About us
Nothing is better than a home filled with what you love!
Our most successful projects provide elevated design that allow clients to see themselves reflected in their surroundings. We design spaces that inspire those that inhabit them to experience a relationship with their home.
We are drawn to the unique elements of your home and are adept at collaborating with craftspeople, artists, architects, builders and landscape designers to enhance and illuminate the most beautiful elements of your home, from stylish architectural details to stunning views.
our Team
Founded in 2020 by a team of designers, Forge Group’s unique and integrated approach to design represents the collective passions of its founders.
WYNDI CARNES
Director of Design
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wyndi’s career began in marketing and strategic planning. In 2012 she shifted her focus to join her husband in launching a home building business. After pouring her creative talents into several home renovations, friends took notice and began asking Wyndi for her assistance with their home design.
Wyndi is a firm believer that collaboration is the secret to a great end result. She enjoys working with clients to determine the best use of a space for the way they live and how to incorporate pieces into a design to make it solely theirs. The joy of bringing together local, national and global artisans, fabricators and tradesmen to make it all happen sparked the desire to open Forge Design Group.
She and her husband, John, have two daughters, a lab and a French bulldog.
NICOLE LEE
Lead Designer
A design professional with experience at firms in Maryland and Virginia for the past 10 years, Nicole earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is passionate about Forge Design Group’s collaborative process. Inspired by art and color, specifically painting, she has led designs that incorporate art by employing commissions for pieces unique to a space. Nicole loves working with natural materials, especially stone, and compares walking through a stone warehouse to being in a gallery of the most beautiful abstract paintings imaginable. Design for Nicole is an organic opportunity to work with clients, artisans and other designers to incorporate art into a process that transforms living spaces.
Born into a family of classical musicians (both of her parents are in the National Symphony Orchestra and her older brother is in New York’s Metropolitan Opera), Nicole feels fortunate to have been surrounded from a very young age by people who value the arts.
Design and the arts share space in Nicole’s heart with Theo, a pet rabbit she rescued from a Richmond parking lot, and two rescued (but not from a parking lot!) cats, Noguchi and Bagheera.
SARAH COCHRAN
Office Administrator & Design Assistant
After seven years working in accounting, Sarah, a graduate of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce who also holds a master’s degree in accounting from the College of William and Mary, joined Forge Design Group’s creative team to manage purchasing, material resource collections and bookkeeping. Also, passionate about design, she exercised her right brain talents to explore interior design fully redecorating her own home.
The mother of three, two daughters and a son, is an active parent chairing events at St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s schools and making sure the family’s two cats and two dogs all stay happy.
“We believe good design is a collaborative process that helps reveal the collective tapestry of one’s experiences and passions and soul - what speaks to them.”