It started with a name that stuck.
Chic On The Cheap has been around Sarasota for a long time. And yes, we know the name raises a few questions.
It was never really about being cheap. It was about knowing where to spend, where not to, and understanding that good design doesn’t come from simply buying more expensive things.
That idea has been part of Chic from the beginning.
A lot has changed… That hasn’t.
Chic started with Mark Dalton and a pretty simple approach to interior design: give people good advice, charge them fairly for the expertise, and don’t make money by marking up everything that goes into their home.
More than two decades later, the projects have gotten bigger, the team has grown, Sarasota has changed, and we’ve designed just about every kind of home along the way.
But the basic idea still holds up.
We’re here to help people make good decisions about their homes. Sometimes that means knowing where to invest. Sometimes it means knowing when the expensive option isn’t actually the better one. And sometimes it means telling you to keep the thing you were convinced had to go.
That’s Chic On The Cheap.
Yep. That’s us.
Long before Instagram, Pinterest, or any of the other places people now go looking for design ideas, Chic was already doing things a little differently in Sarasota.
We’ve evolved since then. Thankfully, so have some of the hairstyles.
But the idea behind the company looks surprisingly familiar.
Built around designers.
The Chic studio has never been built around one person or one signature look.
Our designers have their own personalities, perspectives, and clients. They lead their own projects and build real relationships with the people they’re designing for. That independence matters. It gives each designer room to listen, think, disagree occasionally, and make decisions based on the home and the people living there, not a house style they’re expected to repeat.
Different designers. Different homes. Same belief that good design should actually be good for the people who live with it.
Still Chic.
Chic looks a little different than it did in the beginning. So does Sarasota.
But we still believe good design starts with good decisions. Spend where it matters. Save where it doesn’t. Keep what works. Change what doesn’t. And make the home actually work for the people who live there.
Turns out, the idea behind Chic On The Cheap has aged pretty well.
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