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In this candid article, Melissa Lunardon—Interior Designer and Business Mentor—shares how she intentionally scaled her design business to create more freedom and balance. From spending six months in New York to preparing for motherhood, Melissa walks us through the mindset shifts, systems, and tools (like Programa) that helped her step back from the daily grind without sacrificing growth. You’ll learn practical steps for simplifying your workflow, building trust in your team, and setting up your business to thrive—so you can grow your studio without the overwhelm.
Webinar with Melissa Lunardon
Interior designer and Business Mentor Melissa Lunardon, shares in this webinar how she built a business that could run without her - first while living overseas, and later while starting a family. In this honest piece, you’ll learn how she simplified her workflow, set up smart systems and created space to grow without working around the clock.
What if scaling your design business meant less work, not more?
That was the question at the heart of our recent webinar with interior designer and business mentor Melissa Lunardon. Melissa built a multi–6–figure studio that runs smoothly while she works just two days a week. Her secret? A combination of systems, boundaries, and mindset shifts that allow her to step back without slowing growth.
Here’s a recap of her session and the key lessons for studios of every size.
In the design industry, “being flat out” is often worn as a badge of honour. But as Melissa shared, business usually signals a broken workflow, not success.
The goal of scaling isn’t longer hours, it’s better hours: spending your time on creative direction, client experience, and vision — not chasing invoices or rewriting the same client email.
When your systems are solid, you can finally stop firefighting and step into the creative director role.
Melissa LunardonFounder & Creative Director
Melissa calls this her freedom formula :
When you stop being the bottleneck, your business can grow without burning you out.
Melissa outlined the non-negotiables every studio needs to function without chaos.
Systems only work if your boundaries do too. Melissa uses:
These aren’t about being rigid — they’re about protecting your creative energy and profitability.
During the webinar, we asked designers what keeps them up at night. The top three answers were:
Melissa’s frameworks directly address these pain points. From dashboards that reveal margins before you place an order, to templates that save hours each week, the goal is simple: give you back control.
Melissa suggests starting small:
Little changes add up fast when they’re backed by systems.
Scaling doesn’t have to mean chaos. The right systems can help you work less, earn more, and design with energy again.
Start now
Your studio should amplify your creativity, not consume it.
