LENNY INTERIORS
Written By: Amy Karl
Creativity was always in the cards for interior designer Lenny Mac.
Growing up on her family’s ten-acre property in rural Ohio, Lenny was drawn to design long before she had a name for it. As early as middle school, she loved traveling into Columbus, where she admired the traditional, storybook homes of the surrounding suburbs, recognizing even then that the area was “rich in architecture.”
By high school, Lenny was watching HGTV with decidedly strong opinions about the designers’ choices—often arguing with the television.
“I guess I always had a strong point of view and an internal compass about design,” she told me.
When I asked where that creativity came from, Lenny pointed to her family. She is a fifth-generation artist. Her mother is a painter, her grandmother an author, illustrator and painter. Creativity runs through the generations. Growing up, there was always a craft room stocked with glue guns and supplies, a place where collages were made and things were created simply for the pleasure of making them.
Art may have been in her blood, but architecture and design were what stuck.
While studying design at ASU, Lenny worked for top design firms, gaining experience in the industry while still in school. After graduation, she found herself at a crossroads. She was interviewing with several prominent firms whose work she admired, but she also began to realize that her role within a larger company would likely be more corporate and technical at first. The opportunity to really exercise her creative muscle could be years away.
After some reflection—and conversations with trusted mentors—she decided to bet on herself.
Lenny Interiors was born.
“That’s just how the cookie crumbled,” she said.
Today, Lenny is based in Ohio and has projects in five states, withno two lookingquite alike. That’s intentional. Rather than imposing a signature aesthetic on every space, Lenny is passionate about uncovering the cultural, geographical and architectural story of each house.
She is particularly drawn to reviving older homes whose original charm has been stripped away over the years.
One question she poses to followers on Instagram says a lot about her philosophy: Flip? Or Unflip?
I was intrigued. After scrolling through the posts, I understood exactly what she meant. To “unflip” a house is to peel away the generic renovations layered onto it over the years and return it to something timeless and authentic. Through thoughtful material choices—paint, windows, flooring, fixtures and metals like unlacquered brass and nickel—Lenny restores a sense of history and permanence.
I realized that while Lenny’s creativity may have been inherited, her specific gift is seeing the architectural soul of a house and knowing how to bring it back.
The before-and-after transformations are nothing short of miraculous. Think dated ’90s, Z Gallerie-inspired interiors transformed into rooms with the warmth and elegance of a classic European home.
A few of Lenny’s favorite projects illustrate just how different these stories can be.
For an artist’s casita in a Phoenix historic neighborhood, she had the freedom to be daring, experimenting with materials and details in ways a more conservative project might not allow. Lenny calls the finished space a “jewel box.”
Photo: Amy Bartlam
She also completed a full renovation of a Spanish Colonial home there, another opportunity to honor a house’s architectural roots while giving it a new life.
When it comes to new builds, Lenny is a firm believer in being part of the conversation from the beginning, collaborating with architects while the bones of a house are still taking shape rather than simply stepping in once the drawings are complete. For her, the best projects are collaborative ones, shaped by the architects, craftspeople and other creative minds involved.
Photo: Amy Bartlam
But the relationship she values most is the one she builds with her clients. Over the course of a project, many become good friends, and Lenny is known for going the extra mile—sometimes quite literally, traveling on her own dime when she feels her presence will make a difference.
Lenny is a hands-on, not hands-off, designer. Whether she is bringing an older home back to itself or helping shape a new one from the ground up, she remains deeply invested in the people, materials and craftsmanship behind every decision.
Perhaps that is Lenny’s real signature: not a particular look, but an instinct for what a house wants to be—and the conviction to see it through.
For more information on Lenny’s work, visit her website at lennyinteriors.com or follow her on Instagram at @lennyinteriors