Interior Designer Maggie Cruz Marks 20 Years of Making Miami Homes Beautiful

Designer Maggie Cruz hunches over her iPad underneath the shade of a tall tree at an outdoor café in South Miami. Her golden brown hair falls over her face as she zooms into a floor plan and writes on the screen. Satisfied with her notes, she sits back and takes off her thick-rimmed glasses. Her joy is palpable; she looks as enamored as ever with the creative process. But she's been at this for a long time. The Miami native is gearing up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her interior design business, Maggie Cruz Interior Design (MCID), which caters to both residential and commercial clients.

Cruz says her love of interior design is innate. As a child, she arranged and rearranged her bedroom hundreds of times. Her Cuban father constantly built things around the house and showed her the magic of making things yourself.

Following her bliss, she went on to study design in college. After working for a few years with another designer, she decided it was time to start her own firm. MCID was born in July 2005. She remembers her first project fondly.

"Funny enough," she says, "I used to work out at a gym here in South Miami." She points up 72nd Street and smiles to herself, recalling the distant memory. A fellow gym rat who shared her personal trainer had a boat that needed decorating. Cruz thought, sure, she could deck out a boat.

"I didn't realize how big of a yacht it was gonna be," she remembers. "It ended up being a huge yacht and it was just decorating the interior, but that was my first solo paying gig."
Throughout the years, the business grew by word of mouth and through friends of friends. Eventually, she began getting work that involved new builds — her favorite kind and the type she specializes in now.

"It's just such a cool process because we're so integrated into the beginning and the end of the entire project. It's like you're putting this whole puzzle together that builds this beautiful house," she says, using her hands to illustrate her point. "It's technical, but it's artistic."

Cruz and her team are involved in the process from inception to reality. This makes the designer a more valuable part of the process, as opposed to being hired only at the end to pick some furnishings.

"We get in on the ground level and work in those early stages with the architects," she explains. "We're designing in tandem with the architecture team and also the engineering team. Once the construction phase begins, we alleviate the burden of the owner and select the materials for things like the floors, the doors, the baseboards...And then, after all that's done, we get into the decor part."

Whether she's working on a new build or handling a standard interior design client, Cruz always starts by assessing the space and asking herself: What's the architecture calling for here? She observes the space, even listens to it, and then merges those findings with the client's personality traits. Anything from their social life to family size to fashion sense to favorite restaurants can influence Cruz.

"My clients really are the ones who inspire the look," she says. "I take the cues from them, and then our process is really simple: We start with a concept that the client approves, and then we dwindle it down to the details."

Her favorite design tip? Layers. Start with the floorboards (are you going to add a rug?), then lighting (lamps can make or break your space). Pillows, cabinets, couches — they're all important layers that influence a space.

"My husband calls me Maggie Layers," she says with a laugh.
While Cruz specializes in interior design, in 2017 she launched her own boutique furniture line, available on her website, maggiecruzdesign.com. The Cuban-American draws inspiration from her heritage, resulting in a collection that features lots of wicker and blends sunny, tropical vibes with Art Deco.

Made locally in Miami, her pieces are mainly sold to other designers.

When Ken Fulk furnished Pharrell and David Grutman's Miami Beach Goodtime Hotel, he handpicked one of Cruz's pieces. If you ever find yourself looking for a good time at the Goodtime, be sure to stop by the library to see her Habanera desk on full display.

"I was always interested in furniture design," says Cruz. "As a designer, I know how other designers think and how they shop. So we really wanted to create a sort of boutique line that still allows for some customization for mainly trade but also the general public."

Twenty years on, Cruz is always looking to her next project. She's working on launching a wallpaper line this year, and it will likely be full of vibrant colors.

"I love color," Cruz says. Without the glasses, it's easy to see her eyes light up with excitement again.