Beach Dwellings

I wish I could give Maria 10 stars!! We updated our beach house this year with upgrades to the flooring, fireplace, ugly popcorn ceiling, powder room, entry room etc. Maria’s design ideas were amazing and the finished product makes the house look like a new home without doing a full renovation. We furnished the home and there were some items we wanted to spend money on and others we did not. Maria always worked within our budget and found new options/choices when requested. We live out of state and Maria made the entire process easy, enjoyable, and seamless. I cannot recommend her enough. Our beach home is exactly our style and is warm and welcoming.

Maria did a beautiful job decorating my house at the shore. She had terrific recommendations for the complete design of our great room on the second floor including placement of a bar in the living space and proposing a round table for the dining area to optimize entertaining areas. Her furniture and fabric recommendations were fantastic. Maria was also able to connect us with other vendors including those for wallpaper installation and window treatments. Maria has a clear and transparent approach for payment for her services which I greatly valued. I would highly recommend Maria at Beach Dwellings to help decorate your home!

I had the pleasure of working with Maria at Beach Dwellings on both an indoor refresh of my kitchen and first floor and an outdoor living space project at my beach house, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. From start to finish, she brought a perfect balance of creativity, professionalism, and attention to detail. For the outdoor space, Maria and McLaughlin Builders transformed my outdoor space into a relaxing, coastal-inspired retreat that feels like an extension of the home. Every element was chosen with both aesthetics and functionality in mind. It’s now the go-to gathering spot for friends and family. What I appreciated most was how easy Maria was to work with: responsive, organized, and always willing to collaborate. I would highly recommend Beach Dwellings to anyone looking for a designer who combines talent with genuine care for their clients’ vision and lifestyle.

Beach Dwellings bought our dream home to life! Maria helped design our new home from end to end - everything from choosing finishes, tiles and flooring to indoor and outdoor furnishings. She understood our design aesthetic and gave perfect recommendations that created exactly the spaces we wanted - and she did it all within budget. Maria was professional, responsive, thoughtful and kind - we could not have completed this project without her. I recommend Maria and Beach Dwellings without reservation and will use her again for all our design needs. She is amazing.

Good listener. Learned our style and did not impose her own. Has great, creative ideas. Always available; always positive. She designed the entire interior of our brand new house and everything fits together and flows perfectly. Kept us on schedule with our new house.

We worked with Maria over the past 2 years and she's designed our whole house...from large scale decisions like kitchen, carpets, paint to small details like lighting and accessories! She intuitively understood our style and was super friendly from the start and easy to work with! She has completely transformed our home into a place that we truly love. I highly recommend her!

Maria did a fantastic job! She helped us select furniture, finishes, and accessories for our new townhome in Stone Harbor Lakes. After figuring out how we wanted to use the space, Maria offered great ideas and product options for a family-friendly (yet classy) beach place, all within our budget. She and her team coordinated the furniture storage and delivery, too, which was essential because we were doing the project long-distance. Highly recommend her!

We just completed a new home in Cape May. Because of Maria’s selections and guidance, our new home is beautiful, comfortable, and, best of all, suits our family’s personality and style. Maria and her staff are wonderful to work with and absolutely no drama! Thank you Beach Dwellings.

We had previously hired a designer and had a terrible experience. Items took much longer to arrive than guaranteed, work was shoddy and prices far exceeded what was quoted. So we were extremely hesitant to work with a new designer. We can honestly say Maria far exceeded our expectations. She’s honest, extremely knowledgeable and a joy to work with. There was never a time when she didn’t deliver what was promised. Maria worked with us from the pre-construction phase through its completion. Building a home from scratch can be challenging and overwhelming but she made the whole process (picking appliances, lighting, paint colors, tile, cabinets, etc) easy and fun. Now that we have been living here for over a year we are having her come back in for additional projects. She really listened to our input and thoughts and made our house a lovely home. We highly recommend her.

We can not say enough about Maria. She is extremely efficient, easy to communicate with, responsive and such a pleasure to spend time with. She cared about what was important to us and always provided choices with visual examples to ensure that we were satisfied. She was clear on timelines and kept us on task and on track so happily the project finished on time. The contractors she collaborates with were all excellent. As a team they were thorough and worked seamlessly with one another. We have already identified future projects for her to help us with and are thrilled to have an ongoing working relationship with her. We are grateful to have worked with Maria and highly recommend her.

