A mother and daughter have expanded their interior design business to a new downtown Roslyn office to better serve clients.
Denise Rinfret founded Rinfret Interior Designs 25 years ago in Manhattan and moved the office into her Manhasset home a few years later. After her daughter Missy Rinfret Minicucci graduated from New York School of Interior Design in New York City and worked for a few years on her own, Minicucci came home to Long Island to join her mother. The business was renamed the Rinfret Group.
“We’ll be working separately and come together with the same ideas,” Minicucci said. “It’s a lot of laughs, and I feel very fortunate. I was in the industry on my own for a little while, but I’ve learned so much from her in recent years.”
The pair has collaborated on projects as small as a single room or studio apartment to as large as the mansions of the North Shore and Hamptons.
The Rinfret Group, which was named Best of the North Shore in 2017 for interior design, opened its new office during the summer at 1382 Old Northern Blvd. in Roslyn, located behind Shish Kebab Grill, facing the pond.
The new office hosts walls of windows to bring in the natural light on troves of throw pillows, design books, showroom furniture and accessories, and Minicucci said the space is ideal for relaying design concepts to clients.
While Rinfret said the group is keeping the Manhasset office, appointments and client meetings will be done mostly from the new location.
Rinfret majored in art history at St. John’s University before entering the interior design world, though Rinfret said she was already repainting her bedroom furniture when she was 12 years old.
“I loved the whole art world, and it was a natural progression, going from art history to interior design,” Rinfret said. “I’m very familiar with the classics and we do incorporate that into our work with a contemporary slant to it.”
Minicucci, who grew up in Manhasset, originally envisioned a career in finance, but she opted to pursue a career in interior design after growing up surrounded by her mother’s work.
“Finance never was a passion to me, and eventually I decided design is what I needed to do to make me happy,” Minicucci said.
Minicucci said the Rinfret Group’s design philosophy is classic with a twist and it has worked on homes across Long Island, New York City and Connecticut.
When it comes to design trends, Rinfret said she never gets swayed by fads, but instead builds a concept around a mixture of contemporary and traditional looks.
“We really do everything, from doorknobs to towel racks to furniture to lighting to everything in between,” Minicucci said. “We do whatever the client needs.”
For more information about the Rinfret Group, call 516-626-0717 or email therinfretgroup@gmail.com.
