ABOUT CASATOPIA + SUZANNE CONNOR
Chaos Coordinator
Palm Beach Interior Designer Suzanne Connor could call herself the Owner, Founder, Director, or even Lead Neuroaesthetician of Casatopia. Instead, she’s given herself a different, slightly unexpected, title: Chaos Coordinator.
“Everyone tells me that I’m the most organized person they’ve ever met, and I have a memory like a steel trap. I can reference an old conversation, an image, a precise dimension, or a number from a past project”, she says. “The ‘chaos’ part is cheeky. It’s never chaotic working with me — it’s methodical, organized, and systematic.”
It’s a valuable skill set for someone managing the broad range of services that we call a “holistic design experience.”
“We can design it, build it, remodel it, furnish it, create the interiors, the exteriors, and maybe one day sell it,” Suzanne says.
NO COOKIE CUTTER HERE
Thanks to our unrivaled relationships with builders and architects across Palm Beach and Broward Counties, our primary focus area is South Florida, although projects have taken us all over the country. (One family loved their Florida home so much that they retained us to design their apartment in New York and an addition for their home in Colorado.)
Our clients are a mix of owners seeking to create their dream homes and investor clients seeking to build custom dwellings that stand apart from the cookie-cutter properties they’ll compete against on the market.
“Designer spec homes always sell for more per square foot and faster than homes that didn’t use a designer,” says Suzanne. “Real estate agents often tell me it’s a lot easier to sell professionally designed homes than ones where the builder decided to take a stab at design.”
We use a “design for wellness” approach (also called neuroaesthetic design) which aims for the built environment to give people a sense of serenity. This approach to design emphasizes ergonomic elements, highlights nature in the home, prioritizes environmentally conscious building choices, and uses visual cues like calm colors and lighting attuned to people’s circadian rhythms.
STRATEGY IN DESIGN
Suzanne graduated with a five-year Bachelor of Science in Design degree – emphasis on the word science – from Arizona State University and notes there are important differences between being a designer and a decorator.
“It’s not about the pillows and the fluff, it’s the science behind why it’s designed that way,” she says. “There’s the psychology of the user and why they need the design a certain way; and then there’s the wellness component that is the result of designing the right way, with the right material, at the right height, size, shape, and so on. Design is strategic, decorating is aesthetic; it is the combination that makes great homes.”
After graduation, she took a job in Fort Lauderdale handling interior design for yachts.
Working on 150-plus-foot vessels was highly challenging – there were no right angles and every piece of trim and cabinetry had to be custom-made and lightweight. Even the knives used to cut the molding needed to be custom designed. In retrospect, Suzanne believes the level of detail required for yacht interiors served as an excellent springboard for the work she does now.
After passing the NCIDQ exam and graduating with an MBA, Suzanne obtained her state license in interior design. She later returned to school to earn a Master of Fine Arts in furniture design. After working for a few years at a large firm conducting interior architecture at a mass scale, she launched Casatopia in 2014.
Casatopia | what's in a Name?
Suzanne wanted to avoid using her name or overused, trendy buzzwords for the business name. The “casa” is a nod to her Italian heritage and immigrant mother; and the latter half for Utopia, the ideal outcome for her clients.
Looking To The Future
We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2024 and looking ahead to the next decade. And that future looks exciting with the continued growth of Casatopia and the development of our product lines:
- 8 Elementa | a lighting collection to be sold to the trade
- Go Everywhere and Roam | a line of pet products, which includes G.E.A.R. for dogs and their humans
It could be a lot of chaos to coordinate, but it’s not for Suzanne. She loves her work and the relationships she’s developed through her collaborations.
“There are times when my clients have called because they’re sitting on their patio or walking in their living room and they’re so happy with all of the decisions we’ve arrived at,” she says.
“The whole space makes them feel cozy, at home – it’s their Utopia.”