The Best is Yet to Come Designs
Marianna Zimmerman
Interior Designer
Every space is thoughtfully designed around your story, your life, and how you want to feel. Not trends.
Marianna Zimmerman founded The Best is Yet to Come Designs in 2011, bringing a Brooklyn-born perspective and two decades of experience to Dallas. She grew up in New York, spent years in Massachusetts, and arrived in Dallas nearly a decade ago with an East Coast edge and a fearless point of view: great design is not about beautiful rooms. It is about curating a home that reflects your story and the way you actually live.
Her process is personal and hands-on from start to finish. Every project begins with a genuine conversation, moves through a personalized design presentation built around how you live, and ends with what Marianna calls Install Day: the moment you walk into your fully finished space for the very first time. Between those two points, she handles everything, from sourcing and procurement to coordinating every subcontractor, so you never have to chase a single detail.
Why The Best is Yet to Come Designs is on our list
Marianna does not design to a trend. She designs to your story. That distinction shows in her range: bold and graphic, quiet and refined, modern or layered, all of it grounded in how her clients actually live. Two decades in, her work is as varied as the people behind it.
What makes her easy to recommend is how much she takes off your plate. From the first conversation to Install Day, she runs the entire project. Sourcing, procurement, every subcontractor, every detail. If you are ready for a home that finally feels like you, Marianna is a name worth knowing.
Q
How would you describe your work and what drives it?
A
My work is rooted in modern luxury, but always with comfort and livability at the center. I love creating spaces that feel clean yet cozy, intentional, and emotionally connected to the people who live there. Whether that is through bold wallpaper, architectural detail, collected textures, or meaningful personal touches.
What I stand for most in my work is personalization, trust, and transformation. I listen carefully to my clients about their culture, their beliefs, even a happy childhood memory I can incorporate into the design. Because I believe good design goes beyond aesthetics. It changes how people experience their everyday lives. My goal is never just to make a room look pretty. It is to create a feeling when you walk into it: comfort, confidence, inspiration, and home.
The name of my company says it best and has been my mantra since I was young. I genuinely believe the best is yet to come, in life, in design, and in what a thoughtfully designed home can do for a person.
“My goal is never just to make a room look pretty. It is to create a feeling when you walk into it.”
Q
What does a great client relationship look like to you?
A
By the halfway point of one particular project, my client and I had stopped feeling like designer and client. We felt more like old friends. She trusted me completely, and she knew that when it came to dealing with contractors or anyone outside my team, I had her best interests at heart. I treated every decision like it was my own home on the line.
That kind of trust, especially from someone who gives you real creative freedom to run with a vision, shifts something. I am no longer just a designer. I am a partner. I pour myself into every detail, every finish, every decision, because when that trust is there, I honestly cannot give anything less.
“When that trust is there, I honestly cannot give anything less.”
Q
How do you design for the way people actually live?
A
I design with real life in mind from the very beginning. I pay attention to how my clients move through their home, where they naturally gather, what frustrates them about their current space, what routines matter most, and even the little things they may not initially realize affect their daily life.
The goal is always to create a home that feels elevated and intentional, but also comfortable, functional, and easy to live in. Livability shapes every decision I make: durable materials, thoughtful layouts, layered lighting, smart storage, and personalized details that make a space feel meaningful. I want my clients to have a home that not only photographs beautifully, but feels comfortable and welcoming every single day.
Q
What are you looking for on a first home visit?
A
I am walking the rooms and listening to the client's wish list, wants, and needs. But I am paying attention to far more than just the aesthetics of the space. I am observing how the home functions, how the family lives in it, and what may or may not be working beneath the surface.
I notice things clients often do not think to mention: how natural light moves throughout the day, where the eye naturally lands when you enter a room, awkward traffic flow, ceiling heights, scale issues, areas where the home feels disconnected or unfinished. I am also looking at how the family actually uses the space: where clutter tends to collect, where people naturally gather, what feels underutilized. Small habits reveal a lot about how a home could support a family better.
Most importantly, I am listening. Beyond the design itself, I am paying attention to how my clients describe their lifestyle, their frustrations, their routines, and the feeling they want their home to create. That is where the real design starts.
Q
Tell us about a project that has stayed with you.
A
One of my very first projects has never left me, and I do not think it ever will.
She was a single mom starting over. Leaving an abusive relationship, leaving a large home behind, and moving into a small apartment with her disabled daughter. She wanted something she could call her own: a space that felt special, that felt like her. Something magazine-worthy, even in a modest apartment.
She did not know me. I did not have a long design resume to show her. But she handed me her keys, trusted me with her budget, answered a few questions, and simply said go.
That kind of trust, especially from someone who had been through what she had, was not lost on me.
When she walked through the door and saw her new place for the first time, she cried. But it was not the happy tears over a beautiful reveal I have seen since. This was different. This was something deeper. It was relief. It was a new beginning. It was the first exhale she had taken in a long time.
That moment changed me. It reminded me why this work matters: not just the design, but what a space can do for a person's soul. That project set the tone for everything I have done since.
“It reminded me why this work matters: not just the design, but what a space can do for a person's soul.”
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