ARLINGTON, VA - SERVING THE DC METRO AREA - EST.2020
Hi, I'm Grace.
I started Studio 39 because great design should feel within reach.
Studio 39 was built on a single conviction: that a well-designed room changes how you feel in it — not just how it photographs. Grace Mellin founded the studio to make that kind of design accessible to more people, at every scale, without the intimidation that so often comes with it.
OUR APPROACH
Design that starts with how you live.
A lot of design studios talk about aesthetic. We think about living first. The way light moves through a room in the morning. Whether a sofa invites you to stay. Whether a kitchen layout makes sense for the way your family actually uses it. The visual outcome matters deeply to us — but it has to work for the life being lived inside it.
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We also believe that good design shouldn't feel intimidating. Whether you're tackling a room you've put off for years or embarking on a whole-home renovation, the process should feel collaborative, clear, and — dare we say it — enjoyable. We take the guesswork out so you can focus on the exciting part: watching your space become something you love.
01
We listen before we design
Every project starts with understanding how you use your home, what drives you crazy about it, and what you've always wished it could feel like. That conversation shapes everything that follows.
03
Every budget deserves thoughtful design
We work with clients at every scale. A single room. A full renovation. A virtual project from across the country. The scope changes; our standards don't.
02
Function and beauty aren't opposites
A room can be gorgeous and completely livable. We design spaces that hold up to real life — children, dogs, dinner parties, lazy Sundays — without sacrificing an ounce of character.
04
Your home should tell your story
We're not interested in trends for the sake of trends. We're interested in spaces that feel specific to you — layered with pieces you love, materials that have texture and weight, rooms that age gracefully.
THE TEAM
Who you're working with.
FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL DESIGNER
Grace Mellin
Grace Mellin founded Studio 39 with a clear point of view: that homes should feel specific to the people living in them, not like a showroom or a trend board. She earned her BA in Interior Design from Marymount University and spent several years working on residential projects with established DC-area designers before launching the studio — building a process she believes in and a practice she's genuinely proud of.
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Her instinct is for the unexpected: a material that earns its place, a layout that makes a room feel larger without touching a wall, a single piece that shifts the entire tone of a space. She has a particular sensitivity to how rooms feel to move through — the kind of thing you notice when it's wrong and take for granted when it's right.
She also happens to have grown up in and around great design. Her mother Claire's 20-year career in the DC design world was as much an education as any studio program — and that accumulated perspective quietly informs everything Grace does. The two remain close collaborators, even as Grace leads every Studio 39 project from start to finish.
BA Interior Design at Marymount University
grace@studio39interiordesign.com
CO-FOUNDER & SENIOR DESIGNER
Claire Messinger
Claire Messinger is a DC-area designer with over 20 years of experience and a publication record that spans Home & Design Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Coastal Living, Baltimore Magazine, and Arlington Magazine. She holds a BA in Studio Art from Randolph-Macon College and a MFA in Interior Design from Marymount University — a combination that gave her both an artist's eye and a designer's rigor.
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Her portfolio includes primary residences, lakefront retreats, commercial interiors, and boutique hotels — among them the Marymount University Library and River Run Country Club. She's also a painter, and more than a few of her canvases now hang in clients' homes.
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As co-founder and senior advisor to Studio 39, Claire brings that depth of experience to bear on Grace's work — consulting on design direction, material selections, and the kinds of decisions that benefit from two decades of perspective. It's a relationship built on genuine trust, and clients feel it in the work.
BA Studio Art, Randolph Macon College
MFA Interior Design, Marymount University
claire@studio39interiordesign.com
WHERE IT BEGAN
A lake house,
and a name
The name Studio 39 has a story behind it. Our first official project together was a full restoration of a historic lakefront home in Western New York — a property originally built by Clement Studebaker, of the Studebaker automobile family. The brief was layered: restore the home's original architectural detailing, modernize everything else, and create a space that could hold a large, loud, wonderful family with ease.
The address was 39 North Lake Drive. We finished the project, looked at each other, and knew what to call the studio.
That project set the tone for everything that followed. We learned that restoration and innovation aren't opposites. That a home can honor its history and still feel completely alive. That the best spaces have a sense of permanence — like they were always meant to be that way, even when you built them from scratch.
HOW IT WORKS
What working with us
actually looks like.
We've designed the process to feel as good as the result. Here's what to expect from the moment you reach out.