How Pheasant Lane Designs Turned the Most Unglamorous Part of Home Design Into Something Glorious

If you've stepped inside Pheasant Lane Designs’ shop on Lackawanna Avenue, you know the feeling. The soft textures begging to be touched, the carefully curated finds that somehow look like they were always meant for your home, the sense that someone with an extraordinarily keen eye has done the hard work on your behalf. That's been the version of PLD that Peapack-Gladstone has come to know and love.

But there's something else founder and creator Liz Ruffalo has been building—quietly, deliberately, and with the same exacting standard she brings to every space she touches. And it has nothing to do with throw pillows.

Liz didn't arrive at this by accident. She holds a civil engineering degree from Villanova and a second degree in interior design from Parsons. She knows how buildings actually work, not just how they look.

For years, PLD was doing it without a framework. Clients and their contractors kept turning to Liz for decisions, timeline solutions, and answers. The swivel chair was frustrating for everyone. By 2020, she was managing builds in earnest. By 2023, it had become a necessity. In 2025, she made it official by becoming a fully licensed Home Improvement Contractor in New Jersey, insured and bonded—a full-circle moment that Liz, the engineer-turned-designer-turned-contractor, appreciates more than most. The engineering degree, it turns out, was a signpost to the future, always pointing her here.

Early on, while laying the groundwork for what would become PLD's design-build practice, Liz sat down with a contractor. She asked who handled the design and finished selections on his projects. He told her he did. She smiled. "Oh, so you're an interior designer, too?" she asked. He did not find this funny (don’t worry, a career in comedy isn’t in the cards).

That moment solidified something she'd been observing for years. The line between design and construction has always been an artificial boundary that serves the industry more than it serves the homeowner. When the person who selected your tile is also the person overseeing the build, something fundamental changes. Decisions get made faster, budgets hold, and the vision doesn't waver—because the people executing it are the ones who envisioned it.

It starts with the concept. From there, PLD maps out a projected budget and a schedule the homeowner can actually see and follow. When drawings are needed, Pheasant Lane Designs works with its preferred architect and files permit applications. Then the build begins, all while the design continues to be refined as it’s brought to life.

The scope is broad by design. Full renovations, additions, new builds, kitchen and bath remodels, and custom millwork and built-ins. Pheasant Lane Designs takes them on when the project is driven by deliberate design intent. That thread runs from a single fireplace wall with custom surrounds to a home built from the ground up. Behind every project is a trusted bench of long-standing partners serving North Jersey through Morris and Somerset Counties and down to the Shore.

The proof is already in progress. PLD is currently managing a project in which the client has placed full trust in Liz from day one—no second-guessing, just the confidence that comes from having one person see it through. Things have happened when Liz said they would. From the outside, it looks effortless. From the inside, that's exactly the point.

It's the same standard that has always defined Pheasant Lane Designs. Whether you're visiting the Lackawanna Avenue shop to find the perfect gift, starting a room from scratch, or handing over the keys to an entire renovation, Pheasant Lane Designs meets you where you are and brings it to life with intention, craftsmanship, and something that has always been quietly there: the ability to build something that Liz herself can only describe as "glorious."

For design and decor you and your home will adore, pay Pheasant Lane Designs a visit at 10 Lackawanna Avenue, Suite 6, Peapack Gladstone, NJ. This article was originally published in the Bernard’s Ridge Connections September 2026 Edition.