Carly Neal
Principal Designer and Founder Victoria, BC
Carly Neal grew up in a family of carpenters and engineers on Vancouver Island, where an early curiosity for the built environment took hold. Watching skilled hands shape spaces from the ground up taught her something she has never stopped believing: that craft and genuine care for detail are inseparable from how a place feels to live in. The most balanced, personal, and soulful homes are built with intention from the very beginning.
A fascination with the psychology of space and a love of art history led her to a Bachelor of Applied Interior Design at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Upon graduating, she set her sights on the world of public architecture and interiors, bringing that foundation to a boutique creative firm in Calgary and then to a prominent architecture partnership in Vancouver.
When she returned to her hometown on Vancouver Island, Carly reconnected with Victoria's design community through the island chapter of IDIBC, and found her curiosity reinvigorated by residential work.
Designing for how people actually live, for the memories made in a kitchen, the quiet of a bedroom, the way light moves through a room at dusk, offered something she had not fully anticipated: the deep satisfaction of making a client feel genuinely seen, and of creating a space that holds the conditions for real connection.
Now, with over 15 years of practice across the Pacific Northwest, she leads a full-service interior design practice in Victoria, BC, working with clients on residential renovations and custom home projects from the first conversation through to final installation. Her commercial background brings rigour and careful project management to every project. Her investment in residential work brings warmth, attentiveness, and genuine curiosity about the people behind each home. She has cultivated long relationships with clients and a strong network of contractors and consultants she is proud to call collaborators.
Her curiosity runs wide: through contemporary art, the principles of wabi-sabi, innovative building techniques, and the ways architecture shapes how we move through life. She is drawn to natural materials that patina and age, that carry visual stories forward rather than freeze a moment in time. She guides clients toward choices rooted in style rather than fashion, and in honouring a building's heritage while embracing the fullness of contemporary living.
At the centre of every Dashwood project is a deeper conversation about how her clients live, what they value, and the memories they want to make.
Thoughtful residential interior design, she believes, has the power to shape how we connect with the places we call home and navigate life's transitions as we age. It is not a luxury. It is a form of care.
Carly holds a Bachelor of Applied Interior Design from Mount Royal University and has maintained her designation as a Registered Interior Designer, a credential that requires rigorous academic training, passage of the NCIDQ examination, and ongoing professional development in health, safety, and building code compliance. She is an active member of VISID, IDIBC, and IDC, and currently serves on the IDIBC board, working to advance legislative recognition for interior designers in British Columbia. In a province where anyone can legally call themselves an interior designer, that distinction matters: for the profession, and for every client who deserves to know who they are trusting with their home.
Registered Interior Designer | VISID | IDIBC | IDC | NCIDQ Certified
Bachelor of Applied Interior Design, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB