Erika Flugger

Erika Flugger was born into furniture. Her great grandfather was a master cabinetmaker in San Antonio, Ibarra Ecuador. San Antonio de Ibarra is a small town in northern Ecuador known as the country's "Wood Carving Capital". Located in the Imbabura Province, just 7 kilometers from the city of Ibarra and about 70-109 km from Quito, this "Pueblo Mágico" (Magical Town) is renowned for its artistic traditions, specifically intricate, hand-carved wooden furniture and sculptures.

She trained formally at the New York School of Interior Design, one of the world's great schools for professional design. She also spent years working alongside master craftsmen and other top interior designers. She absorbed their techniques, their discipline, and their insistence that nothing worth making should ever be rushed.

In 2012, Erika founded Interior Designist with a singular mission: to bring genuinely handcrafted furniture to the top residential addresses in NYC that had forgotten what truly well-made furniture could look and feel like. The studio began in an industrial building in Chelsea and has since grown into a full atelier serving private clients, architects, and interior designers across North America in Brooklyn, NY.

Erika's design aesthetic is rooted in restraint. She is drawn to the proportions of mid-century Scandinavian design, the material honesty of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the timeless elegance of French classical furniture. Her pieces are never merely beautiful — they are structurally impeccable, supremely comfortable, and built to outlast the buildings they furnish.

As a fourth-generation practitioner, Erika feels a profound responsibility to the craft. She teaches workshops, mentors young furniture makers, and is a vocal advocate for the preservation of traditional techniques in an age of mass production. For Erika, every piece Interior Designist makes is a small act of resistance against disposability.