Local Interior Designer Puts Her Heart into Your Home

Over the door in the sitting room of Michelle Mancuso's home – the center of the house, where everyone hangs out – there's a sign which reads, "This is the best life I ever had."

That phrase popped out of her daughter Samantha's mouth years ago, when she was just four. An artist friend turned the saying into a sign for the family. Ever since, it has become the underlying philosophy for Mancuso's interior design, furniture, and home accents business, Samantha Drew Home in Stony Brook and Samantha Drew Interiors in East Setauket – which she named after Samantha, now 13.

"Enjoy what you do," Mancuso said. "You have to have a good time. And don't take yourself so seriously."

She believes running a business isn't about complicated strategies or beating the competition. It's simply about listening.

"I'm not worried about what other people have or what they do," said Mancuso, who lives in Stony Brook with husband Robert, Samantha, and son Nicholas, 14. "I'm concerned with our client...I think that one of the most important lessons is to really listen to your clients, to your staff, to your vendors."

Samantha Drew Home originated in St. James in 2002 and moved to Stony Brook in 2005. Mancuso opened her second location, Samantha Drew Interiors, in East Setauket in 2009. The stores look like something out of a magazine, compellingly stocked with elegant furniture and accent items across a wide range of styles. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling. Customers come from Montauk to Manhattan and everywhere in between, and oftentimes don't know where to start.

"The biggest thing for clients is scale," she said. "Color is a challenge for a lot of people. Mixing the right colors and the right tones. The layering of textures. I hear a lot of 'I can't pull it together.'"

Big room, small room, Mancuso has no preference. Each one presents its own challenge. She even does exterior home spaces.

"We've gotten to work in amazing spaces, from funky rustic barns to big, giant, gorgeous houses out in the Hamptons," she said.

Clients in the Three Village area tend to have a distinct style preference, perhaps influenced by the community's history, Mancuso said.

"For the most part, the folks here are a little more traditional," she said. "But I think that they like a little bit of a twist."