least well.
The work is usually re-planning how rooms are used, replacing or refacing millwork, and furnishing to the real proportions of the space, rather than a structural rebuild.
Yes, and on houses of this scale we recommend it. Designing across the whole plan lets materials, lighting and proportion carry from the entry through to the primary suite, which is very hard to achieve room by room over several years.
Custom furniture matters more at this size too, because standard seating and case goods are often simply too small for the rooms.
Also serving
The same team works across DuPage County, western Cook County and Chicago.