This is my second time working with Maria. I am very pleased with her decorating choices in our new home in West Cape May. My favorite thing about working with Maria is her professionalism mixed with her great personality. I feel like I’m talking with a sister when we make decisions. Any vendor that she sets me up with is just as professional and easy to work with. I highly recommend Beach Dwellings. You will love her work!

Maria helped us design our new beach home from start to finish. From the very beginning of the project at the drawing stage, Maria's input was invaluable as she helped us navigate countless selections. Given our open floor plan, it was especially important that each room blend with the others but not be carbon copies of each other. Maria's impeccable eye helped us coordinate all of the elements in a new build (cabinets, counters, hardware, plumbing fixtures, tile, blinds, furniture, accents and more) that ended up blending beautifully. Her advice helped us understand where it was important to splurge and where we could save. In addition to her excellent eye, what makes Maria special is that she really listens to the client and helps her vision come to life. In interviewing designers, I found that many of them design a beautiful home, but all of their homes end up looking similar to one another. After seeing examples of Maria's work, I was sold because I loved everything I saw, but the homes were all different and clearly reflected the tastes of her individual clients. She is easy to work with and fun to be around as well. We are thrilled with our new home, and I cannot recommend Maria enough!

Maria is a pleasure to work with! Every step of the way is front loaded with JOY - even the tedious chores. By the time I had to select bathroom cabinetry hardware I was out of time and patience. Enter Maria, with her big heart and firm knowledge. Job done! Maria will help you design and decorate your dream home - your home, not her home. I'll never work with anyone else. Kathleen N.

As a recent beach front Condo owner in Cape May I went looking for someone to help with my decor choices. I contacted Beach Dwellings after looking at their website. What can i say, Maria is a creative genius with a team of professional resources to back her up!. I had a complete renovation of my condo done on time, within budget ,no surprises! Maria thought of every detail, many unique ideas with impeccable taste!

Total renovation of my North Wildwood condo. I hired Beach Dwellings to decorate the condo. Maria was great to work with. She nailed the initial design which I only made a few minor changes to but I was impressed with here design ideas. She coordinated ordering, delivery and set up. She is a true professional and easy to work with. I highly recommend her if you need design help.

Imagine building and decorating a home with your best friend...one with impeccable taste, who keeps your best interests in mind, who works tirelessly with you to make selections that honor your vision and your budget and your need for compromise with your spouse...all in a non-stressful and fun manner. That is Maria Toczylowski, the owner and designer of Beach Dwellings in Stone Harbor, NJ. She guided us through the selection of flooring, furniture, cabinets, countertops, hardware, window treatments, lamps, outside house colors, garage door selection, fireplace designs, and more. She worked diligently with our building staff to become an essential, dependable, and innovative partner. We all cannot recommend her highly enough!!

Maria is amazing! She has a great sense of design and was so easy and pleasant to work with. I wanted to have input on the project and she let me while making sure I didn't make any big mistakes. She had so many creative and unique ideas that we implemented from the blueprint phase through the final touches. I love that she doesn't decorate every home the same way; she really works with the homeowners to customize the house based on their style. Our house was on the 2017 Cape May Hospital House Tour and Maria pulled everything together perfectly and on time so it wasn't a stressful experience. I would absolutely hire her again!

Working alongside Maria could not have been easier. Her style and design expertise took the quesswork out of every decision. Maria combined a good mix of classic furnishings to create a beautiful, comfortable living space with inspiration taken from our coastal location. Our home is sophisticated, polished and fresh, yet still functional and timeless in a soft palette of blue and calming grays. Our goal was to make everyone feel welcome as they walked through the front door and feel the tranquility of the space. Maria accomplished that for us!

