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ThackstonDesign + Build

One contract. One team. Since 2004.

A design studio table with rolled drawings, tile samples laid out in a grid, and a cabinet door sample propped against the wall.

The problem this firm was built to fix

Marc Thackston spent eleven years as a project executive for a commercial general contractor, building medical offices and bank branches on schedules that did not move, before he ever remodeled a kitchen. He left in 2004 for an unglamorous reason: he kept watching residential clients get caught between a designer and a builder who had never met, and he could not stop thinking that the commercial world had solved that problem decades earlier by putting both under one contract.

Alicia joined in 2007 and brought the half he did not have. She had spent nine years in residential interiors and she was the one who insisted that selections belong inside the design phase — that a client should not be picking tile in week three of demolition with a framer waiting. That single decision is why our projects finish closer to their original schedule than they otherwise would, and it is the thing clients mention most often afterward.

There are sixteen of us now: a design team, an estimator and a project developer who turn drawings into a real number, a production side that runs the field, and Priscilla, whose entire job is that you always know what is happening this week. All of it under one roof, which is a phrase everyone in this business uses and very few of them mean literally.

What we will tell you that most firms won't

  • We publish our investment ranges, and our minimum.
  • We tell people when they are not the right fit for us, before the first visit rather than in month four.
  • We show you the two moments money changes hands before you have signed anything.
  • We come back at eleven months, uninvited, to look at the work again before your first year closes.

Where the work actually happens

Two rooms, in effect. Drawings, samples and a millwork bench on one side of the business; a house with hardboard on the floor and a sheeted doorway on the other. The argument this firm makes is that those two rooms should be inside one company, and this is what that looks like on an ordinary Tuesday.

A millwork bench with hand planes, clamps and timber stacked on end.
A room mid-renovation, protective board on the floor and new framing beyond a sheeted doorway.

The people

Design, estimating and production are three separate disciplines here, and keeping them separate inside one firm is the whole structural argument.

Which of us ends up in your house depends on what the project turns out to need and on who is free when it starts, so we will not promise you a particular project manager before the schedule has decided.

Leadership

Marc Thackston, standing at a studio worktable with rolled drawings, hands resting on the table edge.

Marc Thackston

Founder & President

Eleven years as a project executive in commercial construction

Marc spent eleven years as a project executive for a commercial general contractor — medical offices, bank branches, and a lot of schedules that did not move — before he ever remodeled a kitchen. He started this firm in 2004 for one reason: he kept watching residential clients get caught between a designer and a builder who had never met, and commercial construction had solved that decades earlier by putting both under one contract. He still leads Discovery on every project in our top band. Alpharetta, three grown kids, and a long habit of teaching a free session at the library on what to ask a remodeler.

Alicia Thackston, seated beside a wall of tile and stone samples, one sample held loosely.

Alicia Thackston

Principal, Design

Alicia joined in 2007 after nine years in residential interiors, and brought the discipline the firm did not have: she is the person who insisted selections belong inside the design phase rather than in week three of demolition. She leads the design team, sets the standard for what leaves this office, and is generally the one who tells a client the thing they did not want to hear about their favorite idea. She is also the reason we photograph everything properly.

The rest of the studio

Design, development and production are separate disciplines here, inside one firm rather than spread across three companies on one job — which is why they are named separately.

Design

  • Sofia FerreiraLead Designer
  • Grace YunDesigner
  • Hannah BooneSelections Coordinator

Development

  • Owen RaskProject Developer
  • Curtis NaborsSenior Estimator

Production

  • Ray VillanuevaProduction Manager
  • Elliot ChaseProject Manager
  • Tanya BrooksProject Manager
  • Manny RuizLead Carpenter
  • Seth KolbLead Carpenter

Office

  • Dana WhitmoreBusiness Manager
  • Priscilla YatesClient Concierge

Tell us about your house.

A Discovery visit is free, it happens at your house, and it ends with a written summary of scope and a realistic investment band.

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A renovated hallway at dusk looking toward a lit room at the far end.
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