Today we’d like to introduce you to Ariana Lovato.
Hi Ariana, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I founded Honeycomb Interior Design in 2016 with the mission to create spaces that are both functional and beautiful, to support the very full lives of my clients.
As an Iranian-American woman in a male-dominated industry, I overcame numerous challenges to build my successful studio. Now, as a wife and mother of two boys under four (!!), I continue to balance my passion for design with the wild ride of being a mom, making me even more creative at turning clients’ visions into reality.
After earning an Associate’s Degree in Interior Design at FIDM in Los Angeles, I continued my education with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of La Verne. I’ve continued learning ever since, earning a Certified Living in Place credential, an Associate Kitchen and Bath credential, and my real estate license (Realtor® #201532011) because I believe in learning whatever I can to help my clients and my team.
I recently became a certified interior designer in the state of California. This state-regulated credential represents years of education, verified experience, and a deep commitment to designing spaces that are not only beautiful, but safe, functional, and code-compliant. As a CID, I’m now qualified to prepare and submit interior design plans for permits, ensure ADA and life-safety compliance, and bridge the gap between creativity and construction with even more precision. Honeycomb can now stamp non-seismic and non-structural plans. This milestone elevates what Honeycomb offers, giving our clients greater confidence, smoother project delivery, and a level of technical expertise that only about 2,000 designers in California hold.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Honestly, no, and I don’t think any founder’s story really is. I started Honeycomb Interiors in 2016 with a clear mission: to create spaces that are both beautiful and functional, ones that actually support the full, busy lives of the people living in them. But getting there wasn’t a straight line.As an Iranian-American woman building a business in an industry that’s still very male-dominated, especially on the construction and contractor side, I had to prove myself constantly, in rooms where I wasn’t always taken seriously right away. Earning that credibility, project by project, was one of the biggest early hurdles. It pushed me to keep investing in my own education: an Associate’s degree in Interior Design from FIDM, then a Bachelor’s in Business Administration, then additional certifications along the way, Certified Living in Place, Associate Kitchen and Bath, my real estate license, and eventually becoming a Certified Interior Designer in the state of California, a credential fewer than 2,000 designers in the state hold. Every one of those was its own mountain to climb, usually while running a growing studio at the same time.Then there’s the reality of building a company while also building a family. I’m a wife and mom to two boys under four, and balancing that “wild ride” with the demands of client projects, construction schedules, and a growing team hasn’t always been graceful. There have been plenty of late nights and juggling acts. But it’s also made me sharper and more creative, you learn to problem-solve fast when you’re managing a job site and a toddler meltdown in the same afternoon.What’s kept me going is the belief that the struggle was worth it, for my clients and for the team we’ve built. Every challenge just made the studio, and honestly me, more resilient.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Honeycomb Interiors ?
Honeycomb Interiors is a full-service interior design studio based on California’s Central Coast, serving clients here and nationwide. We work across residential, commercial, and hospitality projects, everything from custom kitchen renovations and whole-home remodels to new construction and upscale commercial spaces. Through our cabinetry division, Honey Cabinetry, we also design and build semi-custom and fully custom cabinetry in-house, and through Access Honeycomb, we offer smaller-scale services like paint consultations and virtual design sessions for clients who don’t need the full-service experience.What sets us apart is our attention to detail, our relationships with clients and contractors, and our commitment to quality at every level of a project. We’re genuinely full-service, we mean that literally. We’re with you from the very first site visit all the way through to the last candle burning on your shelf. That means we’re not just picking finishes and furniture; we’re developing floor plans, cabinetry layouts, interior elevations, lighting plans, and full construction documentation. We coordinate directly with architects, contractors, and trades throughout the build, manage procurement and deliveries, and stay involved through final installation and styling, the whole arc of a project, start to finish.I think our strongest relationships are with our contractor partners. Design only works if it can actually be built, and we’ve built our process around bridging that gap, clear documentation, constant communication, and a team that understands construction as deeply as it understands design.What I’m most proud of, brand-wise, is that Honeycomb doesn’t feel like a typical design firm, it feels like a true partner. We spend as much time thinking about how a family actually lives, how a kitchen really functions, or how a hospitality space needs to perform, as we do on the beautiful stuff. That combination of heart and technical rigor is what our clients keep coming back for, project after project.
What does success mean to you?
For me, success isn’t just a beautifully finished space, though that matters. It’s whether the process of getting there felt good for everyone involved. Did my client feel supported and heard, even when construction got stressful? Did we make their daily life genuinely easier, a kitchen that finally works for how they actually cook, storage that makes sense, a layout that fits their family? That’s the real win.Success also looks like the relationships we build along the way. When a contractor wants to work with us again, when a client comes back for their next project or sends a friend our way, that tells me we did something right, not just design-wise, but in how we showed up as partners throughout.On a personal level, success is being able to run a growing studio, lead a team I’m proud of, and still be present as a mom to my two boys. It’s not always balanced day to day, but zooming out, if I can look at both my business and my family and feel like I’m building something meaningful in each, that’s success to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://honeycombinteriors.com/
- Instagram: @Honeycombinteriordesign
- Facebook: Honeycomb Home Design
- LinkedIn: Honeycomb Home Design
- Youtube: Arianalovato8640
- Yelp: Honeycomb Home Design
