Naperville, Illinois
Dara Agruss Design is a full-service interior design studio working on whole-home projects, gut renovations and new construction in Naperville 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
Plenty of Naperville houses are structurally excellent and simply finished twenty years ago. The fix is rarely demolition. It is refinishing what is already built and giving the room a reason to be used.
What we do
Most of our Naperville 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 Naperville 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.
Naperville houses
Naperville's historic district, designated by the city in 1986, covers roughly 320 properties including about 253 homes, some dating to the 1860s. Around the downtown you find Queen Anne Victorians, American Foursquares and Cape Cods on modest lots, with the woodwork, stair halls and room proportions of their period intact.
Beyond that core, Naperville is one of the largest bodies of late-twentieth-century and newer housing in the region: generously sized homes with open plans, two-storey rooms and very little inherent character. Those two kinds of house need opposite instincts: restraint in one, deliberate warmth and detail in the other.
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. Older Naperville homes — Queen Anne Victorians, Foursquares and Cape Cods around the downtown, come with original millwork, plaster and compact rooms. We design around that character rather than stripping it out, and plan for walls that are rarely square.
Where a period house needs to work for how people actually live now, the answer is usually careful furniture planning and lighting rather than removing what makes the house worth owning.
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people call us. Large open rooms and two-storey spaces fail when furniture is pushed to the walls. We plan seating in defined groups, bring the eye down with lighting and window treatments, and use texture and custom pieces to give the volume something to hold on to.
This is furniture planning and millwork more than decoration, which is why we start with a floor plan rather than a mood board.
Also serving
The same team works across DuPage County, western Cook County and Chicago.
