A day in the life of a luxury interior designer for millionaires

 

Cheryl Eisen is unapologetically not a morning person.

In sharp contrast to the many executives who wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m, Eisen starts her day slowly, waking up at 9 a.m. and enjoying a “caffeine cocktail” of Poland Spring water, espresso, Truvia, and Lactaid milk.

“In all honesty, it takes until noon for my brain to fully wake up,” she told Business Insider.

Eisen, 50, is the CEO of Interior Marketing Group, or IMG, a New York City-based company of nearly 80 employees that does interior design, staging, and marketing for luxury homes that start at $5 million. Eisen has done the interior design for apartments in buildings belonging to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, an Airbnb rented by Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West, and homes for Bethenny Frankel, Swedish real estate broker Fredrik Eklund, and Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. IMG also does projects in Miami, Los Angeles, Connecticut, and the Hamptons.

Eisen said IMG’s designs tend to be neutral and classic. They layer with textures rather than color, sticking with neutral tones that let the focus stay on the selling pieces of the home, whether that’s high ceilings or jaw-dropping views. One of her favorite parts of the job is the big reveal when the client finally gets to see the finished space.

“People cry,” she said. “And I get it, because once you see something that you’ve been working on for months, you see it come to life and it can be overwhelming because a home is a very personal thing.”

Here’s a peek into a typical day in her life, from her morning “caffeine cocktail” to rearranging furniture and choosing drapes for multimillion-dollar New York City penthouses.