Inside the Showcase Home Design — A Conversation with Designer Mariana Loya

What does it actually look like when a great designer and a great builder work together on a Southern Living Showcase Home?In this episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara sits down with Mariana Loya — the designer behind the Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home — for one of the most genuine and entertaining conversations in the series so far.Mariana founded LED Design three years ago after 16 years in the industry. She studied interior design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio and what she has created for the Showcase Home is something worth waiting to see.In this episode:How Mariana approaches a new project — from the first client meeting to room by room presentations and technical drawingsWhy she never sends a presentation before she is in the room with you — and what happens when she challenges clients with something unexpectedThe open plan problem and the millwork solution — how Mariana created three distinct spaces within one large room without adding a single wallThe kitchen island that has the team at Cambria excited and the metal fabricators working overtimeWhy every project starts with the kitchen — the room that sets the tone for the entire homeThe importance of bringing a designer in before the slab is poured — and what happens when you wait until after the sheetrock is upValue engineering — how to identify what matters most and let the team find savings everywhere elseHidden details and the surprises Mariana loves to design into a home that clients discover after they move inThe Showcase Home reveal is coming — and this episode gives you a behind the scenes look at the design decisions going into it before a single elevation is released publicly.The Collier Way is hosted by Collier Bashara, Southern Living Builder of the Year and founder of Collier Custom Homes — one of only 85 Southern Living Certified Builders in America.New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along.Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com