East mom Marci Knoff walked into her self-decorated dorm room with matching Laura Ashley floral comforters. After a long day of business school, she pondered on the thought of what she wanted to do once she graduated. Thirty years later, Marci now has her own interior design business.
“I had always known I wanted to do interior design, but KU just didn’t have that yet,” Marci said. “So I majored in Business instead, which actually helps me a lot in my work today.”
Marci started her own interior design business in 2002 called “Room by Room.” Once Marci landed jobs for hotels and event spaces, she threw away that name and adopted “Marci Knoff Interiors” in 2015.
As her business grew, so did her amount of clients. Friends of friends of friends recommended Marci, showing how important her connections to others truly were. From Patrick Mahomes’ house to a condo in the Cayman Islands –– and just about everywhere in between, Marci has designed countless spaces, including her own.
Marci makes great connections with everyone she meets, expanding her design name across the city. She’s helped many East families and established strong relationships with the community.
“That’s the coolest part,” Marci said. “I don’t only make business connections, but really get to make friends and really bond with clients.”
With a business like this, she found connection both in the community and with her daughter.
Marci’s daughter sophomore Grace Knoff has also been impacted by her mom’s work. After 16 years, Grace has gotten used to being dragged along to Marci’s clients’ houses and even getting to help pick out color schemes and fluffy comforters here and there. Marci’s tidiness has rubbed off on Grace and now she can’t even go to bed with clean laundry waiting to be hung up.
“Ever since I made her pick in between two fabrics and she told me one had too much color, I had a feeling she had kind of an eye for it,” Marci said.
As an irritated toddler, Grace would even yell at her mom “I hate this vase!” or “Those curtains are ugly!” to really get under her skin, even though all along she enjoyed being her mom’s little sidekick.
“[Her job] expands who I know in the community, plus I get a lot of babysitting jobs which is always nice,” Grace said. “I for sure want to go somewhere in business, and interior design is almost kind of just an instinct now.”
Inspired by her mom’s work, Grace has found a similar passion in interior design as a possible career path. Grace and Marci have always had a solid relationship, but their eye for a good color scheme just brings them together.
