When Victoria Sass of Prospect Refuge Studio started a renovation of her family’s historic Minneapolis home, she became a client of her own firm. She explains where the experience led to surprising revelations, and how her business changed as a result.

When we moved into our Minneapolis home 10 years ago, I renovated the kitchen as one of my first residential projects after working in commercial design. The house is 125 years old and close to Uptown, so it’s an urban area, but it’s a green neighborhood with lots of historic homes and little yards. The house used to be a triplex, and converting it back to a single-family home was a big commitment. For a while, we were like, “Should we stay? Should we go?” We knew that if we wanted to raise our family there long term, we would have to do a big remodel. We decided to stay, and started the renovation in 2022. We gutted almost the entire house, and even moved a staircase, but we put it all back together. 

Victoria SassChris Mottalini