How NovoStilia Was Born - A post by the Founder

NovoStilia was born from a common dilemma: the desire to create a beautiful space, while trying to work with what you have.

I grew up in a small town in Romania, in a family of handcrafters. From an early age, I was taught to appreciate objects and to understand how they were made. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, while my parents were building their home, inspiration didn’t come from the internet, it came from stacks of interior design magazines that my parents sourced for inspiration. This was only a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the idea of “interior design” was still new to us in Eastern Europe.

I was captivated by those glossy, glamorous interiors. At the same time, I was growing up in a home where things were chosen carefully, built over time, and made to last. That contrast stayed with me, and quietly shaped how I understand beauty today.

As a child, I was constantly rearranging furniture, trying to make our home feel more beautiful with what we already had. Cleaning the house became my excuse to redecorate. I would quietly hide what didn’t feel right and highlight what did. That’s when I began to train my sense of balance - of colour, shape, style, and proportion.

Interior design wasn’t just my interest, it was part of our family language. My parents worked in upholstery, leading teams of upholsterers, creating trends and developing patterns. They brought that knowledge home, and they passed it on to me.

So when the time came to choose my path, I chose interior design. And because I also believed I could change the world, I chose political science too. I pursued both, in parallel. My parents supported me in moving to Bucharest for my studies, while continuing furnishing and decorating their own home.

When I arrived in Bucharest, I was given a dorm room with a sink, barely any furniture, and in very poor condition. With the help of my parents, I transformed it completely, using what I could source and afford. That small room became my first personal project, my first proof that a beautiful space doesn’t come from excess, but from vision and care.

My dorm room transformation, 2009

After graduating, I started working as an interior designer. At the same time, I continued my master’s in international relations, still holding on to that idea of “saving the world”.

Two years later, life took me in a different direction. I joined an international organisation and moved to Brussels, where I’ve been living ever since.

But design never left me.

In Brussels, I fell in love with architecture, with antiques, with history embedded in objects. This is where I refined my knowledge in furniture restoration. I kept creating, curating, restoring, and designing - in friends’ homes, in rented apartments, and eventually in my own. Those spaces became my laboratory, my portfolio, and my story.

After over eight years working in Brussels, NovoStilia was born.

Samples of my current interior design projects

NovoStilia is not just a brand; it is a reflection of my knowledge and experience. It is shaped by living in a place where antique pieces are treasures, and where history is not stored away, but lived with.

NovoStilia was born to offer a way to integrate the beauty of the past into contemporary life - comfortably, practically, and meaningfully.

You won’t find perfection here. Some of my interiors may not follow every design rule. That’s intentional. NovoStilia is about building spaces with restored, curated and affordable pieces. It’s about depth, not perfection. And my interior projects are meant to inspire.

NovoStilia is not an interior design service. I offer restored, handcrafted, and carefully curated pieces, alongside an open window into my personal projects. Through it, you’ll see how these principles take shape in everyday life: not as ideals, but as lived practices.

After years in public service, I haven’t changed the world in the ways I once imagined. But I’ve come to understand something more subtle, and perhaps more lasting: when it is accessible, meaningful, and placed in the right context for the right needs, design can change how we live.

In that sense, NovoStilia is a continuation of service, but expressed differently. This project is my way of returning something to the world, through a language that is visual, tactile, balanced and deeply human. A form of expression rooted in the reality of how we inhabit our spaces.

NovoStilia responds to the needs of our time. You won’t find a certain style here. Instead, you’ll notice personal patterns, and principles that evolve with the present moment. There is maximalism in expression, but minimalism in consumption. There is respect for what came before, and adaptation for what lies ahead.

I believe the world already holds more than enough furniture and objects to shape meaningful homes. Yet so much is discarded. We live in a system that rewards replacement over repair, quantity over meaning. NovoStilia stands in quiet resistance to that logic.

It is not about adding more, but about seeing the world differently. It is not about perfection, but about connection between objects, spaces, and our need for beauty and peace of mind.

NovoStilia also promotes adaptation of the items around us to new technology, but rejects futuristic design with lack of décor. It promotes a future as a remembrance, an honouring of what was built to last, and adapted to the present.

NovoStilia is legacy, refined.