Marlowe
Interiors
Seth & Donna Marlowe

A partnership that started in 1992 — and a home in every chapter since.

We're easy-going, a little competitive, and genuinely fun to work with. Four homes in, one thing has never changed: Donna makes every space better.

Seth and Donna at his 22nd birthday party in Boone, NC, November 1992
November 21, 1992 · Boone, NC — about ten minutes in.
How It Started

We met at Seth's 22nd birthday party. We've been a team ever since.

It was November 21, 1992, in Boone, North Carolina — both of us seniors at Appalachian State. This photo was taken about ten minutes after we first met, at Seth's birthday party. We've been together every chapter since.

More than thirty years, four homes, and one constant: wherever we landed — most recently here in Charlotte — Donna turned it into somewhere people never wanted to leave. We decided to start a design business in which I handle everything other than design, so that Donna's talent can shine through for you.

1992
Together since
4
Homes, each designed by Donna
100%
Self-taught, every room
Seth and Donna mid-debate over a competitive family board game
Family game night. We do not lose gracefully.
Who You'll Be Working With

Warm, fun, responsive — and yes, a little competitive.

That photo? A family board game, somewhere around fifteen years ago. We're competitive with each other in the most loving way possible — and we bring that same energy (minus the trash talk) to every project we take on.

What it means for you: we're easy to talk to, quick to respond, and we genuinely enjoy this. No stiffness, no pressure — just two people who love turning a house into a home, and happen to be very good at it.

Seth and Donna Marlowe today
Still a team — and now, a business.
The Designer

It started with a house Donna helped renovate while living in it.

Donna grew up in a home her family fully renovated while they lived in it — and that's where she learned the basics, hands-on, room by room. No formal training. Just the eye, and more than two decades of refining it on real projects, on real budgets, for real people.

Her style, in her own words, is warm and traditional. She makes a space as functional as possible without overspending — with a particular gift for paint and color, and for how tones blend across a room. She can look at a space and envision what it can become; she sees things others can't.

She builds on what you already have, blending in pieces that fit, until a room feels coordinated, comfortable, and unmistakably yours. And maybe best of all, she'll pick up a paintbrush, hang a mirror, and install fixtures right alongside you.

“Nope — this doesn't work,” I said when we first walked in. She just smiled and said: “I disagree. I see exactly what we're going to do and what it will become.”

On the Marlowe family lake house, before it became everyone's favorite place to relax

How She Works

A few things Donna believes

01

A room should work first

Beauty matters, but a space that doesn't function will never truly feel good to live in. Flow and function come first.

02

Use what you already love

The best rooms feel collected, not bought all at once. Donna builds around the pieces that already mean something to you.

03

Beautiful needn't be expensive

A considered eye stretches a budget further than a big one spent carelessly. Looking expensive is a skill, not a price tag.

Come say hello.

We'd genuinely love to hear about your space. Every project begins with a conversation and a walkthrough — no pressure, lots of ideas.

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