With a new Surf City vacation house as home base, VLV Designs expands its interior design services to the Topsail area.
It’s a beautiful thing when a career and a passion come together, and for interior designer Victoria Valentinas, life is all about making things beautiful. After recently moving into her family’s new vacation home in Surf City, she is now introducing her Greensboro-based business, VLV Designs, to the shores of Topsail Island. Known in the industry for bringing design dreams to life, Valentinas is excited to turn her passion for beauty into her own dream beach home come true.
Growing up outside of Chicago, Valentinas visited different North Carolina beaches every summer on family vacations with her parents and sister. Her family loved North Carolina and dreamt of one day owning their own beach house along the coast. When it came time for college and knowing she wanted to study interior design, Valentinas chose High Point University, which provided the perfect opportunity for her parents to also relocate to the Pinehurst area for their retirement. After graduating, Valentinas began a decade-long career in the furniture industry, but her life changed course in the spring of 2020.
“I was traveling 90% percent of the time for work, so when COVID happened and the world shut down, my position was eliminated,” Valentinas says. “It was actually a blessing in disguise, because I’d always wanted to have my own interior design business, and it was a great opportunity with everyone staying put and investing in their home.”
During the pandemic Valentinas and her family continued going on family vacations, renting several homes on different beaches before deciding it was the perfect time to consider buying their own space. Her parents searched the market up and down the coast, and it wasn’t long before they found their way over the bridge and into Surf City.
“Coming onto the island is when it hit them that this could be it, our home away from home,” Valentinas says. “Driving over the bridge, they saw all of the beautiful colors and bright houses, plus being surrounded by water everywhere they looked, it instantly made them feel like they were on vacation.”
Valentinas’ parents soon found what they were looking for and purchased a home on North New River Road at the end of 2021. Believing every good beach house deserves an official name, and inspired by a shared love of oysters, the family agreed the term “Oyster Oasis” fit their new residence perfectly.
After some fresh paint and new floors, it was time for Valentinas to put her design skills to work transforming the space into her family’s dream beach house, a task she happily shared with her mother.
“My mom helps out a lot with my interior design business, and we’ve always been drawn to elements of the coastal look, so to finally have our own beach house to design was really exciting,” Valentinas says. “We definitely wanted it to have a coastal chic vibe without the stereotypical seashells on the bedspreads, so our idea was to make it an unexpected beach house by focusing on the beauty of the outside and bringing that in.”
Valentinas decided to use mixed materials, heavy textures and lots of color to give each room its own dramatic vibe while still feeling like a peaceful coastal getaway. She says each of the home’s four bedrooms now has a unique design theme. The tribal Bohemian bedroom features unexpected colors of black and cream to create a beachy vibe using natural elements and many textures, while the coastal Bohemian bedroom is full of cloud-like shades of whites and creams. For the master bedroom, Valentinas went for a coastal island style using neutrals and blues to give her parents a tranquil, getaway feeling. Finally, the main guestroom provided Valentinas and her mom the chance to really focus on the beach element of the home, featuring traditional colors of coral, white and blue to help guests feel like they’re on a true coastal vacation.
Valentinas considers the dining room to be the focal point of the home because of its view of the Intracoastal Waterway.
“With beach house designs, we definitely want to take advantage of a client’s favorite parts of the home and make those the statement feature,” she says. “In our house the back windows face the Intracoastal and our dock, so we’re intentionally not doing any window treatments or placing a chandelier over the table to ensure that absolutely nothing blocks the view. We’ve already had family meals there while watching the sunset, and it feels like we have our own little restaurant.”
In addition to interior design, Valentinas is also an established artist. Her passion for painting began in college during her studies in studio art, and over the past few years she has created several collections, murals and commissioned work. She is excited for the opportunity to share her art with the Topsail community and combine those offerings with her design business.
“There’s really no better inspiration than the beach for me,” Valentinas says. “I love doing beach landscapes and abstract paintings, whether it be the sunrise, the sunset, the marsh or our coast, and highlighting all of the beauty of the island.”
Having a residence on Topsail allows Valentinas to expand her business and devote time to working on projects in the area. VLV Designs currently services not only clients in Greensboro, where she lives, but also both the Pinehurst and Charlotte areas, where her parents and sister live respectively. Having a second home on Surf City means she can now visit the island every month and take on work for clients here, whether they need help with design or art services for their main residences or vacation homes.
“I look forward to getting to know the locals and also being of assistance to anyone coming to the area to purchase a vacation home,” Valentinas says. “Especially with a vacation home, there are a lot of logistics that go into it and you don’t want to spend all your trips getting your house together. Our services range from full interior design with floor plans, to indoor and outdoor furniture, paint selections, window treatments, faux finishing and murals for both residential and commercial spaces, plus custom artwork, something that always makes a great souvenir from your beach vacation.”
Valentinas believes Topsail presents a great opportunity to expand VLV Designs, as the beach offers the perfect solution to her motto “Want to Live a Stress Free, Beautiful Life?” She understands the connection between what her clients need and how she can be of service in designing their own coastal oasis.
“Your home is your most intimate space and where you should feel most comfortable,” Valentinas says. “From making decisions to even knowing where to start, my goal is to take the stress out of designing your home.”
Want to learn more?
Visit vlvdesigns.net