My husband and I contacted Beach Dwellings to help guide us with our whole-house renovation. Wow, did we hit the jackpot! We couldn’t be more pleased with that decision. Maria worked closely with our architect and contractor to ensure that we had an intelligent layout that worked beautifully for our home and family. She was integral in that initial design process, making sure the spaces were functional, as well as aesthetically pleasing. She and her amazing assistant, Kathy, worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that we had a stress free experience with our renovation and we are so grateful for that. They were available from day one. What a difference! Maria’s love for design is apparent and the quality one sees in her work reflects that. She is definitely the most talented designer we’ve ever worked with and we would use her again in a second. Maria has a personality that is warm, engaging, enthusiastic, and she’s a complete professional. Her gift for design and is a true pleasure to see. She delivers and she’s fun to work with! Sent from my iPad

We contacted Maria to assist us with updating the interior of our old beach house in Stone Harbor. The challenge was the old "Stone Harbor" pine paneling in the front room. Maria was extremely easy to work with and she understood what we wanted to accomplish. She worked within our thoughts and improved them. Her color palate was perfect. Becky and I could not have been more satisfied with the way our interiors turned out, exceeded our expectations. We are so much more comfortable and at home thanks to her patient effort!

Two of the best decisions my family and I made in the last year were to buy a townhouse at the shore and hire Maria from Beach Dwellings to completely re-design the interior. We are new to Stone Harbor and actually found Beach Dwellings by doing an internet search. I soon realized Maria was one of, if not the best, interior designers in New Jersey. The initial consultation was at our home, and she quickly made me feel at ease with her confidence, vision and sense of personal style. I knew by the end of that meeting and having already seen her portfolio, it was an obvious choice to hire Beach Dwellings. Over the next several months, we met in her design space and had a lot of fun. We are the types of people that like to cut out pictures in magazines of rooms we like, but don't want to sort through books and books of fabric, wallpaper and furniture (isn't that why you hire a designer?).....Maria made the process easy!!! She listened patiently as we showed her pictures and then asked questions to start the process. She would pull out swatches and suggest 2-3 options and each were amazing. Then building from that, we picked out furniture, carpet, paint colors, lighting, accessories, molding, granite, tile, etc...I am happy we made that decision, as in the past working with other designers, we would only do one section of a room and never felt like it flowed together...for the first time, we have a place that is coordinated. I also want to mention, Maria is a very fair person....I never felt like I was over charged (which you have to be careful with, I am sure you have heard of the Stone Harbor and Avalon "mark-up") and billed for things I didn't want. In the end, we love our new house and it honestly is thanks to her. Now if only I could get her to move near our full time residence so she could re-design that. I cant thank Maria from Beach Dwellings enough for all her help, patience, style and talent in making our Beach home feel like it could be in a magazine.

Maria from Beach Dwellings has been a pleasure to work with! Prior to her hire, I reviewed personal recommendations, toured homes that she had completed and met with her and her staff. I was impressed with all! Maria is creative, pleasant, patient and professional. We asked her to help us create a waterfront beach home that was fresh, current, durable, refined, and yet relaxed for a large active family with pets. Paramount was our wish for design choices to highlight, rather than compete with, the sweeping ocean views and create an easy flow between indoor and outdoor spaces. We wanted to incorporate specific cherished belongings from our old home. In addition, each of our children wanted to participate in the design of his/her bedroom suite. Maria was able to make a wonderfully cohesive home that incorporated a South Pacific surfing suite, classical nautical suite, boardwalk bunk room, princess under-the-sea suite, comfortable beach guest suite, vintage country French suite, bohemian beach suite, and a serene master suite. Our multiple common areas are equally exquisite, and function very well with our lifestyle of family ease and large formal and informal gatherings. These include a to-die-for gourmet kitchen, refined living and dining rooms that are flanked by a beautiful fireplace on one side and a unique wet bar that Maria helped design. These rooms connect via Signature Doors (completely fold away, leaving an open space where once there was a wall) out to an expansive travertine-covered beachfront deck. The comfortable family/TV room flows easily out to the pool, patio, lawn and ping pong areas, all of which are proportioned and outfitted with the utmost attention to detail. Her skilled support staff (shout out to Amanda- you’re the best!) and many professional connections with custom providers, all provided pleasant interaction and quality product. Although our family chose to be intimately involved in the creation of our home, Maria is also very experienced with clients who prefer delivery of a fully completed, turn-key home. Beach Dwellings services clients of all budgets and home sizes. Ours was one of the largest on the island (8 en suite bedrooms), requiring a two year architectural and design period and a ten month construction. During that time, Maria collaborated extensively with many of the subcontractors. She was easily accessible via email, text, calls or meetings and always replied promptly to my inquiries. Maria educated, explained and was open to discussing multiple design possibilities, without judgment or any pressure. I always felt that I understood the process, costs and trade-offs of all decisions. Every project has a budget and Maria helped me stay within our budget and make cost-effective and impactful choices for any upgrades. Beach Dwellings offers two payment schedules. We chose the “time and materials” plan as it was easier for me to track. Billing from Beach Dwellings was always detailed, accurate, and timely. We are working on photos of our home to share with you. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to working with Maria on some of our other homes. She’s that good!

