Interior designer in Stuart, Florida

Stuart was incorporated in 1914 and has been the seat of Martin County since the county was formed in 1925. Its downtown turned around after a 1988 study by Andrés Duany, whose firm's form-based code the city adopted in 1991. Two historic districts here now carry National Register listing. The Downtown Stuart Historic District runs along SW Flagler Avenue and SW Osceola Street and takes in the Lyric Theatre, the Stuart Feed Store, the Art Deco courthouse, the Mediterranean Revival Post Office Arcade and the frame-vernacular Owl House. The East Stuart Historic District covers the historically Black neighborhood founded in 1913 as Lincoln Park, home to the Stuart Training School.

Around downtown, the city's redevelopment agency counts Frazier Addition and Potsdam among its historic neighborhoods, and creeks such as Frazier, Poppleton, Krueger and Haney wind toward the river. In these older houses and storefronts we plan interiors that keep original character where it survives, and we coordinate with licensed contractors on any structural or exterior work the city reviews.

Sewall's Point was chartered as a town in 1957 on the peninsula between the St. Lucie River, to the west and south, and the Indian River Lagoon to the east. High Point, laid out in the 1960s, mixes original houses with newer custom homes; Archipelago's lots sit on the lagoon or on deep-water canals, and Castle Hill is another established enclave. The town runs its own building department, and its zoning code shapes the design: houses are limited to two stories and 30 feet, and the code also restricts fences, hedges and raised pool decks close to the water.

Those rules keep houses low and waterfront yards open, so privacy and glare have to be handled inside the house, and salt air arrives from both sides of the peninsula.

• Main rooms and the primary suite planned toward the water
• Layered shades for east light off the lagoon and west light over the river
• Terraces that bridge a floor raised for flood rules and a pool deck kept near grade
• Hardware, fabrics and finishes chosen for salt air from both sides

Many addresses that read Stuart sit outside the city limits, in unincorporated Martin County. Port Salerno sits on the Manatee Pocket, the bay that reaches to the St. Lucie Inlet, and keeps the county's last commercial fishing dock beside galleries, marinas and waterfront restaurants. Rio, pronounced Rye-oh, was first platted as Rio St. Lucie on the north shore of the St. Lucie River, with a post office from 1893, and North River Shores follows the tidal North Fork with U.S. 1 along its eastern edge. Golf communities carry Stuart addresses too, among them Mariner Sands and Willoughby, a gated community with eight neighborhoods of custom-built homes on more than 400 acres.

Port Salerno and Rio are two of the county's six community redevelopment areas, with architectural design standards for new building and renovation. We design restaurant, gallery and shop interiors with those standards in hand, and for homes in the golf communities we prepare drawings and finish specifications for association review alongside the building permit.

Searches for the best interior designer in Stuart turn up plenty of good photographs. What separates designers is process, and it is easy to check before signing: sample drawings and finish schedules, 3D renderings built from actual dimensions and finishes before anything is ordered, and a clear agreement on scope, deliverables, fee and how furnishings are purchased before work starts.

Local knowledge counts too. A designer working here should know whether your address falls under the City of Stuart, Martin County or the Town of Sewall's Point, what your association reviews, how flood rules affect an older riverfront house, and which hardware, fabrics and finishes stand up to salt air and humidity. Permits in Florida are pulled by licensed contractors; since July 1, 2025, the City of Stuart has accepted only state-registered or state-certified contractors, and licenses can be checked with the state's DBPR. Gava Studio Design is a design and project direction studio: licensed contractors, and an architect or engineer when the scope requires one, carry out the permitted work.

• A portfolio with drawings, finish schedules and renderings, not only photos
• 3D visualization reviewed before anything is ordered
• Scope, deliverables, fee and purchasing agreed before work starts
• A clear answer on who pulls permits and who hires the licensed trades