Meet the Designers of the 2025 Real Simple Home

The paint is already ordered for our eighth annual REAL SIMPLE Home, or should we say, homes! For the first time ever, we’ll be decorating two gorgeous apartments, both at One Park Row in downtown Manhattan. One will be a four-bedroom penthouse suite designed by six talented interior designers, and the other will be a two-bedroom apartment that we’re referring to as the DIY Annex, which will be tackled by three of our favorite content creators. The full reveal won’t happen until September (in our October issue and here on realsimple.com), but we’ll be sharing updates along the way, and we can’t wait to show you all of the incredible designs and genius ideas these nine designers dream up.

Alvin Wayne

Alvin Wayne is the founder and principal designer of New York-based Alvin Wayne Interiors, and he will be tackling the penthouse’s incredible primary suite. His designs are known for their timeless appeal, and he seamlessly blends modern and vintage elements to create standout spaces. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Essence, and others. Alvin’s career started in the fashion industry, where he honed his appreciation for luxury and style over 14 years before establishing his own firm. 

Jason Saft

Meet Jason Saft! Jason is the owner of Staged to Sell Home, a luxury staging firm based in NYC and Brooklyn. He honed his skills at a very early age, redecorating every room in the house he grew up in…whether or not he was asked to. As he got older, he rearranged the homes of others…whether or not he was asked to. His seemingly magical ability to transform any room has led him to assist in over $3 billion worth of real estate sales (woah!). His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes & Gardens, The New York Times, and others. This year, he’ll be taking on the open living room, dining room, and kitchen spaces in the window-filled penthouse.

Noz Nozawa

San-Francisco-based designer Noz Nozawa is famous for her colorful, layered interiors that mix flea market finds with luxury pieces. She started her career in tech marketing before launching her firm, Noz Design, back in 2014. She’ll be bringing her bold style to the penthouse’s wrap-around patio (and overcoming her fear of heights pretty quickly). Noz has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Sunset, and more. In 2024, Nozawa launched a 16-piece lighting collection in collaboration with Corbett Lighting, inspired by her love of jewelry.

Alexandra Gater

Alexandra Gater is a Toronto-based stylist and home decor expert who started her career as a magazine editor. She brings her tips and tricks to millions through her home makeover videos on YouTube and will now be bringing new ideas to the home’s second-floor den. She focuses on designs that work for both renters and homeowners and believes everyone deserves to live in a beautiful space that feels like home, regardless of budget. Alexandra published her debut book, Own Your Space, in April 2023. Her work has been featured in Apartment Therapy, Clever by Architectural Digest, and Domino Magazine.

Candace Griffin

Candace Griffin is the founder of Candace Mary Interiors, a Chicago-based design firm that specializes in timeless elegance infused with modern elements. Griffin started her career in staging before launching her own firm in 2018 and has worked with a diverse range of clients, including homeowners, brokers, celebrities, and small businesses. This year, she’ll be designing the world’s coolest kids’ room (we may be biased) for the home’s penthouse apartment. She’s been featured in national publications like House Beautiful, Apartment Therapy, and Domino.

Mandy Cheng

Mandy Cheng is the studio principal and owner of Mandy Cheng Design based in Los Angeles, and she’ll be creating a beautiful guest bedroom/office for the home. Before she opened her own interior design company, she actually launched her career first as a production and graphic designer in the film and TV industry, designing music videos for artists like One Republic and J.Cole. Now, she’s using her set experience to create beautiful homes for clients, who include celebrities Daveed Diggs and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her husband, Rory, and their two rescue dogs, Scout and Charlie.

Drew Michael Scott

Drew Michael Scott of Lone Fox is an L.A.-based interior designer, DIY expert, and all-around ideas-machine who will be designing the living room of our DIY Annex. Drew started his career in men’s fashion after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in L.A., but his passion for interiors led him to start creating content on his YouTube channel, Lone Fox, in 2018 and he’s been making over spaces and bringing his creative ideas to millions of loyal fans ever since. Recently, he’s been showcasing new projects in his 1920s Spanish revival home. He’s been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens, and more.

Mallory Fletchall

Mallory Fletchall is a Brooklyn-based content creator and owner of Reserve Home, a lifestyle and decor blog focusing on timeless interiors and vintage finds. Mallory started blogging when she moved to NYC back in 2015, and before that, she spent over a decade running a successful Etsy shop, where her love for sourcing and selling vintage goods took root. Mallory has engaged audiences with amazing projects around her beautiful apartment, and now, she’ll get to bring some of those incredible ideas to the DIY Annex. When not creating content, Mallory can be found scouring antique shops with her husband, David, and lounging with her cats.

Valeria Jacobs

Valeria Jacobs is the brilliant DIY mind behind the blog and Instagram, Rebecca and Genevieve, named after her grandma and mother. While she wasn’t exposed to a ton of big designers while growing up in a small city in Peru, she always had a fondness for interiors (she’d browse through her mom’s design books). In 2017, she launched her career with a small vintage rug shop and moved onto content creation in 2020 after purchasing her first home. She’s been creating content on Instagram and hasn’t looked back. Valeria lives in San Francisco with her husband, Paul, three kids, and two dogs.

Tyler Moore

Tyler Moore, aka Tidy Dad, is a father of three, a full-time N.Y.C. public school teacher, and a cleaning and organizing expert. He’s definitely busy, but lucky for us, not too busy to help us get the penthouse looking ship-shape with his arsenal of organizing tricks. Tyler has appeared on The Today Show and recently launched his first book, Tidy Up Your Life, which he wrote to help people make space for what matters to them. You can find him on Instagram @tidydad and subscribe to his newsletter on Substack, The Tidy Times.