Judy and Russ Gombos: Judy found Maria and Beach Dwellings Design via an Internet search and felt that Maria would be perfect for help on interior decorating ideas for our beach house. Judy’s feelings were right on the mark — Maria is the perfect decorator to work with. She has a knack for sensing what we wanted and totally flexible to our tastes and lifestyle — seeming to have a sixth sense for the colors, fabrics, and style that fit out home. Moreover, the professionals Maria uses are also truly top notch and exceptional — she provided an excellent upholsterer; an outstanding painter; recommended a remarkable electrician; and, her choices/suggestions for furnishings were first rate! We couldn’t have been more pleased and were extremely satisfied working with Maria. She is someone you could easily work with and someone who could turn your ideas on decorating into a pleasing reality that you and your guests would enjoy.

From the very beginning, Maria helped us with every aspect of our home design as we built our house in Cape May. She was always available to discuss ideas and meet not only with us, but with our builder and other professionals working on the house. She helped pick out kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures, tile, flooring, paint colors, furniture, lighting, bedding, as well as all the accessories that make a house a home. She really listened to our ideas about what we wanted our home to look and feel like and she most definitely turned those ideas into reality. Maria and her staff were so easy to work with; they were professional, knowledgeable, and always accessible. On many occasions Maria would meet contractors at the house and check on work being done when we were not able to do it ourselves. It was very comforting to know that we could always count on Maria to manage things when we were unavailable. We would highly recommend Beach Dwellings to anyone who is looking for design help. Maria is the best!

Having known Maria personally for several years and also having seen her work, we were very excited to hire her for our own project. To summarize, the result was spectacular. I would say that we were very opinionated in what we wanted and the style we wanted our home to portray about us. She got it and implemented the concept perfectly. She steered us in the right direction when we went astray, and inserted her creativity at various points to give us that extra 'punch' that we definitely wouldn't have initially thought of, and always keeping within the lines of our key concepts. Everyone who visits or walks through our home can't say enough wonderful things. Maria and her team showed exceptional professionalism and attention to detail (which for me is the #1 thing in working with a designer). We loved working with them and would recommend Beach Dwellings for any size project - from the smallest to the largest. Matt B. and Robin A.

Maria came recommended from a friend who saw her work at a house tour in Avalon. Our project was to transform a kitchen, dining room and living area. When Maria came over to meet us and discuss the project I got the sense she understood our vision and desires. She recommended a talented and hardworking contractor. In a few months our home reflected who we are. Maria is a true professional and I look forward to doing many more projects with her.

Maria helped to transform my empty house into a beautiful, enviable home in Westfield, New Jersey. She is always available whether it be email, phone, text or in person-she is the consummate professional but also has an easy going personality that puts you at ease when all the choices can seem overwhelming! Not to mention she helps to narrow down the choices for me! Maria has impeccable taste and she also is a wealth of knowledge for interior design resources and sources of inspiration. I trust her completely with home styling and decor decisions. She was able to immediately understand the look I was going for and made suggestions I would have never thought of that worked flawlessly in my new home and also worked with our budget. She opened my eyes to a world of different possibilities. I constantly get compliments on everything Maria has chosen for our home from color palettes to unique decor and I always recommend her to our friends. Specifically for our home she helped with the following: as part of a major renovation she helped with floor plan layout, paint colors for entire home, all light fixtures, furniture for living and dining area, hardwood colors and finish, carpet styles and colors, granite types and colors, window treatments and finishing touches.

Maria at Beach Dwellings has now completed two homes for us in Stone Harbor. Her professionalism and caring attention to detail were outstanding. She took the time to understand what we were looking for with regard to design and simply nailed it. She did such an outstanding job on our first home that we hired her again for our new construction on the bay. From furniture, window treatments and paint right down to flatware and gravy bowls! And all of this in time for our family to arrive for Thanksgiving. We are grateful for her service and our new friendship. The Mayer and Coffey Families, Stone Harbor, NJ.

We chose Beach Dwellings to furnish and decorate our year round home at the beach. We are more then happy with the outcome! Maria was so easy to work with and she allowed us to be super involved in the entire process. She is the absolute best at choosing paint colors! We look forward to future projects with Maria and would highly recommend her and Beach Dwellings!

Maria has done so much for us. She has helped revitalize all aspects of our beach home - from furnishing, to painting, to silverware and small details. Our project was a painful one, of redecorating our 3 floor beach home. We met Maria at her shop, and we spent some time describing what we were looking for. She immediately went to our wave length, and we were super impressed by her customer friendly services. Maria is extremely creative and made our process of reviewing material types and options so easy. She would do all the measurements, and send us by mail the material options and various choices for furnishing. Extremely flexible, easy to work with, creative and efficient. Couldnt have asked for a better experience, and expect to continue working with Maria for a long time to come.

Maria is a real pleasure to work with. She is a good listener and always strives to help realize the vision of her client and architect. She has an easygoing personality and good eye for color and composition. As an architect I frequently recommend her to my clients.

I worked with Maria on two big projects, our beach house and our residence and highly recommend her. She managed to balance our modern style wishes with functionality. We have an old house. We wanted to update our entire first floor but keep it kid friendly for our two growing, rambunctious boys. Which was not a simple task. I wanted our house to be 'home' for the boys but still have style. Maria made it happen from paint color choices to no fuss material choices and was mindful of our budget. She also helped me navigate the nuts and bolts of a renovation from design/lay out of our kitchen, to communicating details to the contractor, electrician, carpenter etc... and the finishing touches which stamped the project a success. She responded promptly to all my emails and calls throughout both projects. My home feels like my home the way I envisioned it would be after renovations and I could not have done it without Maria.

Maria has made decorating easy. She helped make my small condo a great space to live in. From paint colors, to wall art, to furnishings. She has a great eye for detail which helped tremendously. So easy to work with. I would definately hire Maria and Beach Dwellings again.

My family chose Beach Dwellings for our Margate, NJ beach house rebuild after interviewing three other design firms. The firm's principal and founder, Maria was the primary reason that we chose Beach Dwellings. First and foremost, we did not feel pressured into choosing certain brands, designs, colors, or predetermined taste. We went to Maria with our own inspiration set that had been created through months of pinning pictures to Pinterest among various other sites to create a gallery of things that suited my family's taste. She took these ideas and quickly understood our taste and started building from there. We very quickly and affordably came up with a plan for the whole house, about 3,500 SF in all. We chose hardwood floors, paint colors, carpets, window treatments, furniture, hardware for doors and cabinets, granite colors, bathroom tile and flooring and various other necessities together in a very orderly and efficient manner. We travel quite a bit for work, so there were many times when Maria was able to conduct site visits to ensure that the work was being done properly and up to our standards. Additionally, Maria was able to work very closely with our general contractor, who knew that she was the quarterback for the project. If he was unable to reach us about a decision, we knew that Maria's management of the project was closely aligned with ours, which made delegating many tasks quite easy and care free. Lastly, a budget was very important to us when starting this project. Maria, unlike many designers whom we interviewed, was amenable to suggesting lower cost options, most often without sacrificing the look we were striving for. Most importantly, Maria was a fun person to deal with and we developed a friendship through working together. I can rarely say that about vendors that I have chosen over time to perform work on a home or office. This is a true testament to the fact that her work is personal and it does not end after the final invoice is paid. I have called Maria many times for follow up items and her customer service has been just as good as it was during the project. You truly get what you pay for with Beach Dwellings!

I hired Beach Dwellings to decorate my shore home because of their work I had seen on a local house tour. As soon as I met Maria, the proprietor, I knew we would work well together because she allows and encourages the homeowner to be as involved as they want to be, and I wanted to be very involved! Over the course of the project we became friends, and I have subsequently seen many of Maria's completed projects - they are all beautiful. Maria has a great eye for color and her work always looks fresh and inviting, while still reflecting the taste of the individuals involved. I would highly recommend Maria to anyone looking for a designer who is easy going and great fun to work with!

Maria has great ideas for decorating your space. She helped us with furniture placement, furniture selection and fabrics. I love her color combinations.